When our provincial consultation, "Finding Our Way Home" was in Kelowna in January we met a young man -- we'll call him Phil -- who was doing his best to deal with mental health/addiction issues and homelessness. He was staying at the Willows, a wonderful transition facility with a compassionate and committed staff. Phil was very interested in our work, was interviewed at length by the film makers who were travelling with us and even accompanied us at our meeting with the mayor.
A couple of months later we were in Prince George and bumped into Phil. It was great to see him, even though he didn't look as healthy as he had when we'd first met him. Once again we chatted, and once again he was interviewed for the film.
Then this week we were back in touch with a staff person from the Willows who told us Phil had phoned her after meeting up with us the second time in Prince George. He said that meeting had motivated him to get into detox, that he was now in transition housing and was doing well.
Congratulations to Phil for his strength and perseverance and to all of the wonderful people we met on our travels who face such enormous challenges every day and find a way to survive and flourish.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Homelessness Petition to be Submitted to Legislature
Many of you have signed our petition -- which can be found in the column at the right hand side of this page you are reading. Just scroll down a bit and you'll find the link.
If you haven't yet signed, please consider doing so in the next couple of days. During the week of May 26-29 David Chudnovsky will be submitting the petition in the legislature. If you have hard copies of the petition, please get them to David as soon as possible. They can be couriered to Room 201, Parliament Buildings, Victoria BC, V8V 1X4.
Thanks for your support.
If you haven't yet signed, please consider doing so in the next couple of days. During the week of May 26-29 David Chudnovsky will be submitting the petition in the legislature. If you have hard copies of the petition, please get them to David as soon as possible. They can be couriered to Room 201, Parliament Buildings, Victoria BC, V8V 1X4.
Thanks for your support.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Debate in the Legislature on Homelessness -- May 7
The following are excerpts from the estimates debate in the legislature on May 7, between David Chudnovsky, Opposition Critic for Homelessnes and Rich Coleman, Minister responsible for Homelessness:
D. Chudnovsky: How many homeless people are there in B.C.?
Hon. R. Coleman: It's not a quantifiable number. With our homeless counts that we do in communities in Metro Vancouver, Vancouver, greater Victoria…. It's about 4,500 in the major population of British Columbia. If you extracted those numbers out you might be up to 7,000 to 8,000 people, depending on which count you were taking. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
The reality is that there is no quantifiable number that is available. There have been different speculations by different reports without any actually quantified backup either, where the numbers range. So it's not possible to give you a definitive number. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
We do know what the count was in Vancouver. We do know what the count was in the Fraser Valley. We do know what the count is in Victoria. If you look at those population bases and you extract it across the population of B.C., you can extract up to a number of maybe 6,000 plus. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: Well, I want to deal first with what the minister has just said. We seem to have housed 2,000 homeless people in the time it took the minister to answer the question. He started by saying to extract the Lower Mainland and Victoria numbers you'd get about 8,000, then he finished by saying 6,000. So — or extrapolate the numbers — you would get 8,000, and then he said 6,000. Which is it? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Well, I did say over 6,000. Like I said, the number is not quantifiable.
……………………………………
D. Chudnovsky: The minister says that the number of homeless people in the province is not quantifiable. How does he respond, therefore, to the research done by the Simon Fraser group, which reported in October that, for the groups with severe addictions and mental health problems — just those groups — their work indicates between 8,000 and 15,500 homeless people in British Columbia. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Does the minister discount those figures? Does he think they're wrong? What's his view of those figures? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Well, I'll tell you what my view is. They're wrong. Flat out, they're wrong. The official counts that we've done clearly show us that in all the communities across…. In most of the communities we've done it, we add them up, including Metro Vancouver, Victoria, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Smithers, Williams Lake, the Sunshine Coast, Saltspring Island and other areas across the province. The numbers are around 4,899, if that count is actually correct and there wasn't any duplication, which is also hard to quantify. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
I know that the member's website has the same numbers at 6,624, so he's out, by what the official count that was done was. He also has a larger number on the Lower Mainland, which is out by almost a thousand with regards to what the official count was. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
So I can't say that the Simon Fraser guys are that accurate when they say 8,000 to 15,500 is the number, which they're saying it is. It's a pretty big range. It tells me that they didn't actually do a count. But I know that we've done the count. We continue to do it with our community groups, and we'll continue to do that. What we're doing is trying to respond to the problem. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: Could the minister indicate for us what he thinks is wrong with the Simon Fraser methodology? What is wrong with the methodology of the Simon Fraser study? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Clearly, the Simon Fraser study was done on informal interviews. That's pretty much wrong if you're going to put the number to something and try and say: "That's a social problem, and this is the number." I thought that was very weak research, quite frankly, especially when we do counts. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
……………………………
