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Homelessness Count 2008Increase in homeless 'significant' Suzanne Fournier,
The Province The 2008 Metro Vancouver homeless count found 2,592 people sleeping on the street or without a home in its recent 24-hour "snapshot," but housing advocates agree the true number of homeless is much higher. At least 398 more people were "perceived to be homeless" but weren't interviewed on March 11 because they refused or were sleeping. More than 600 volunteers swept through the streets, alleys and shelters of Metro Vancouver seeking out those without homes. " There has been significant growth in the number of homeless people found who slept outdoors or sofa-surfed since the last count, increasing by 37 per cent or 420 people since 2005," noted Alice Sundberg of the Metro Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness. Set up in 2000, the committee now has more than 40 members from community, business, labour and government agencies and has conducted three homeless counts, in 2002, 2005 and 2008. The count includes Vancouver and its surrounding municipalities. Homelessness is now evident in the city's wealthier neighbourhoods and has doubled since 2005 in several outlying municipalities, including the North Shore, the Tri-Cities, Burnaby and Delta. Sundberg noted that "every municipality in Vancouver saw a significant increase in the number of homeless people," both those who were actually on the street or those housed in temporary or emergency shelters. The count found 1,547 people with no shelter at all and another 1,045 considered to be "sheltered homeless." Sundberg emphasized that the homeless count likely missed hundreds more people without a home who could not be located, because they remain well hidden outdoors in parks or alleys. Many are overcrowded into someone else's apartment, staying with friends and relatives, or living in vehicles or vans. " In every case, there has been an under-count because there are people we are unable to locate," said Sundberg. There has also been an increase in the number of working people, including families, who find themselves homeless, unable to afford Metro Vancouver's high housing costs or to muster damage deposits for rental. Andrew Kellett, co-chair of the Surrey Homeless Task Force, said "our outreach workers do run into families staying in parks who have come from out-of province for jobs and can't afford damage deposits and rents in Surrey." David Dennis, vice-president of the United Native Nations, said aboriginal people fleeing violence, poverty and substandard housing on reserves flock to the city for jobs "but are almost guaranteed to be unable to find a place to live unless they are top income-earners." Waitlists of more than 5,000 people exist for every unit of urban native housing, said Dennis. William Vann Nord, 51, a carpenter originally from New Brunswick, said he has lived for eight months in Pigeon Park at Carrall and Hastings, where he has a makeshift shelter the police make him disassemble early each morning. " There's a street kitchen and lots of free meals and the United Church gives me blankets and clothes to hand out to the people here," said Vann Nord. B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman said: "It's my wish there would never be a single person homeless in a city as prosperous as this," but he insisted that the homeless will not triple, as activists predict, by 2010. Coleman pointed out the B.C. government bought 17 low-rent hotels in Vancouver last year and will have built or acquired a total of 5,000 units of supportive housing by November 2008. A total of 15,000 seniors and 4,800 people who make less than $35,000 a year received rental assistance from the B.C. government last year, he said. " Each individual affected by homelessness has a different story, and that's why there's no one simple solution," said Coleman, noting that homeless people may face many challenges, including addictions, disabilities and mental illness. He pointed out that two new mental health facilities are to be created at the former Willingdon and Riverview sites. HOMELESS
POPULATION ---------------------------------------- Frances Bula and Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun METRO VANCOUVER - Homelessness continues to increase across Metro Vancouver, especially in the suburbs, according to preliminary numbers from the latest homeless count announced Tuesday. There are now close to 2,600 people in shelters and on the streets any given night in this region, almost a 20-per-cent increase from the last count done in 2005. But the numbers didn't go up as much as people thought they would and it's far less than the increase between 2002 and 2005, when numbers almost doubled, said Alice Sundberg, co-chairwoman of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness, which directed the count. That is giving people such as Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts some hope that increased services and aggressive efforts to reach out to the homeless are beginning to slow the flow a little. Surrey's counts indicated that 386 people were