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$50 Million Private Plan to Help Homeless Unveiled

Street to Home's funds should be added to existing government commitments: NDP.

By Monte Paulsen, 12 Jan 2010, TheTyee.ca

BosmanHotel

Street to Home's funding will help convert the Bosman's Hotel into supportive housing.

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A group of B.C. business leaders hopes to raise $50 million toward ending homelessness in Vancouver, but has not yet determined how to raise or spend that money.

The Street to Home Foundation today released its long-awaited plan to address homelessness. The 10-year plan outlines three primary goals: Build new supportive housing, prevent homelessness among at-risk groups, and nurture community involvement.

"This plan is clearly aspirational," board member Don Fairbairn told The Tyee. "It helps us stay focused. And it provides the community with an opportunity to hold us to account."

The B.C. Legislature's homelessness critic, MLA Jenny Kwan, praised the initiative but warned that the well-intentioned plan could wind up letting the provincial government off the hook for funding homeless housing.

Plans for 200 units a year

Street to Home was launched in the summer of 2008 with much fanfare. It was started with $1.5 million from the City of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia and the Vancouver Foundation. Its 25-member board of directors includes high-profile Vancouverites such as mining magnate Frank Giustra, condo marketer Bob Rennie and former premier Mike Harcourt.

The fledgling foundation committed $2.1 million to four projects in its first year-and-a-half of operation. Those included a pivotal $860,000 to provide housing for the Vancouver portion of the Health Commission of Canada's innovative At Home/Chez Soi study, which will provide housing to 300 Vancouverites who are both mentally ill and homeless -- while at the same time studying which types of mental health services are best suited for this population.

Other early grants include $500,000 to help open emergency shelters during the 2008-2009 winter, $500,000 for housing for homeless women and their children at the Aboriginal Mother Centre, and $250,000 to fund the renovation of the London Hotel into low-barrier homeless housing.

The idea of such a foundation was proposed in a 2007 report co-authored by Fairbairn and former city manager Ken Dobell.

The 58-page plan released on Tuesday describes the foundation as "a collaborative approach to breaking the cycle of homelessness." The plan states that it was developed with input from more than 60 representatives from government and non-profit agencies.

By combining estimates from previous studies -- some of which are several years old -- Street to Home concluded that Vancouver needs 2,000 more units of supportive housing than are currently under construction. And so the foundation committed to "facilitate development" of 200 units a year for the next three years, with new targets to be set after the next regional homeless count in 2011.

Doable vs. additional

The 10-year plan provides no detail about when, where or how that housing will be "facilitated." Neither board member Fairbairn nor acting president Barbara Grantham were able to elaborate.

"This is the road map," Grantham told The Tyee. "The next step is to put the trip plan together." She said there is no shortage of housing projects in search of funding.

Fairbairn said Street to Home will consider funding the construction of housing projects previously announced by the provincial government.

"Practically speaking, something is only doable if it's on the same playing field as the city and the province," he said.

"There are eight sites that the city has contributed, and for which the province has funded development, but are not yet funded for construction or operation," Fairbairn added.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman, who has previously promised to fund those projects once the city approved them, was not available for comment.

Homelessness critic Kwan, a New Democrat, expressed concern about the prospect of using private money to fund public housing.

"I think it's a very good thing that the private sector is coming forward with financial support for affordable housing. But this additional money coming from the private sector should be, well, additional. It should be added to the money the province has already committed," the MLA for Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant said.

Kwan said the provincial government should not be let off the hook.

"Minister Coleman has said on a number of occasions that the province will fund these sites. I've heard him say that," Kwan said. "Now is Coleman trying to play some cute little game? Was he announcing sites, taking the credit, then planning on using someone else's money to build them? If so, that's dishonest, at best."

'That's not a hard number'

"That's a hypothetical," Fairbairn replied. "Are we letting government off the hook? Or not? Do we know whether or not they will fund those projects now?" he asked.

"We don't know what this government or the next government is going to do," he answered. "Our view is that there is no certainty in today's economy that government will fund anything that's new." 
Fairbairn likewise described the $50 million goal in Street to Home's plan as uncertain.

"That $50 million is a number that is not precise," he said. "That's not a hard number. That will change over time. It's a goal."

Street to Home figured the cost of building and staffing 2,000 units of supportive housing for ten years at about $500 million. Fairbairn said the $50 million goal merely represents the board's notion that the private sector should pitch in about 10 per cent of that cost.

