The city had its own homeless count, a first, yesterday, which everyone covered. Here’s my version. Interesting to note that the city’s numbers will be out in a couple of weeks — just before the five community emergency shelters are set to close April 30. I await developments on this front.
Homeless count numbers will be a political tool
March 24th, 2010 · 4 Comments
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The media storm over homelessness and Downtown Eastside never happened. What now?
March 5th, 2010 · 33 Comments
For years before the Olympics arrived, we routinely saw commentators warning that when the media arrived here and saw the scene on the Downtown Eastside and the homelessness situation, there would be a firestorm of negative coverage. That never happened. There was the odd piece here and there in the bigger newspapers, but it never […]
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Second HEAT shelter now closed
August 5th, 2009 · 13 Comments
This just out from city hall, where apparently some poor wretch is still employed to put out news releases while everyone else is on holiday. Howe Street shelter closes two days early The Howe Street shelter has closed two days ahead of schedule thanks to the availability and acceptance of alternate housing by shelter residents, […]
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Mayor Robertson’s statement on the shelters controversy
June 25th, 2009 · 5 Comments
The residents around the two homeless shelters under the Granville Bridge started complaining a month ago about the activities in the shelters and their uncertain future. At first, they didn’t get a lot of attention, but the story exploded in the last couple of weeks and has turned into one of city hall’s major unchecked […]
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Cities brace for the aftermath of the election and real budget numbers
May 11th, 2009 · 5 Comments
I got a copy of a letter last week from the Fraser Valley Regional Library board that expressed an anxiety felt by many out there. It began: Over the past few weeks the Board of Fraser Valley Regional Library, along with other libraries across the province were concerned to hear rumors over possible significant reductions […]
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Vancouver wants homeless shelters open to April 2010
April 30th, 2009 · 3 Comments
A big report on the city’s homelessness efforts is on the agenda for next week. Most of it states a lot of what we’ve heard throughout the last few months in terms of the state of affairs here in Vancouver re homelessness and where the city would like to go. A new squib that was […]
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Rich Coleman’s big house plans
April 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments
For my latest in Vancouver magazine, I got to spend some time with the province’s ambitious Housing Minister NOT at housing announcements. Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Coleman is pouring a lot of energy into the housing/homelessness issue. The question for some is what the long-term consequences of his vision […]
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Vancouver: The view from London
March 22nd, 2009 · 3 Comments
Get used to it. Everyone is going to be writing about us ad nauseam for the next year. Here’s just one sample of how we look to the outside world, from today’s Financial Times: homelessness, drug addiction, gang violence all chipping away at our beautiful image.
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Mayor Gregor promises something for developers too
March 12th, 2009 · 12 Comments
Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson got to deliver HIS speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade today, right after Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts’ speech to her board yesterday. Like Dianne, he promised lots of things to stimulate developers and construction: speeded up processes, some vague stuff on fee concessions that I couldn’t get a tight […]
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Shelters to stay open with new funding
March 9th, 2009 · 10 Comments
Word is about to come down that the city and province will put money in to keeping the new, as they’re called, “Gregor shelters” open for a few more months, while more permanent housing is brought on board. That’s the result of intensive meetings Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Mayor Gregor Robertson, Housing Minister Rich […]
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