either in shelters or, predominantly, sleeping outside on the night of March 11, when the count was done. On one hand, that's grim news. On the other, the number of street homelessness is up only 15 per cent from 2005. " We have the lowest increase in the region," Watts said. "I think that's because we've made a really concentrated effort with outreach. We've housed almost 300 people in the past two, 21/2 years, and put them into permanent housing." So although the tap of homelessness is still turned on, the drain seems to be working better. The early counts show that suburbs such as Burnaby, the Coquitlam region, and the Langleys showed the sharpest jumps in homelessness. At the same time, they had the fewest shelter beds proportionally to accommodate them, so that the majority of their homeless were out on the street. Langley city Mayor Peter Fassbender said that picture will be drastically different in three years. A new centre that combines 30 shelter beds with 25 transitional housing units, along with a "feeding centre" and space for counselling and training, is due to open in June next to the Kwantlen University College campus. That centre, jointly financed by the city, township, Salvation Army, province and federal government, is Langley's acknowledgement that it must help. " It's a big step. We have come to the place of saying we have to be part of the solution," Fassbender said. In Coquitlam, Mayor Maxine Wilson said the area's three municipalities are looking for a location to put a permanent shelter. Coquitlam is also working with the YWCA on another project to build supported housing for women and children. But Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said he thinks it's reprehensible that municipalities are constantly made to feel that it's their job to solve homelessness, when it's the provincial government that cut housing programs and tightened up access to welfare. His city is focusing on long-term housing solutions, building on a foundation of the second-highest number of social-housing units of any other part of the region. (Only Vancouver has more.) The homeless-count statistics prompted responses from both Downtown Eastside advocates and Housing Minister Rich Coleman about what they meant and what the trends for the future are. A coalition of advocacy groups held a press conference outside an up-for-sale rooming house downtown to highlight the ongoing problems of evictions and speculation in the Downtown Eastside, which they say are accelerating homelessness. And they accused the provincial government and city of doing little to address the problem. But Coleman said he was actually relieved by the numbers. " People were predicting it would be double or triple [the 2005 numbers]. The way I look at it now, we have 2,500 homeless and what have I got in the pipeline?" Do I have 2,500 units coming? The answer would be yes." But even Coleman cautioned that doesn't mean the problem is solved, because there are always more people becoming homeless. That's something that certainly proved true in Vancouver where, in spite of Mayor Sam Sullivan's commitment to reduce homelessness by 50 per cent in time for the 2010 Olympics, the number of street homeless actually increased by 32 per cent, so that there are now almost exactly the same number of people on the street (about 780) as in the city's numerous shelter beds. The count also fueled debate about what is causing the significant increases in suburban homelessness. Sundberg, from the regional homelessness steering committee, said she believes it's a case of homeless people now being able to stay in their home communities because there are finally some services there for them. David Eby, a homeless advocate with the Pivot Legal Society, said he thinks the numbers are going up in the suburbs because people from Vancouver are being driven out of the city by the continuing losses of the city's cheapest housing in the Downtown Eastside. Corrigan said he thinks the numbers increase, especially in cities like his, are driven by a deliberate plan in Vancouver to "push these people out into the suburban municipalities, trying to clean up for the Olympics." Those actually out on the streets see it a little differently. Chris Fontaine, whose battered face fits his life story of bad luck and bad decisions, has been homeless in Surrey for about 18 months. " It's a crappy life to live. But, hey, I get by," Fontaine said Tuesday while staying at The Front Room shelter in Surrey -- a last resort place for people whose addictions and mental illness make it difficult for them find housing elsewhere. It's no surprise to Fontaine that a homeless task force recently found about 390 homeless people in Surrey over a 24-hour period. " I can believe it. They come from Vancouver, Burnaby, New West -- they all come to Surrey," he said. " There's better resources here. It's a better area. More drugs, I guess. There are at least 40 guys that I know who are down here from the Downtown Eastside." The 33-year-old single man hopes to find a cheap apartment but knows the odds -- and his own past -- are stacked against him. " You need a