"This city has a group of leaders that, at an individual level, understand that they can contribute to resolving this issue," Fairbairn said. "And they've committing not just their own chequebooks but their ability to work with their colleagues across business sectors to encourage them to write cheques that they otherwise wouldn't."

Grantham said the foundation has not yet raised any money from the public. All four of Street to Home's early grants were funded by board members, she said.

Grantham declined to identify those donors. 
"We're not at this point in time going to give full attribution," Fairbairn said. "We will be very transparent," he added, "as soon as we can."

Prevention and outreach

Street to Home's second and third goals involve preventing homelessness and engaging the community.

Homelessness prevention is a strategy that's worked well in the U.S. and Britain, but one that has yet to be seriously embraced in British Columbia. It involves identifying individuals who are at high risk of becoming homeless, and offering them housing and/or health services before they do become homeless. Among those at high risk are mothers with children at risk of being placed into the foster care system, youth aging out of foster care, women fleeing abusive homes, and poor people being discharged from hospitals and correctional institutions.

High among the foundation's community involvement aims is a plan to encourage the federal government to get involved. 
"I don't think its a realistic proposition that this current government is going to move back to the situation we had 15 years ago, with this active investment on the part of the federal government into housing," Grantham said. "There are still incremental things that the federal government to do." 
Fairbairn said the foundation will push governments to provide more health care services for the mentally ill and addicted, but said such effort would not constitute lobbying. 

"Lobbying is a word that we're not using here. We have representatives of the health authority on committees, we have them on the board. It's about leadership understanding that this is something that is critical in the eyes of the community," he said.

'We're here for a long time'

If Street to Home succeeds in raising $50 million, then the downtown foundation's projected operating expenses will work out to just a little more than 10 per cent of the money it delivers to the province or other developers.

The foundation spent more than $900,000 on staff and operating expenses in 2008 and 2009, according to a spokesperson. That’s more than 40 per cent of the $2.1 million it granted during that period.

Street to Home plans to spend an average of $765,000 a year in overhead for each of the next three years, according to its plan.

Grantham said that none of the money donated thus far by the group's anonymous board members has gone to fund operations. 

"The expenses of the organization have been paid for by the three founding funders,” she said. Those are the city, the province and the Vancouver Foundation.

Fairbairn acknowledged that the city and province have made remarkable contributions to Street to Home in particular, and toward ending homelessness in general. He said the foundation will carry that effort forward.

"Governments change," he said. "We want an organization that sits at the intersection of politics, the civil service and community . . . and continues for the passage of time to speak in the interest of homeless individuals."

"We're here for a long time," Grantham added. "Governments come and go. Priorities come and go. We won't." [Tyee]

Monte Paulsen reports on housing and homelessness for The Tyee.

38 Comments:

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  • Frank

    2 years ago

    Hmm

    So the same private sector that declares that the $7 billion spent on the Olympics wouldn't have alleviated poverty anyway thinks $50 million will make a huge difference?

    That sounds like right-wing math alright.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Frank

    Only $7 billion. Come on Frank it must be more than that. Why don't we just round it off and say $10 billion for a two week party. That way any extras should be covered.

  • Jeffrey J.

    2 years ago

    Ken Dobell...again

    So while Mr. Dobell was aiding and abetting Gordon Campbell to dismantle BC's civil society, slash taxes, bring in foreign corporations and give away BC's resources, he was also helping create a private enterprise foundation to address homelessness. So realtors and other businesses can pretend to be doing something ethical. A great PR move.

    If this foundation ever becomes serious about homelessness, they will need to identify the primary cause, which the science is very clear about: it is the Mr. Dobell's, Gordon Campbell's and business elites who brought BC to this level.

    I wish this foundation luck, but until that occurs, more citizens will continue to suffer because of bad government policies, low taxes and squandering of BC's wealth.

  • off-the-radar

    2 years ago

    Kwan is right

    the provincial government is shuffling off responsibility for people who are homeless.

    Plus it is not a housing issue it is an income issue.

    When welfare is sytematically denied to BC residents then, duh, people become homeless (as per the Ombudsman's findings). We didn't have this huge homeless problem before Gordo's gang got into power.

    And welfare rates are $600 a month. Who can live on that? No wonder people turn to prostitution, crime and addictions. And no not everybody can work and I am happy to have my taxes support the less fortunate rather than say the Owelympics.

    And there are many many families with kids who are working and poor. Because, thanks to Gordo's Gang, BC has the lowest minimum wage in the country and a lack of supports to families who are working and poor.