D. Chudnovsky: I want to probe a little bit further with the minister, who seems, today at least, to be confident about the counts that have been done by community organizations. The minister would agree with me — would he not? — that in every single case that the community organizations did counts, they indicated that their counts were conservative and that they think, based on their experience, that there are significantly more homeless people than the counts showed. Would the minister agree with me that that is what has happened with every single community count? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: First of all, I won't agree with the comment that in every single case…. There may have been some people that were doing the count that felt…. They may have had their individual opinions and comments. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
We do the count. We do it with volunteers. We do it with the best methodology we have. We try and improve that methodology for the next count, which we will do. Quite frankly, we have to work with the numbers we get, and it's the best measurement we have today out of all the processes we have. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: The minister will know — or I hope he will know — that, for instance, not individuals but the organizers of the Vancouver Metro count, both in their written material and in their presentation, which was made publicly for the media and the public at the time of the announcement of the count, said very, very clearly and warned everyone who was listening that their count was extremely conservative. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Similarly, the minister will know or should know that at the Fraser Valley count announcement, which was done several weeks ago, the organizers of the count — not some individual, not somebody's opinion, the organizers of the count, the very people who he says he has confidence in — said that they are completely convinced, based on their methodology [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
— and their methodology is based on the work of reputable social scientists, in both cases — that their numbers were a significant undercount and conservative. Is the minister aware of those things? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Well, I'm aware that the member opposite is upset because he came up with a phony number, in his mind, and it didn't reflect in the count. It's been bothering him ever since, which is fine. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
We will go with the count. We believe that it's the best methodology we have today. If we can improve the methodology in the future, we'll do that. But certainly from the standpoint of whether the number is high or low, it depends on whether it's conservative or not. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Actually, I've talked to different organizations involved in the count, and some thought that there were a number of double counts done in some communities with regards to people who were counted more than once — people that were in a shelter and were also counted on the street. They had concerns about that. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
So that's always going to be a challenge with regards to the count. But, quite frankly, the numbers are the numbers we have from the counts, and those are the numbers that we work with. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: I'm, of course, not privileged to be with the minister when he speaks to people from various organizations who tell him what they tell him. I was, though, privileged to be at both the announcement of the Metro count and Fraser Valley count, and I was there to hear the organizers — not individuals, not individual organizations, but the very organizers that the minister, just a few minutes ago, said he had confidence in. I was there to hear them very, very clearly, in both cases, say that their counts were significantly undercounted, and they were conservative. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
So the minister can interpret that any way he wants to, but it seems to me that in the first ten minutes of estimates he's unfortunately insulted the researchers at Simon Fraser University and the organizers of the Metro and Fraser Valley counts. That's his privilege, and he gets to do that if he wants. Is it important to know how many homeless people there are in British Columbia? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Certainly, it is important to know — have an idea of the numbers, hon. Member, because you build your programs around that. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: So why don't we know? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: The methodology that's used is used with volunteers. We go out, we fund these things, and we know the numbers as best we can by the methodology we use. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Can we improve the methodology in the future? That's a possibility, and that's what we're looking at now as we go forward. So we try and work with the non-profit sectors, etc. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Quite frankly, we take the count at the face value it is. It comes into the matrix of what we're looking at with regards to housing, and it certainly instructs us with some information that we find we can use as we're trying to build programs. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: Which counts did the ministry fund? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: We fund different ones from time to time. We also fund the organizations, frankly, who are clients of ours, who actually use their volunteers and their organizations as well. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: How many homeless people are there in B.C.?
Hon. R. Coleman: It's not a quantifiable number. With our homeless counts that we do in communities in Metro Vancouver, Vancouver, greater Victoria…. It's about 4,500 in the major population of British Columbia. If you extracted those numbers out you might be up to 7,000 to 8,000 people, depending on which count you were taking. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
The reality is that there is no quantifiable number that is available. There have been different speculations by different reports without any actually quantified backup either, where the numbers range. So it's not possible to give you a definitive number. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
We do know what the count was in Vancouver. We do know what the count was in the Fraser Valley. We do know what the count is in Victoria. If you look at those population bases and you extract it across the population of B.C., you can extract up to a number of maybe 6,000 plus. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: Well, I want to deal first with what the minister has just said. We seem to have housed 2,000 homeless people in the time it took the minister to answer the question. He started by saying to extract the Lower Mainland and Victoria numbers you'd get about 8,000, then he finished by saying 6,000. So — or extrapolate the numbers — you would get 8,000, and then he said 6,000. Which is it? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Well, I did say over 6,000. Like I said, the number is not quantifiable.
