A Great Article in the Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Sun, Page B01, 30-Apr-2008

Housing vigils grow across the province

By Neal Hall

The protests started with a group of neighbours taking a stand about losing their 224-unit Little Mountain social housing complex in Vancouver.

By March of this year, the demonstrations had grown to 15 "stands" on street corners.

Now the stands -- silent vigils to raise awareness of the twin problems of dwindling affordable housing and rising homelessness caused by the city's rocketing real estate prices -- have mushroomed into a movement that is spreading across B.C.

On Saturday, 80 "stands for housing" will be held in dozens of towns and cities across the province, including 40 in Metro Vancouver, 18 on Vancouver Island and 24 in the Interior and the northern region.

A stand consists of a one-hour silent demonstration on a street corner by neighbourhood housing activists on Saturdays, beginning at 1 p.m.

The first stand began last October with angry tenants who were being urged to move from the six-hectare social housing complex at Little Mountain, owned by B.C. Housing, because it was going to be sold and replaced with upscale condominiums.

The tenants began standing in protest each Saturday on the corner of Main and 33rd.

There are only 50 families left in the Little Mountain complex, leaving 170 units sitting empty, said Kia Salomons of Community Advocates for Little Mountain.

"That in itself is a scandal, with thousands of people homeless," she said of the vacant units. "Those homes are completely habitable. It's become a symbol of the problem of affordable housing."

The idea expanded last February as other groups of housing activists took the cause of "homes for all" and began donning identical turquoise-blue scarves and standing with banners on Vancouver street corners every Saturday.

"The big issue is, there isn't enough social housing," said Maggie Geiser, who takes part in a stand in her neighbourhood at Arbutus and King Edward with the Citywide Housing Coalition, one of the organizers. "We usually have a half a dozen to a dozen people on each corner."

Participants hand out flyers demanding politicians work together to reintroduce a national housing program to provide about 2,000 units of affordable rental housing in B.C each year to replace losses caused by redevelopment, speculation and gentrification.

They also want to see provincial welfare rates boosted to meet basic needs. A single person now receives a maximum of $375 a month for rent and $235 for everything else, while the average rent for a bachelor apartment is $735, the housing activists say.

The stands are non-partisan. Some are organized by such church groups as the Social Gospel Coordinating Group from St. James Anglican Church, the St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church Housing and Mental Health Action Group and the Unitarian Church Social Justice Committee, as well as a youth group called Random Acts of Kindness, which does a stand at First and Commercial on Saturdays.

The inspiration behind the stands was the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, whose children were among the thousands who "disappeared" under that country's military dictatorship in the 1970s and early '80s.

The mothers stood each week in a city square in Buenos Aires as a silent demand for justice. Their white scarves became an international symbol of protest.

Why do local stand participants wear turquoise-blue scarves?

"The fabric was on sale," Ann Truong said, laughing.

"We don't have a formal budget," added the University of B.C. student, who is studying social work and takes part in a stand with members of the Carnegie Community Action Project.

Project members recently surveyed Downtown Eastside residential hotels and concluded that 174 single-occupancy rooms have been closed in the last four months, with another 225 in grave danger of being lost.

nhall@png.canwest.com

Finding Our Way Home -- The Consultation Comes to an End

Dear Friends,

After visiting 22 BC commnunities, meeting with more than 120 service providers, not-for-profit groups and local governments, and speaking with hundreds of homeless people, our provincial consultation, "Finding Our Way Home", is complete.

I want to take this opportuntity to thank all of those who gave us their time, who reported to us on the siutation in their communities and who taught us so much about the issue of homelessness.

I especially want to pay tribute to all of our neighbours and friends -- homeless people in our province -- who shared their stories, their insights, their dreams for a better life and their thoughtful suggestions with us. It was a privilege to meet each of you, and I want to pledge to you I will continue to raise the issue of homelessness wherever I go, to "make some noise" about the appalling numbers of people in our province who have nowhere to live.