    And child poverty at 25%, the worst rate in the country for six years running. Meanwhile Quebec has reduced it's child poverty by half over the past decade (from 19% to 9%).

    And please Monte Paulson, include some big picture analysis in your stories on homelessness. Like there are families now sliding into homelessness.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    Do you have numbers from non-Liberal sources saying otherwise?

    The $7 billion figure has been used by a number of people including Harvey Oberfeld (certainly not a left-winger). Its not hard to count up all the things that the gov't itself declared to be necessary for the Olympics.

    Personally I think the $7 billion figure is on the low side as the gov't has been caught hiding Olympic spending in other accounts.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Frank

    Sure Frank, the Canada Line was only built for the Olympics and after it's going to be closed and moved to another city.

  • alive

    2 years ago

    Jenni Kwan for leader!

    Kwan keeps doing all the hard slugging just as she did when she was one of two NDP MLA,s sitting.
    Why is she overlooked and the shrill schoolmarm made leader?

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    It's only money.

    "One of the big-ticket ones was the $300-million “Olympic bonus” that unionized government employees got for signing a four-year contract that ends after the Games (and after the election)."

    http://www.vancouversun.com/Sports/Olympics+bill+tops+billion/1207886/story.html

    Half a million dollars for the Vancouver City employees uniforms, too.

    Any truth to the rumor that the convention centre is going to be sold off, unhitched and towed to Dubai?

  • Peter Dimitrov

    2 years ago

    Poverty Relief - Whose responsibility?

    Homelessness, child poverty (note: 25% child poverty rate in BC implies 25% of families with children are poor - so it is a family poverty rate), the poverty of those on social assistance, including those on disability; senior, student and First Nations poverty, the poverty of the working poor in this Province- are all persistent symptoms of a massive ethical and public policy failure by the neo-liberal ideologues of Campbell and company. IMO, this is a public policy issue and while there may be a role for civil society organizations - philantrophy - with all its tax breaks for donors -ought not, as Jenny Kwan states, act as a substitute - which is what is happening here in BC. IMO, part of creating a sustainable society in Metro Vancouvver/BC implies addressing the 3E's of sustainability (environmental, economic, equity) in a collaborative, inclusive manner -with a significantly strengthened state - and not a weakened, debt-ridden state -hollowed out by neo-liberal privatiation, de-regulation and re-regulation in favour of Capital, the later being Campbell's true legacy. Government has legislative tools to significantly end/curtail the indignity and exclusion that accompanies all forms of poverty in this Province. Doing so requires engaged citizens to elect and support a government willing and capable to do that, and it requires political parties to elect competent and honest Leaders and propose electoral platforms that will gain the confidence of the electorate. Thusfar the later has not happened, and IMO, Campbell may be re-elected yet again by the same class of "persons"/ corporations who sit as Board members of the aforementioned Foundation.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    If you don't like what Campbell said go argue with him.

    The gov't claims the Canada Line and the Convention centre had to be done for the Olympics. I'm simply taking him at his word.

    You on the other hand believe Campbell can't be held responsible for what he says because you have to own a super secret decoder ring to understand what he really means.

    All I do is read the papers, I'll leave the "interpretations" to you.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Frank

    When you guys get back in you can take over the Canada Line, shut it down and turn the tracks into community organic veggie gardens. Maybe goats and chickens too.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Frank

    There's six and a half billion missing Frank. Where did it all go? Did someone report this is any of those papers you read?

    "Vancouver 2010 sport venues completed on time and within $580-million budget.

    VANCOUVER, BC – One of the biggest milestones in preparing to host the top athletes from countries around the world has been reached by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) and its partners: construction and upgrades on all sport competition venues were completed on time and within the $580-million budget. Athletes are now training and competing in the venues in preparation for the Games."

    http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/01/12/PrivateHomelessPlan/index.html?commentsfilter=0#comment-187217

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Here's the link

    http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-news/n/news/vancouver-2010-sport-venues-completed-on-time-and-within-$580-million-budget.-vancouver-olympic-paralympic-centre-opens-today-as-a-model-of-sustainable-building-_63896GI.html

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    "When you guys get back in you can take over the Canada Line, shut it down and turn the tracks into community organic veggie gardens. Maybe goats and chickens too."

    Sure, we'll do that, I have just jotted it down on the old to-do list.

    I will also make sure we have equal numbers of hens and roosters and boy goats and girls goats.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    "There's six and a half billion missing Frank. Where did it all go? Did someone report this is any of those papers you read?"

    I went to your link but it brought me back here. Pretty sneaky of you.