……………………………………
D. Chudnovsky: The minister says that the number of homeless people in the province is not quantifiable. How does he respond, therefore, to the research done by the Simon Fraser group, which reported in October that, for the groups with severe addictions and mental health problems — just those groups — their work indicates between 8,000 and 15,500 homeless people in British Columbia. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Does the minister discount those figures? Does he think they're wrong? What's his view of those figures? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Well, I'll tell you what my view is. They're wrong. Flat out, they're wrong. The official counts that we've done clearly show us that in all the communities across…. In most of the communities we've done it, we add them up, including Metro Vancouver, Victoria, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Smithers, Williams Lake, the Sunshine Coast, Saltspring Island and other areas across the province. The numbers are around 4,899, if that count is actually correct and there wasn't any duplication, which is also hard to quantify. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
I know that the member's website has the same numbers at 6,624, so he's out, by what the official count that was done was. He also has a larger number on the Lower Mainland, which is out by almost a thousand with regards to what the official count was. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
So I can't say that the Simon Fraser guys are that accurate when they say 8,000 to 15,500 is the number, which they're saying it is. It's a pretty big range. It tells me that they didn't actually do a count. But I know that we've done the count. We continue to do it with our community groups, and we'll continue to do that. What we're doing is trying to respond to the problem. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: Could the minister indicate for us what he thinks is wrong with the Simon Fraser methodology? What is wrong with the methodology of the Simon Fraser study? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Clearly, the Simon Fraser study was done on informal interviews. That's pretty much wrong if you're going to put the number to something and try and say: "That's a social problem, and this is the number." I thought that was very weak research, quite frankly, especially when we do counts. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
……………………………
D. Chudnovsky: I want to probe a little bit further with the minister, who seems, today at least, to be confident about the counts that have been done by community organizations. The minister would agree with me — would he not? — that in every single case that the community organizations did counts, they indicated that their counts were conservative and that they think, based on their experience, that there are significantly more homeless people than the counts showed. Would the minister agree with me that that is what has happened with every single community count? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: First of all, I won't agree with the comment that in every single case…. There may have been some people that were doing the count that felt…. They may have had their individual opinions and comments. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
We do the count. We do it with volunteers. We do it with the best methodology we have. We try and improve that methodology for the next count, which we will do. Quite frankly, we have to work with the numbers we get, and it's the best measurement we have today out of all the processes we have. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: The minister will know — or I hope he will know — that, for instance, not individuals but the organizers of the Vancouver Metro count, both in their written material and in their presentation, which was made publicly for the media and the public at the time of the announcement of the count, said very, very clearly and warned everyone who was listening that their count was extremely conservative. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Similarly, the minister will know or should know that at the Fraser Valley count announcement, which was done several weeks ago, the organizers of the count — not some individual, not somebody's opinion, the organizers of the count, the very people who he says he has confidence in — said that they are completely convinced, based on their methodology [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
— and their methodology is based on the work of reputable social scientists, in both cases — that their numbers were a significant undercount and conservative. Is the minister aware of those things? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Well, I'm aware that the member opposite is upset because he came up with a phony number, in his mind, and it didn't reflect in the count. It's been bothering him ever since, which is fine. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
We will go with the count. We believe that it's the best methodology we have today. If we can improve the methodology in the future, we'll do that. But certainly from the standpoint of whether the number is high or low, it depends on whether it's conservative or not. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Actually, I've talked to different organizations involved in the count, and some thought that there were a number of double counts done in some communities with regards to people who were counted more than once — people that were in a shelter and were also counted on the street. They had concerns about that. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
So that's always going to be a challenge with regards to the count. But, quite frankly, the numbers are the numbers we have from the counts, and those are the numbers that we work with. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: I'm, of course, not privileged to be with the minister when he speaks to people from various organizations who tell him what they tell him. I was, though, privileged to be at both the announcement of the Metro count and Fraser Valley count, and I was there to hear the organizers — not individuals, not individual organizations, but the very organizers that the minister, just a few minutes ago, said he had confidence in. I was there to hear them very, very clearly, in both cases, say that their counts were significantly undercounted, and they were conservative. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
