This Just In! Lots of Homeless!

Year's Big Story #5. Housing activists spark action.

By David Beers, 25 Dec 2006, TheTyee.ca

Housing Protest

Squat near Vancouver City Hall on Oct 31, 2006.

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[Editor's note: What were the top five stories of 2006 for B.C. and beyond? Every day this week The Tyee publishes its picks.]

Rising homelessness in B.C. is hardly a brand new story; numbers doubled in the Vancouver region between 2002 and 2005. But this was the year when the media began to pay critical attention and politicians scrambled to respond.

The catalyst: militant activists started seizing vacant buildings, flexing their ability to tarnish the Olympic golden moment. The Anti-Poverty Committee kicked off its strategic offensive in October with noisy squats in Vancouver and Victoria. Their next target was right across the street from Vancouver City Hall. Activists unfurled their rooftop banner as mayor Sam Sullivan held a press conference at which he stacked pennies to plead poverty -- at least compared to the budgets of provincial and federal governments.

He had a point, sort of. Upon election, Gordon Campbell's Liberals not only axed social housing spending, but also cut welfare payments, while making it harder to receive them. Chrétien's Liberals had already whacked federal housing assistance back in 1993.

But after Sullivan's duck and weave, exasperated journalists like the Vancouver Courier's Allen Garr pointed out that the NPA had itself throttled back social housing approvals. This while proposing to put poor people in rooms the size of cells, or, as NPA councillor Kim Capri preferred it, "cruise ship cabins." Hey, what happened to that super-sustainable Southeast False Creek housing? Sorry, it went upscale, by order of the NPA.

So, plenty of blame to go around. But plenty of money to be made by some. Sullivan decided to pay Premier Campbell's former top aide, Ken Dobbell, $300,000 to finagle private investment for homeless housing. By no coincidence, that move dovetailed with the Vancouver Board of Trade's urging that city hall give developers "discounted land, property tax incentives, density bonuses, heritage incentives, or grants to help offset development fees, etc."

As nasty weather set in, the homeless story stuck like wet snow. Officials punched calculators, toting up the cost of denying citizens housing. The spectre of homelessness tripling by 2010 was raised, and proposals accumulated from three levels of government.

The B.C. Liberals decided to hand out rent subsidies of about $100 per month to poor people as long as they weren't taking welfare. And earlier this month Housing Minister Rich Coleman revealed to The Tyee that his government was ready to fund a dozen new Vancouver housing projects if the city could find the land and handle the NIMBYs.

The Tories, meanwhile, re-upped (and renamed) the previous federal government's homeless initiative at $270 million per year.

And Vancouver's penny piling mayor rolled out his Project Civil City, which will bring order to streets, shelter to the homeless, and hope to the world (if you believe what Sam Sullivan told The Tyee). Or else it undercuts the city's earlier plan for the homeless and is about "treating them the same as garbage and sweeping them aside for the Olympics" (if you believe opposition Vision councillor George Chow).

Sullivan has spun hard to emphasize his proposal will make life safer for the middle class, promising to fine or arrest dangerous riff-raff. But Lorne Mayencourt aside, it's the homeless themselves who face most danger on the streets, ranging from infectious disease to throat slashings.

As the policy debate becomes more Byzantine, one fact remains stark. The Campbell government expects to run a $2 billion-plus surplus this year but refuses to bump housing assistance rates for our poorest citizens until the warmth of spring arrives. [Tyee]

David Beers is founding editor of The Tyee.

11 Comments:

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  • thomas49

    5 years ago

    Comments on "This Just In! Lots of Homeless!"

    Quote:
    As the policy debate becomes more Byzantine, one fact remains stark. The Campbell government expects to run a $2 billion-plus surplus this year but refuses to bump housing assistance rates for our poorest citizens until the warmth of spring arrives.

    As Campbell,et al,stuff their faces with the holiday feasting ,thoughts of the underpriveledged will never cross their minds.Once they have fed at the trough though they will certainly be conniving to make sure that no one gets near the trough,except for Campbell and his Cronies.

    And waiting for spring to help the underpriviliged show the kind of WEASEL POLITICS these CREEPS practice,cause they certainly did not wait to give their COHORTS the tax breaks they whined for.And HOPEFULY the media will forget any promises like they usually do.AND a lot more poor will be homeless,there by, making them ineligible for any programs that would/could help,it is all in the numbers.The disgusting MACHINATIONS of the POLITICIANS AND BURECRATS making sure the underclass gets as little as possible and Campbell et al,looks as good as possible.

