Another fun morning in another unheated brick building being renovated, with the housing crowd in the province as everyone gathered at the St. Helen’s hotel on Granville Street. That was to hear the premier and Housing Minister Rich Coleman announce they had bought 601 new units around the province in 15 buildings, all as part of the province’s ongoing homelessness initiative. Read more…

Following on news that Vancouver has been ranked fourth on the world’s list of least affordable cities, web entrepreneur Ian Andrew Bell makes the case in his blog that it isn’t just because house prices are so high here.

Also to blame, argues Bell, is Vancouver’s serious lack of higher paying jobs. The kind of jobs that make more affordable than Vancouver “cities like Manhattan, San Francisco, London, Paris, and Hong Kong.” Read more…

Last September, a comprehensive report about homelessness in Burns Lake was presented to the village council. Prepared by the Lake District Community Services, the Burns Lake Homelessness and Housing Study laid out some sobering statistics. Read more…

Despite having an estimated 100 to 200 homeless people, the town of Vanderhoof in northern British Columbia has just four shelter beds—all reserved for women escaping physical abuse or drug addiction.

With temperatures reaching minus 30 degrees Celsius in the winter, any homeless man or woman who can’t secure one of those four beds has to do whatever they can to get inside. It can often lead to dangerous circumstances. Read more…

Three activists who have challenged the city of Victoria's anti-camping bylaws won another victory this morning.

Judge Brian MacKenzie found in his provincial court decision that Kristen Woodruff, Tavis Dodds and David Arthur Johnston, arrested in December for erecting tents in the square behind city hall, were not guilty of breaking the city's bylaws.

“It means the court basically accepted our argument and agreed with us,” said lawyer Irene Faulkner. Read more…

The federal government will spend more money over the next few years helping Canadians renovate bathrooms than it will building new social housing units. Read more…

Inside a small aboriginal drop-in centre in Prince George called The Fire Pit, a group of about 20 homeless men and women try to stay warm on a cold Monday afternoon by playing crib or drinking coffee. With temperatures dropping below minus 20 degrees outside, no one dares braving the great outdoors. Read more…

The Harper government will propose spending more than $2 billion on social housing nationwide, according to a report in the Toronto Star.

“The spending is expected to be part of the aggressive stimulus package unveiled in Tuesday's federal budget and could provide a boost for tradespeople hit by the slowdown in the new housing market,” writes Bruce Campion-Smith of the ‘Star’s Ottawa bureau. Read more…

Vancouver developer Robert J. Macdonald called NDP leader Carole James a “smiling, shiny puppet of left-wing ideologues” and warned that New Democrats pose a greater threat to British Columbia’s economic well-being than the global economic meltdown.

"The current economic slowdown in B.C. is really just a recession for sissies," Macdonald told an Urban Development Institute luncheon on Friday.

“So the question I offer is this: What matters more to us in forecasting our industry’s future in B.C.? Is it the shallow, short-lived recession facing us? Or is the greater danger the possible four-year election of a provincial political party, controlled in part by people who have drunk the Kool Aid laced with the cyanide of socialism?” Read more…

A non-partisan Vancouver group that advocates for renters is getting unwanted attention from the office that runs B.C.'s elections.

Organizers of the group Renters At Risk received a Nov. 4 letter from Elections B.C. saying they must register as an election advertiser because of their activities during the two October, 2008, by-elections. If the group fails to comply, penalties include up to a $10,000 fine and a year in jail.

“It seems to me preposterous,” said Stephen Hammond, a lawyer and member of the group Renters at Risk. “What happened to the ability to have a disagreement with the government?” Read more…

The number of people receiving welfare in B.C. has recently begun to climb, but as Jody Paterson noted in a column in today's Victoria Times-Colonist, there are about 40 percent fewer people receiving assistance now than there were when the B.C. Liberals took office in 2001.

“Good news or bad?” she asked. The drop “is either a marvel of social strategy or a major reason we've ended up with so many people living on our streets.”

The government, however, has done little to figure out which it is. Read more…

The deputy city manager overseeing construction of the financially troubled Olympic Athletes Village for the 2010 Winter Games has resigned.

Jody Andrew's unexplained resignation is effective immediately, according to sources at Vancouver city hall. Andrew wrote the 2006 memo recommending Millennium Development for the job, and has negotiated with Millennium throughout the project. Read more…

Outside of the Balmoral Hotel on Thursday morning, Downtown Eastside residents and tenant advocates called on the Residential Tenancy Brach (RTB) to fine the owners of the “seven worst” Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels in the neighbourhood.

Pivot Legal Society lawyer Laura Track said the Sahota family, which own the Regent, Balmoral, Astoria and Cobalt hotels, and the Laudisios, which own the Brandiz, Powell Rooms and Lucky Lodge hotels, should be punished financially for operating the most rundown rooming houses in the Downtown Eastside. Read more…

Now that the dust has settled – momentarily I suspect – on all the latest Olympic Village bombshells, most talk has shifted to what price the remaining condos will fetch come 2010.

According to the real-estate analysts I’ve spoken to, the eventual sale price of the 472 remaining units depends to a large extent on the performance of a depressed local housing market that remains difficult – if not impossible – to forecast.

Nonetheless, the folks over at Housing Analysis and condohype, two widely read local real estate blogs, seem to think there’s little chance market levels will “rebound” to 2007 levels anytime soon. Read more…

Premier Gordon Campbell's commitment yesterday to recall the legislature may increase the total number of days the house is likely to sit this year. Or not.

Speaking with reporters after a speech to the Truck Loggers Association, Campbell committed to meeting Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson's request to bring the MLAs back to Victoria and approve Vancouver's plan to borrow up to $458 million to finance the Olympic athlete's village.

The emergency sitting could add as many as three more days in the house, but Vancouver-Kingsway MLA Adrian Dix said Campbell is likely to send MLAs home well ahead of the May 12 election. “We know the government doesn't like the legislature to sit. They've proved that.” Read more…

The city will recover any financial investment it makes towards the Olympic Village before Millennium Development does, a Vision Vancouver councillor said.

“At this point the city will get its money out before Millennium does,” newly elected councillor Geoff Meggs said. “It’s not like the city is left with the leftovers. If the project is making money, the city will be making money.” Read more…

First step when a political uproar hits: Check the websites. In the case of the Olympic Village, two key players are Millennium Development and Fortress Investment Group. One says too little by saying too much. The other says too much by saying too little. Read more…

I have to say, it sounds nuts over at city hall today. There’s was in-camera meeting on this morning and apparently Mayor Robertson is going to make a statement at 11:30 a.m. It could be just my imagination, but every time I talk to someone over there, they sound exactly like those CNN reporters covering hurricanes from the centre of the storm. Read more…

If you are the kind of person who loves provincial elections and adores statistics — and, really, doesn’t that describe nearly every one? — then the latest offering from BC Stats, B.C. Provincial Electoral District Profiles, is right up your alley. Read more…

The historic Pennsylvania Hotel officially reopened today, providing 44 studio apartments and on-site support services for low-income residents of Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside.

“This is the future of what we have to do as a city, as a province, as a country, and most importantly in this community to make sure people are not homeless and suffering on our streets,” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told a packed house. Read more…