rental history and my rental history around here ain't so good." For now the Front Room, with its 40 beds, is home. " The people here at the Front Room -- they care about us a lot. They give us hope." ------------------------------------------------ JEREMY NUTTALL The number of people living on the streets of Greater Vancouver is up 37 per cent since 2005, according to a tally of the homeless taken every three years. In total, 2,592 people were counted as homeless in the 13 cities that make up the Greater Vancouver Area, according to preliminary figures released yesterday. The count, which is divided into two categories - sheltered homeless and street homeless - showed almost no change in the number of people considered to be sheltered homeless. " Where we are seeing an increase is the people who are either on the street or living in a tenuous situation with family or friends or in their cars or in public buildings," said Robyn Newton, who led the homeless count project for the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C. Ms. Newton said she was unable to project the number of homeless by 2010. " There are a lot of factors between now and then. There are lots of units under development." But she said the survey made clear that "there is a problem in every municipality in the region." This year's count, which is conducted by volunteers, is the most accurate since the first count in 2002, organizers say, because of experience in counting methods and increased public interest. " The count is a 24-hour snapshot giving us a picture of the number of individuals found to be homeless within this time period," said Alice Sundberg, co-chair of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness. Individuals are considered homeless if they do not have a place of their own where they can expect to stay for more than 30 days. Ms. Sundberg cited higher rents as one reason for the increase. " There's been a decrease in the amount of affordable housing available. So, those have impacted not just people who are vulnerable, not just people with mental illness or on fixed incomes, but, people who are working. And that's putting more and more pressure on the lower end of the rental stock," she said. More than double the number of people volunteered for the March 11 count than last time. So some of the increase could be due to more eyes on the street, Ms. Sundberg said. But, despite the count not being 100 per cent accurate, it does serve a purpose, she said. " We need to have this quantifiable data and irrefutable numbers to demonstrate the need when we are asking for funding." Ms. Sundberg called upon the federal government to do more to address the problem, citing the lack of a national housing program. But Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Monte Solberg said the government is doing its share. " I'm not certain I agree with Ms. Sundberg," Mr. Solberg said. "We have in place the Homelessness Partnering Strategy to come up with local solutions to local problems." He also pointed at millions of dollars in recent funding to help people with mental illness in Vancouver. However, as those conducting the count gain more experience, Mr. Solberg said, his confidence in it grows. " It strikes me as a serious survey," he said. "We need good information to know if our programs are having success so we can move forward." She said there is little risk of people being counted twice because counters use a series of questions to make sure a person has not already been included. But she said it boils down to the honour system. The report said the number of homeless people this year is a hike of 131 per cent over the 2002 numbers. ------------------------------------------- Homelessness unlikely to abate Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier, Editorial If you are waiting to see Mayor Sam Sullivan's promised reduction in homelessness of 50 per cent by 2010, you'll have to wait a while longer. The numbers are still going in the wrong direction. To no one's surprise, homelessness in Vancouver and across the region has increased in the three years since the 2005 count. If there's any good news it is this: The increase is not as much as in the previous three years and not as much as some predicted. Sullivan's promised reduction was a figure plucked out of the air. It came along with promises to reduce the open drug market and aggressive panhandling by 50 per cent. He also promised to increase "the level of public satisfaction" with the city's handling of public nuisances by 50 per cent. Those figures, too, were pulled out of nowhere. They first appeared in Sullivan's announcement of his Project Civil City in November 2005. When civil city commissioner Geoff Plant reported to council, he pointed out that, as far as the commitments on public satisfaction, the open drug market and aggressive panhandling were concerned, there was no way he could measure them. He didn't comment on where the mayor came up with the figure of 50 per cent to cut homeless. What we do know is that the figure did not come from any city staff reports, or from any research-based strategy that had been