Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson seems confident he'll meet his self-assigned “gargantuan task” of ending homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.
To hear him and city councillor Kerry Jang speak yesterday, it was as if all that stood in the way of a city where everyone has a warm place to sleep was a lack of provincial funding.
“There is a belief emerging that we can actually end homelessness in Vancouver” over the next few years, said the mayor.
But the academic who invited the politicians to participate in a panel discussing health issues affecting the homeless was less optimistic.
“That's a general direction” said Dr. Michael Krausz as he thanked the mayor for his speech, “but now we need to work out the details.”
Yesterday's discussion at St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver was organized as a follow-up to an academic conference held last month.
Krausz, the LEEF Chair in Addiction Research at the University of British Columbia, said the health researchers who focus on homelessness wanted to connect with the policy-makers working on the same issue.
Robertson and Jang focused primarily on the successes of the Homelessness Emergency Action Team (HEAT), one of the first programs Robertson initiated as mayor. Over the winter, the HEAT program turned five under-utilized buildings in downtown Vancouver into emergency shelters, housing 450 people a night.
Provincial funding for those shelters is currently scheduled to run out on June 30.
“I'd encourage everybody to start calling those new MLAs, and re-elected MLAs, and putting the pressure on them” for continued funding, said Jang. He later said a decision from the province was expected by the end of May.
The researchers and health administrators who participated in the panel praised the mayor for his commitment to the issue, and acknowledged that the HEAT shelters had been innovative in trying to provide more welcoming, supportive environments.
But despite a lot of talk about increased co-operation, the discussion seemed to be missing the connection between what Krausz called the “housing first perspective” and the health perspective.
Krausz hopes for more capacity in health care as well as housing. Speaking after the panel session, he suggested there needs to be more focus on what he called “health care from the other side of the problem” -- mental health and addictions treatment for young people at risk of becoming tomorrow's homeless.
“If you're not stopping the drift into homelessness,” you cannot hope to eliminate the problem, he explained.
Although he was supportive of the HEAT initiatives, he emphasized that it had to be put in context.
“You have to relate it to the size of the problem,” he said. “Five hundred (people) is a very small number.”
Amelia Bellamy-Royds reports for The Tyee.
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2010homelesschamps
3 years ago
ONLY THE HOMELESS
I wrote this piece in response to the squat across from army and navy I have been to a few of the homeless shelters but the first united is out of control they might as well put one on the step's of the carnegie as well because these buildings have a lot in common . THE DIRTYSQUAT Why should we allow this to happen,to let people who have both addiction and mental challenges decide where and how they should live.Eyesore you bet, crime you bet, health conditions you bet, living space available you bet.Since some of them have migrated to other locales perhaps the first united church"Slash crack shack for jesus"they have taken there well prescribed habit's with them, we now have a large group of disfunction under one roof in the so called house of the lord.life skills discipline goals dreams desires have a hard time being fullfilled in this climate,that is wide open and poorly supervized.The clientel seems to come and go as they please,partake in all the benefits of the drug culture and anything else the street has to offer. I myself have drove by the squat seen the conditions,have been to the crack shack for jesus numerous times and i tell you one thing david ebys convient video does not represent civil liberties the overall health and condition of the dtes is on the verge of destruction.UNTIL we stop catering to addiction make these people accountable arrest a few hundred more drug dealers don't be surprized if this some day dosen't happen in your neighbourhood.Oh by the way for all who hate my points i have a men's house and i have been helping homeless and addicted men for seven years ok ok hullo sean
The Blackbird
3 years ago
Start Building Now
The City still has an A or AA credit rating, so why don't we borrow the money we need to start building the housing that was promised as a social legacy and send monthly construction and materials bills to the Province. In Canada, social programs and housing are the responsibility of provincial governments, a trade off for control over natural resources. If the Province refuses to pay the City can take them to court.
The Blackbird
3 years ago
It would be more expensive, though
The amount of interest that will accumulate while the court battle is fought will be enormous. But that would be for the Province to consider, when it receives its first bill.