    As for the missing 6.5 billion, I would guess Campbell has it tucked in a sock. What's your guess?

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    "Here's the link"

    Glad you were able to find that. Are you claiming that all we've spent on the Olympics is $580 million?

    Cool, so how come we're running a 4 billion dollar deficit and slashing spending on programs that help people?

    Why do the papers say security costs are $900 million? Perhaps its security for Campbell himself?

    Or perhaps its because saying Campbell has only spent $580 million on the Olympics is kinda wrong?

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Frank

    Security is mainly Federal, all that overtime!

    "Security for the Games will be headed up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and includes more than 8,000 personnel from local police and the Canadian Forces."

    http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/other_news/1216134129.html

    All in all, it's a good deal for BC.

    The provincial share is around $165 million.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    I'm sorry I may have confused you, but federal spending on the Olympics still counts as spending.

    And the BC share of security costs also counts as Olympic spending.

    And if government says "we have to have this built for the Olympics" that also counts as Olympic spending.

    A few years ago BC's auditor said the same thing.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    And since I know you're about to ask, yes, spending on the Olympics by municipal governments also counts as Olympic spending.

  • Bob Watts

    2 years ago

    How to end homelessness FAST!!!

    The business community wants to help…give me a break!
    Let’s see small business people import 45,000 foreign workers each year, BC’s birth rate is 45,000 per year, and we create 65,000 jobs per year.
    This means 20,000 of our own citizens each year don’t have a job to go to.
    So we have homeless people, 75% of which are not on welfare.
    And we Bitch and Bitch about those 20,000 kids not working. How many of our youth and others commit suicide?
    We have the lowest minimum wage in Canada, so do you really expect a good worker to stay in your store for $8 per hour, well do you?
    45,000 foreign worker per year, all have a place to live, and jobs, and food. Our citizens are homeless, unemployed, and suffering malnutrition.
    A single homeless person costs society $55,000 per year, each. Oh yes, the middle class pays all the bills for that homeless person, times 20,000 new unemployed per year.
    The business people are running our society into the Ditch. I think they are so busy, that collectively they don’t even see what they are doing…..

  • Luke

    2 years ago

    Frank the Bradmeister...

    Quote:
    I went to your link but it brought me back here. Pretty sneaky of you.

    Best quip of the day! :D

    BTW, ya better book a hotel room at the Bosman's Hotel, pictured above, before it's too late to check out its ambience. In it's heyday, I'm sure it was a respectable joint. ;)

  • dorothy

    2 years ago

    realisticman

    About that 'bonus', now: If it had not been in the picture, there would have been a contract in place, starting April 1st of 2009, and running till well beyond the tsunami of disappointment and the petty blaming games after the 'big event'. Can you imagine how radically different that would have been from what they will be dealing with now? Personally, I think public sector workers got rolled over, rather than handed any kind of bonus, and I consider it a tragedy as well as a very bad omen that they could opt for taking the deal...

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    Luke

    Thanks for coming out, I'm here all week!

  • G West

    2 years ago

    What a way to start the new year: Still no apology

    And no invitation back for Rod Smelser...His contributions are certainly missed.

    That being said, the reason he's not here anymore isn't hard to ignore.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    GWest

    Nice to see you again!

    As for banning, I was once threatened with being banned forever by using a word that was very close to one that only exists in some internet geek glossary in spite of the fact the context of the post obviously demonstrated I wasn't using that word. (I didn't even know the word existed) It was like being banned for accidentally saying something derogatory in Klingon.

    Contrast that with what Luke got away with and its clear he's got pull around here.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Hola Frank

    Sometimes I think the powers that be encourage a certain 'class' of commenter out of a misguided attempt to create verisimilitude. Being aware that there is an attitude around which holds the Tyee is a ‘leftie’ mouthpiece, husbanding a few resources that support an alternative – however ill-conceived – is apparently part of the plan.

    In fact, what I think happens is that those kinds of characters actually create anger, frustration and bad feeling. They also have the salutary effect of illustrating the bankruptcy of ideas of the ideological right wing.

    Certainly, in the case we're talking about, that seems to have been the result. The fact one party has not returned to the 'fray' tends to reinforce that belief. Furthermore, the MO of the individual in question has not changed so the ‘timeout’ had little or no positive effect.

    Sadly, resolving the incident in this way has removed from the debate a voice which, although one might not agree with him all the time, was worthy of conderation.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    J'accuse!

    Spin. No a conspiracy.