One outcome of "Finding Our Way Home" will be a report which I will release in the coming weeks. It will include draft legislation and recommendations for changes in policy. The source of that legislation and those recommendations is the wisdom and experience that so many of you shared with me over the past months.

Though the consultation is over, this BLOG will continue. We'll add reports, statistics, articles and opinion pieces. We invite you to respond with your own views.

Thanks for your commitment to ending homelessness in BC.

David Chudnovsky

Lower Mainland - Day Four Vancouver

At Lookout Shelter we met a number of people who came to Vancouver because the services they need aren't available in their home communities. Those with mental health issues are drawn to Vancouver for treatment and support, but when they get here there is nowhere for them to live and they end up in emergency shelters.

We also heard that, increasingly, those who are in transitional housing are staying longer than their allotted time, because there is no more independent housing available for them. Similarly, the stays at emergency shelters have been getting longer and longer for the same reason.

We met with many residents of the Downtown Eastside who are very fearful that their community may be disappearing. With increased condo development, the disappearance of SRO hotels and low cost apartments, the character of the neighbourhood is at risk.

Thanks to all of the kind people who took time to meet with us on this, the last day of Finding Our Way Home.

Lower Mainland - Day Four Vancouver

Itinerary

9:00AM - Downtown Eastside Women's Centre
10:00AM - Vancouver Police Department
11:00AM - Lookout Shelter
12:30PM - Carnegie Action Committee
1:30PM - VANDU
Raincity
Pivot
United We Can

Lower Mainland - Day Three Burnaby and Vancouver

Our first meeting today was with the RCMP in the Burnaby Douglas area. The Burnaby Task Force on homelessness is fortunate to have the committed and compassionate leadership of Staff Sergeant John Buis. He told us about the support services that have increasingly become available for homeless people because of increasing coordination and especially with the increased participation of the faith community. The Staff Sergeant indicated that homelessness had become more visible and probably has increased.

A number of people at the Southside Church drop-in alerted us to the problem of landlords doing credit checks on prospective tenants. This is completely unfair because homeless people can never be successful on credit checks.

At Broadway Youth Centre we heard about the problems youth (under 19) have in finding homes. Many don't have families to fall back on when they meet inevitable problems. Landlords often discriminate against young tenants. The youth centre tries to deal with this by renting the units themselves and providing ongoing support and assistance to the youth and liaison with the landlord.

At Luma Native Housing Society -- echoing what we heard yesterday at the Front Door in Surrey -- we heard about the need for more barrier free resources. They called for services that follow the client through the range of supported housing that's necessary for success. Most important, they demanded the Provincial Government have a public and explicit Homelessness Program and commitment to end homelessness.

Lower Mainland - Day Three Burnaby and Vancouver

Itinerary

9:30AM - Burnaby RCMP
10:30AM - Southside Church Drop-In Program
1:00PM - Broadway Youth Resource Centre
2:00PM - Raincity Housing
3:00PM - Luma Housing
4:30PM - Wilson Heights United Church Dinner

Lower Mainland - Day Two Surrey

We spent today in BC's second largest city -- Surrey. We began in Whalley, a town centre in North Surrey which has become known for a very high concentration of street level homeless people and a serious and open drug culture.

The Front Room is an emergency shelter and drop in centre which has very low barriers. This means many people who use the emergency shelter are banned from other agencies and service providers because of behaviours which are judged to be unacceptable. We were reminded by Front Room service providers that it is vital to deal with homeless people as they are. If those who stay at the Front Room are going to get off the street, then their culture, life styles and behaviours need to be accepted in the first instance and worked with step by step to achieve change.

Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Centre is a new, well-resourced facility where important work is being done.

At Newton Advocacy Centre we were told of the enormous pressure counsellors work under to find adequate shelter for people when there often isn't any place for them to go. We also heard more about the ongoing supports necessary for homeless people to be successful once they do find a place to live.

Thanks to all of the hard working people we spoke with -- and especially to the homeless people who took time to tell us about their experiences.