    IN THE LONG RUN THOUGH,SOCIETY PAYS OUT MORE IN CLEANING UP THE PROBLEMAFTER YEARS OF INACTION.

    ONLY AN IDIOT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND...NIP IT IN THE BUD !

    So,those that do not understand history are bound to repeat it and Campbell is not doing anything new,he is just more VICIOUS than anyone else.

    Campbell is making Ralphie Klien look like a saint in waiting!WOW,who would have thought !!!

  • gordon

    5 years ago

    Heres the #1 article.
    Where is God moving?

    I am tired of crying out and petitioning.
    I have asked for wisdom and this is the reply.

    For the Lord does not hear the voice of petitions of the masters or the voice of the crys of the oppressed, but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

    Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
    Let my voice sing and let all that has breath sing to the Lord that He alone might be glorified.
    Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. You alone are Holy, You alone are Worthy of all praise, now and forever and ever will I sing the praises of your greatness and your glory your grace and your mercy.

    Whoooa I feel good.
    Thank you Brother James

  • acadian driftwood

    5 years ago

    campbell is one of the best premiers we've ever had. the poor need to pick themselves up by the bootstraps.

  • Stump

    5 years ago

    worst. expression. ever.

    Has anyone ever actually tried to pick themselves up the bootstraps. You go nowhere.

    Gordon "Everything Has Got To Go" Campbell is the best premier ever, if you like fire sale prices on publically-owned assets and elevating cronyism to an artform.

  • DJT

    5 years ago

    acadian driftwood: Campbell is one of the best Premiers we've ever had? Don't tell me, you're a developer, right?

  • thomas49

    5 years ago

    Quote:
    campbell is one of the best premiers we've ever had.

    Remember that names like"acadian driftwood" could be covers for names like ??? say! GORDON CAMPBELL !!!

    I IZ DA BESTEST PREIMIER EVER !

    AIN'T I ??? BOOTLIKKERS

  • Coyote

    5 years ago

    The driftwood piece had to unstuck himself from Gordos ass first, is my bet, to sing his praises.

    Yea, bootlick came immediately to my mind. followed by Capitalism, IAMC, or any number of the other system bootlicks who do their #2s here from time to time.

  • maestro

    5 years ago

    Comrade Coyote:

    Not bad...only one off- colour naughty word, albeit a borderline one.

    (BTW " #2's " doesn't count )

    PS Ready for 2007 ?

  • Bailey

    5 years ago

    Acadian driftwood finally exposes his true delusion.

    Without any but cartoon notions of the nature of poverty,or the nature of life for that matter, he figures that all these people need to do is pull on their cliche straps and all will be fine.

    I suspect he has swallowed somebody's party line whole, hook line and sinker to use a cliche of my own here. And now he's flopping on some ideological monofilament like a fish who's about to become breakfast.

  • greengreen

    5 years ago

    It's not about the money! It wouldn't matter if we were rollling in continuous annual $5 billion surpluses, those on "the right" vehemently believe that people are to make it on there own. As someone on "the left" abhors corporations getting tax breaks, those on "the right" abhor giving someone something for nothing.
    No medicare type plan in the States - because of money? They quickly came up with $87 billion for a "war". People are to look after/pay their way, thus, no medical plan that would assist all.
    Public housing in B.C.? No, rent subsidies for rentals that don't exist, and, you can't be on welfare to get them.
    A national child care program? No, $100 a month to do with what you wish. No gov't involvement/control.
    I couldn't agree more with "the right" for people who are physically and mentally healthy and those who, by their childhood, have been given a decent chance to "make it."
    By my wonderings on the streets of Vancouver, I suspect that about 95% of the "street" people" do not fit these criteria.
    To continue to make them pay the price for being genetically, mentally, physically or "environmentally" deprived smacks of a self-indulged, greedy, "it's all about me" society. Happy 2007!

  • G West

    5 years ago

    Someone, on one of these forums about homelessness suggested shipping containers as a possible solution for homeless housing.

    I mentioned at the time that some work of this kind was being done in Victoria; here's a link to some more 'experiments' underway in California:
    http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0103/building_1-1.html

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