Knock me over with a feather.
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
2012PREM0131-001630
Oct. 23, 2012 Office of the Premier
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Minister Responsible for Housing
City of Vancouver
Four New Temporary Cold-weather Shelters in Vancouver
VANCOUVER – The B.C. government and the City of Vancouver will open four additional temporary winter shelters in Vancouver to meet the needs of those living on the streets during the cold and wet weather season.
“This agreement with the City represents our mutual commitment to help end street homelessness in our cities,” said Premier Christy Clark. “These accommodations will go a long way towards getting people off the streets and into more permanent housing. This will allow us to connect people with the support services they need so they can begin making positive changes in their lives.”
These shelters will provide over 160 spaces for the homeless between the end of November 2012 and May 2013. Raincity Housing and Support Society will operate and provide supports at the shelters and link people to housing and community based support services.
“Shelter is the single most urgent need for citizens who are homeless during the cold and wet months of winter, especially for those who live with disabilities, addiction or mental health challenges,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “This initiative will help more people in need connect with crucial support services and begin a journey out of homelessness. These new shelter spaces reflect our firm conviction that no one should ever be forced to sleep on the street and our commitment to ending street homelessness by 2015.”
The Province will provide up to $1.6 million in funding to operate the shelter spaces and the City will identify and provide the sites.
The B.C. government has also agreed to make funding available for 100 transition housing spaces in Vancouver that will operate for approximately 18 months while the balance of the 14 new supportive housing developments are completed. Seven of the developments are currently open. The remainder are under construction or in development. The City will provide the sites for the transition spaces.
There are 638 permanent, year-round shelter beds and approximately 200 temporary year-round HEAT shelter beds in Vancouver.
For the last three years, the government of B.C. has opened approximately 160 additional 24/7 shelter spaces in the city for the cold winter months in addition to Extreme Weather Response spaces that are available when an extreme weather alert is activated by the community. The B.C. government spends close to $24 million annually to fund services for Vancouver’s homeless. This includes permanent and temporary shelters as well as homeless outreach.
Quick Facts:
* Since launching the provincial housing strategy, Housing Matters BC, in 2006 more than 12,000 people have been helped to move off the streets and into permanent housing.
* Last fiscal year, approximately $80 million was provided to ensure that emergency shelters are available in communities throughout B.C. This includes permanent, year-round shelter beds as well as extreme weather and temporary shelter spaces.
* There are now more than 1,600 permanent year-round shelter beds in 33 communities – almost double the approximately 880 that existed in 2001.
* Funding increases since 2007 mean that most shelters are now open 24/7 – people no longer have to line up at night – they can remain safe and stable while being connected to community services including more permanent forms of housing. Ninety-five per cent of shelters also provide three meals a day.
* During the cold winter months, the B.C. government funds additional shelter spaces to ensure everyone has access to a safe, warm place at night. This past winter, more than 1,300 spaces were identified in 35 communities across British Columbia through our Extreme Weather Response program. The extreme weather shelter spaces are activated when an Extreme Weather Alert is issued the community.
19 responses so far ↓
1 Raingurl // Oct 24, 2012 at 10:43 am
Not one comment. It’s sad that we, the people who always have something to say cannot even comment on this.
2 Michael Gordon // Oct 24, 2012 at 9:37 pm
Thanks raingurl for taking the time to do a post on this very important announcement. As many know, I’ve been the City’s area planner for the downtown for many years. The plight of the homeless on our downtown streets continues to be something that worries me greatly. This is important and welcome news.
I recall last winter coming upon, one cold night,someone sleeping on an exhaust grate for the Canada Line on Granville with a sandwich in a plastic bag left beside them. Shelters for folks like him is a start…but more is needed to address homelessness in our city. Ultimately, our city must have more help from the Province and the federal government on addressing homelessness and more broadly the issue of affordable housing.
3 waltyss // Oct 24, 2012 at 9:52 pm
@Michael Gordon
I am sympathetic to the plight of the homeless who usually suffer from complex issues of mental illness and substance abuse/addiction.
However, I am also conscious that we spend millions and millions of dollars of federal, provincial and city taxpayer dollars in this effort and last year the number of homeless went up.
It is all the same taxpayer who is really tapped out.
I suggest that maybe the existing programmes are not working and that the poverty industry on the DTES should be revamped.
Finally, the suggestion that these people are sleeping on the street because of lack of affordable housing is ludicrous and insulting. That is not why they are on the street, no matter how many times the mayor repeats “Affordable housing”. Very specifically directed social housing is what these people need.