So the minister can interpret that any way he wants to, but it seems to me that in the first ten minutes of estimates he's unfortunately insulted the researchers at Simon Fraser University and the organizers of the Metro and Fraser Valley counts. That's his privilege, and he gets to do that if he wants. Is it important to know how many homeless people there are in British Columbia? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: Certainly, it is important to know — have an idea of the numbers, hon. Member, because you build your programs around that. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: So why don't we know? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: The methodology that's used is used with volunteers. We go out, we fund these things, and we know the numbers as best we can by the methodology we use. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Can we improve the methodology in the future? That's a possibility, and that's what we're looking at now as we go forward. So we try and work with the non-profit sectors, etc. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Quite frankly, we take the count at the face value it is. It comes into the matrix of what we're looking at with regards to housing, and it certainly instructs us with some information that we find we can use as we're trying to build programs. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
D. Chudnovsky: Which counts did the ministry fund? [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Hon. R. Coleman: We fund different ones from time to time. We also fund the organizations, frankly, who are clients of ours, who actually use their volunteers and their organizations as well. [DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY]
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
David Chudnovsky's Statement in the Legislature on the Provincial Stands for Housing
Each day in the legislature 6 members are permitted to make short, "non-political" speeches on community matters. Below is David Chudnovsky's statement on "Stands for Housing" delivered on Monday, May 5.
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
D. Chudnovsky: On Saturday in communities across the province, British Columbians met on street corners to hold more than 75 Stands for Housing. These non-partisan events were organized and supported by groups and individuals that reflect our province's incredible diversity — the Citywide Housing Coalition; Anglican, United, Unitarian and Lutheran churches; teachers associations; the Carnegie action project; Streams of Justice; the B.C. Federation of Labour and the CLC; the North Shore Shalom Seekers; Renters Voice; Faith in Action; the Vancouver and Victoria Labour Councils; Community Advocates for Little Mountain; and many more.
Perhaps most significantly, the students council at Woodlands Secondary School in Nanaimo sponsored and organized one of the stands.
Most counts put the homeless numbers in B.C. conservatively at more than 10,000. That's about the population of Williams Lake. If tomorrow there were a flood or fire in Williams Lake and everybody lost their homes, we as a province would do something about it and quickly. Because we are decent and caring, British Columbians would make sure that those people had somewhere to live.
That's what we face. We have a population in our province equal to or greater than the population of Williams Lake with nowhere to live. We as legislators have a special responsibility when it comes to homelessness. British Columbians expect that we will do everything in our power to resolve the crisis and quickly.
I ask everyone on both sides of the House, all 79 of us, to commit ourselves to ending homelessness in our province. I thank all of those who took part in the Stands for Housing, who called our attention to the crisis and reminded us of our responsibility to find solutions.
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
D. Chudnovsky: On Saturday in communities across the province, British Columbians met on street corners to hold more than 75 Stands for Housing. These non-partisan events were organized and supported by groups and individuals that reflect our province's incredible diversity — the Citywide Housing Coalition; Anglican, United, Unitarian and Lutheran churches; teachers associations; the Carnegie action project; Streams of Justice; the B.C. Federation of Labour and the CLC; the North Shore Shalom Seekers; Renters Voice; Faith in Action; the Vancouver and Victoria Labour Councils; Community Advocates for Little Mountain; and many more.
Perhaps most significantly, the students council at Woodlands Secondary School in Nanaimo sponsored and organized one of the stands.
Most counts put the homeless numbers in B.C. conservatively at more than 10,000. That's about the population of Williams Lake. If tomorrow there were a flood or fire in Williams Lake and everybody lost their homes, we as a province would do something about it and quickly. Because we are decent and caring, British Columbians would make sure that those people had somewhere to live.
That's what we face. We have a population in our province equal to or greater than the population of Williams Lake with nowhere to live. We as legislators have a special responsibility when it comes to homelessness. British Columbians expect that we will do everything in our power to resolve the crisis and quickly.
I ask everyone on both sides of the House, all 79 of us, to commit ourselves to ending homelessness in our province. I thank all of those who took part in the Stands for Housing, who called our attention to the crisis and reminded us of our responsibility to find solutions.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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
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
Sunday, April 27, 2008
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.
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.
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