    "those kinds of characters actually create anger, frustration and bad feeling". If only we could stop them presenting so many contrarian facts.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Just to be clear, Frank

    The kind of 'character' we're talking about has nothing to do with conspiracy - and, quite frankly, performs a valuable service, providing, as it were, by example, exactly the kind of evidence one needs to illustrate the paucity and bankruptcy of a certain class of 'ideas'.

    Just as, by way of illustration, the cluelessness of those who present exculpatory claims against the well-nigh irrefutable evidence of what is and was behind the financial meltdown of global finance and economics. The more they declaim and spin - the guiltier they look.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    GWest

    Oh, don't worry about r'man, he sees a massive conspiracy of "elitist gatekeepers" behind every bush. If there's a single website anywhere that leans left or a single talk show host that admits to voting NDP he thinks its proof of the socialist UN trying to stop right-wing opinion from dominating everything. I think he's taken too many of soleprobe's blue pills.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    Frank

    G West:
    "Sometimes I think the powers that be encourage a certain 'class' of commenter out of a misguided attempt to create verisimilitude."

    The hidden hand (I wonder who) directing a certain 'class' (I wonder which) and trying to inject plausibility (who needs that?). The Way, the Truth, and the Life should be insulated from these deluded agents of optimism.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    optimism

    Not so easy to be an optimist if one doesn't belong to a certain 'class' as well.

    Perhaps one could sell optimism in the streets of Port au Prince these days - given the fact almost no one gave a shit when they were simply dying slowly I find it hard to be to sanguine about certain notions of the way and the truth and the life now that they're dying a little faster.

  • Luke

    2 years ago

    Badluck Schleprock...

    Was a cartoon character from The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, which I always enjoyed viewing when I was a kid.

    He became an icon and stereotype for unlucky or hapless individuals. Until I read the Tyee, I never knew that such people existed in real life! :D

  • G West

    2 years ago

    And I always knew....

    ...that there were people around who could not sustain a debate, a discussion or a disagreement without resorting to offensive personal and entirely irrelevant remarks.

    There is nothing optimistic or valuable about a philosophy so lacking in integrity and respect for others and contrary views that it leads its adherents to indulge in this kind of childishness.

    It is, on the contrary, a symptom of moral bankruptcy and a failure of public education.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    A certain 'class'

    Check out these optimists:

    http://www.bladerunners.info/success.htm

    Check out Gilbert Morven (scroll down) here:

    http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/category/immigration/

    As any sane person knows, optimists exist in all (must I belabour this archaic word?) 'classes'.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Another take on 'class'

    Perhaps one needs to recall, one more time, the words of Warren Buffett:

    “There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

    Lots of optimists in that 'class' for sure - not so many the other 'classes'...and that's just the way most conservatives want to keep it if the health care debate in the United States is any indication.

    Nothing archaic about class - just ask Mr Buffett.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    GWest

    You just don't want to see or read any good news, do you?

    Does it serve your purpose that the unfortunate stay miserable? When you help out at the soup kitchen to you admonish those that are cheered up?

  • G West

    2 years ago

    The only purpose I try to serve

    Is what I perceive to be the truth.

    I think Warren Buffett is a far more credible witness for the fact that class and class war are far from becoming archaic...in fact, the past 30 years in North America have seen the situation of the poor, the disadvantaged and the unfortunate get measurably worse while the circumstances of the people in Mr Buffett's class have improved many fold.

    Those who try to cheer up anyone while ignoring the reality of this record are, in my view, the ones peddling lies and misinformation.

    The people I admonish are those who refuse to acknowledge the reality of the worldview they represent and cheer so heartily for.And who pretend they actually 'care for anything outside of their own narrow perspective.

    Pretending that the bit of personal good I can do will make any material difference in the state of the world your 'class' has created is delusional.

    All I can do beyond the personal is to bear witness – all I can hope for is that the readers of this stuff will recognize who is telling the truth and which arguments seem more valid relative to their own experience. From the feedback I’m getting, I think I’m achieving those goals quite nicely. As I pointed out above, having a suitable interlocutor to wave the flag for the other side of the argument is extremely helpful. People are, in the end, quite realistic and they know when they’re being snowed.

    A phony smile is worse than no smile at all.

    Have a happy new year.

  • Frank

    2 years ago

    r'man

    Actually, for the last two years you and Luke have been loudly proclaiming that the world has never enjoyed two better years than these.

    Not a single negative thing, such as a financial crash, has happened in the world in the last two years according to you guys.

    Which of course is to be expected since before the crash you both insisted the economy was never healthier.

    You guys must both be Leafs fans.

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