4 Michael Gordon // Oct 24, 2012 at 10:46 pm
….agreed…do approach me if you see me at a public meeting or…down to discuss the issues you raise….as a planner who has worked in the field going back to the days when there was significant funding for social housing…you make a good point there.
Thanks for getting this conversation going and I did not mean to insult or write anything ludicrous…just my ‘take’ on this very important problem.
Do approach me sometime in person and let’s chat about this some more.
5 waltyss // Oct 24, 2012 at 11:33 pm
I will be happy to.
6 Raingurl // Oct 25, 2012 at 9:26 am
Hello Mike,
I’ve seen the people sleeping on grates. I’ve seen them sleeping in alleys and storefronts. I’ve seen them sleeping in SROs. I’ve seen one SRO in particular that’s had no power on one floor for one solid month. They are using power cords to draw electricity for mulitple items such as microwave, hot plate, tv and computer. The bar downstairs is completely functional though. This is going on today.
I agree with Waltyss, the poverty industry is keeping the homeless where they are. If there were no homeless there would be no grants going to certain companies. Lastly, it is a choice to sleep on the street. I chose to sleep in a bed, in a home with heat and hot water. They chose to spend money elsewhere.
7 waltyss // Oct 25, 2012 at 10:04 am
@raingurl: I was with you up until your last point. The concept of choice and choosing to live on the street is simply inapplicable. We are talking about people with multiple barriers, particularly mental illness and usually some form of addiction. They in no way choose to sleep on the streets in any manner comparable to you choosing to live in a house with heat. Often their condition makes them incapable of living or staying in most shelters or accommodation. We have to find ways to do that, and that will involve a multidisciplinary (and yes, expensive) approach.
My earlier point was that some of the wads of money that is presently spent on the DTES might be redirected to really help these people. An example is the new social housing at Dunbar and 16th Avenue but those do not come easy.
8 Andrew Browne // Oct 25, 2012 at 11:02 am
I think on the question of choice it should be directed the other way – not that it is a choice to sleep on the street, or be addicted, or whatever, but that those who are most in need should not be forced to locate near the DTES in order to access services. If you’re already at a tough place in your life I can’t imagine the DTES being the #1 choice for most people. Can you imagine trying to change your life or circumstance while residing there?
9 Raingurl // Oct 25, 2012 at 1:56 pm
@Waltyss and Andrew Browne, I kind of agree with you that some people don’t have a choice. Some people should be under medical attention. It’s difficult to imagine that if I was mentally ill I wouldn’t go ask for help. Is it the poverty pimps that keep most of the shelters in DTES? Why are they allowed to have such a voice in the decision making process? Aren’t we, the taxpayers the ones footing the bill for the shelters?
10 waltyss // Oct 25, 2012 at 2:37 pm
It is likely true that the DTES folk want to keep them and hence the money in the DTES. However, it is equally true that locating social housing outside the DTES tends to be opposed by the NIMBYites in each neighbourhood.
Hell, on another thread on this blog, some people in Dunbar are mobilizing against seniors housing and it is certainly true that they fought long and hard against the social housing at 16th and Dunbar.
Like most things, this issue has many dimensions..
11 teririch // Oct 25, 2012 at 2:57 pm
I am currenlty attending a conference in Spokane and I can tell you the downtown core around the hotel where I am staying and where the conference is being held, has its fair share of issues. There are loads of homeless, street people, addicts – it is really rough – like DTES rough.
One thing you do not see, people lying in the streets or panhandling. Not one person has asked me for moeny, unlike Vancouver where you can’t walk a block without being approached.
12 teririch // Oct 25, 2012 at 3:06 pm
@Raingurl #9:
You will never get the mentally ill off the streets because there are groups that will work hard against it – groups like Pivot and the BCCLA.
I don’t know if you have been following recent articles in Vancouver 24 hours about the free crack pipes program and the rights being sought by those in shelters which include the right not to take their meds….and guess what, you have advocacy groups supporting them in their quest.
And why? ….money.
For years I have been on these sites blogging about the issues of the DTES – the industry that thrives down there.
I volunteered at a shelter in the DTES for roughly 3 years, and not once or twice a month or once a week…. I was averaging four nights a week. I have a bit of first hand (observation) knowledge on the subject.
The groups down there don’t want change – they want all the pieces of the pie as that leads to more $$ for them.
It is a sad joke at the expense of others that think they are helping.
Having addicts getting ‘treatment’ upstairs at Insite is just laughable. They walk downstairs and out the door and guess what…
Stupidity at its finest.
13 Ned // Oct 25, 2012 at 6:07 pm
What puts Vancouver on the World map is the cosmopolitanism. Panhandlers in this city can ask you for money in so many different languages, doesn’t matter where they are from… Greenpeace, Western Canada Wilderness Society, Wilderness Committee, Tides Foundation or Hollyhock…
14 teririch // Oct 25, 2012 at 7:44 pm
@Ned: LOL!
I can’t tell you how many times I get hit up by ‘Because I am a Girl’ – again, one for every block!
Seriously though – it gets very wearing after awhile.
And I hate seeing addicts (and yes, you can tell) spare changing out in front of the cruise ship terminals. They stand right at the exit for the passangers and hit people up. Nice ‘first impression’ of Vancouver.
15 waltyss // Oct 25, 2012 at 11:08 pm
It’s rather sad that you can start with a respectful discussion even if or when you disagree. Then along comes Ned to knock the discussion into the gutter.
@teririch. When they closed the mental institutions like Woodlands, they were supposed to establish community support for the mentally ill. Never happened. Mentally ill people ended up in many cases on the street. Then the NPA under Phillip Owen developed a strategy to heard these people into the DTES. And you have what we have.
Some change is happened through the work of Rich Coleman together with the present counsel to work to provide more housing. Perfect, no, but better than before in that at least someone is trying to do something.
As for Pivot and BCCLA, they operate from a [oint of principle: people should not be coerced into doing something. In the case of people who are mentally ill, this can sometimes be a difficult position to endorse but likely better than the alternatives unless the alternatives involve both housing and extensive social support.
To suggest that BCCLA or Pivot is trying to keep the homeless on the street is just, well, ignorant.
As for panhandlers at the cruise ship terminals, have you got an alternative?
16 Higgins // Oct 26, 2012 at 11:13 am
Ned #13
“Panhandlers in this city can ask you for money in so many different languages, doesn’t matter where they are from… Greenpeace, Western Canada Wilderness Society, Wilderness Committee, Tides Foundation or Hollyhock…”
These are the De-Luxe beggars, the ones that don’t need your spare change, they want to give to them , and give and give and give… so they could save an imaginary …………………………..
(insert your imaginary cause in here)!
17 teririch // Oct 26, 2012 at 2:42 pm
@waltyss #15:
To blame the current situation in the DTES on past political parties (if you want to start, go back to the 90′s and the NDP who underfunded Riverview with the idea that mentally ill people would be better in the community) doesn’t work.
We are talking decades of issues with drugs in the area.
Pivot – who jsut as a note, got a ‘donation’ of $750K from TIDES and the BCCLA are no different at ‘coercing’ ill informed people than any other group. They all have a vested interested in maintaining the status quo – they all have an agenda.
As for your shrugging of the shoulders as to where are the ‘panhandlers suppose to go’…. that is the type of complacency that keeps the issues of the DTES as they are. Why work for change.
18 waltyss // Oct 27, 2012 at 1:14 pm
@teririch: I do blame previous political parties, including the NDP and in Vancouver the NPA. However, I also give credit to the present provincial Minister of Housing and, yes, the current city government.
With regard to the NDP, they were correct in deinstitutionalizing Riverview which was a particular hell, but in failing to provide the supports for these people after deinstitutionalization. The NDP however was not the only culprit, as the current provincial government has not been any better.
I was particularly sickened to hear the current premier saying how we could not afford to increase monthly income rates for disabled people, while we are being bombarded daily on television by thinly disguised partisan advertising as the taxpayers expense. In short, there is plenty of blame to go around.
So, deinstitutionalization didn’t work? I assume you are advocating locking these people up again. Not to offend the tourists, I guess.
I know to your ilk, the word “Tides” is automatically bad, but just for my own curiousity, how is a donation from Tides to Pivot relevant to this thread?
BCCLA hardly coerces anyone. They defend the right of people to make their own decisions, even bad ones, The agenda of BC Civil Liberties is to defend the rights of the marginalized in particular but not just them to be whomever they want to be. You seem to have an issue with that, believing it to be a form of “coercion”. Hardly.
I did not say “panhandlers suppose to go”. Maybe you are quoting someone else. It was not a shrug. It was asking you if you had an alternative.
Panhandlers behave rationally in an economic sense. They go where they are most likely to get a donation. That’s why you see them on busier streets, outside liquor stores or 7 Elevens or on busy street corners. They are mostly harmless and non threatening. Provided that they don’t physically threaten anyone, they have as much right to be there as you or me.
So, I ask, have you got any alternatives? Other than locking them up which seems to be what you are advocating.
19 Raingurl // Oct 30, 2012 at 9:51 am
Just had a little chuckle @Ned calling Vancouver cosmopolitan. I know people call it that but I don’t see it. Never have, never will. It’s just a big ol’ hippie town to me. Always has been, always will be……….
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