developed to deal with the problem. It just sounds good: "50 per cent cut by 2010." So what is actually going on? In Vancouver the overall increase in homelessness is 19 per cent. If it looks like a lot more than that to you, here's the reason: No new shelter beds have been added in the past three years, so all the increase has been on the street, where numbers have actually jumped 32 per cent. There are now slightly more people living on the street in our city (786) than there are finding refuge in shelters (761). As appalling as that is, it could have been worse. Part of the reason we have this homeless problem is because the provincial Liberals cut programs to build non market housing. At the same time they implemented aggressive cuts to welfare and tightened the regulations to qualify for welfare. The net effect was to put people on the street. Between 2002 and 2005 the numbers almost doubled. But in 2005, with COPE/Vision runing council, the province agreed to fund first a pilot project and then a full-blown outreach program. It was designed to help the very street people government policies put on the street. They were put back on welfare and placed in whatever low-cost housing was available. That exercise reduced the number of homeless people by 700. But it will see diminishing returns as the low-cost rental housing stock has virtually no vacancies. The province's purchase of 10 hotels a year ago won't provide any new units. It did, however, slow down the gentrification of low-cost housing in our overheated real-estate market. But those SROs have yet to be renovated to provide supportive housing for their new tenants. The 1,200 units being built on city owned land are still in the planning stage, but if street homelessness continues to grow at the rate of 10 per cent a year the growth in homelessness is unlikely to abate let alone decline to anywhere near 50 per cent by 2010. Ironically it is partly federal money that funds the homeless count. And it is that count that continues to demonstrate Ottawa's failure to address the problem of homelessness. We are one of the few industrialized countries on the planet without a national housing strategy. People who managed the homeless count recognize this, while the province has finally come to the table after a five-year break. Ottawa is the player that must now engage before real progress can be made. ------------------------------------------------------- Cheryl
Rossi, Vancouver Courier If you think you've noticed more people sleeping in Vancouver doorways over the past three years, you're right. The recent homeless count found 190 more people on city streets and at agencies that serve them, not including those staying in shelters. During the day on March 11, some 786 people were counted on Vancouver's streets and at services. At night, an additional 761 people were counted in emergency shelters, safe houses and transition houses. Region-wide, the number of people counted on the street or at service agencies has more than tripled since 2002, for a total of 2,592 people without homes. The actual number of homeless people is assumed to be higher because 398 people were perceived to be homeless by volunteers on the count, but they refused to be interviewed or were asleep, so were not included in the totals. " The results document exactly what we've been seeing and so for the city of Vancouver, street homelessness has been rising at about 10 per cent a year," said Judy Graves, coordinator of the city's tenant assistance program. Because the number of homeless people didn't double like it did between 2002 and 2005, Graves suggested some measures put in place since the last count have helped people find homes. " I'm thinking of [B.C. Housing's] outreach program that in Vancouver has taken 750 people off of the street and moved them into housing," she said. But problems persist with welfare legislation and the low vacancy rates in our booming region. While some say Vancouver's homeless have moved to the suburbs, Graves believes it's likely been an equal shift of homeless people to and from the city. Mayor Sam Sullivan is relieved the number of homeless hasn't increased as dramatically as some had predicted. "But it's still way too high to be at all complacent," he said. Sullivan and David Hurford, the mayor's director of communications, ran through a host of city, provincial and federal initiatives they say should reduce homelessness. Their list included 1,200 new units of social housing to be built on city-owned land; rooms in 17 single-room occupancy or low-income hotels the province has bought, with 115 rooms that were previously unoccupied to welcome tenants once renovations are completed; and 250 units of social or low-cost rental housing to be available after the Olympics, in Southeast False Creek. Sullivan mentioned the Assertive Community Treatment teams he wants to see visiting people on the street, at shelters and at low-income hotels to help those who have trouble making appointments. He hopes his Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment (CAST) initiative will help chronic users move from illegal to legaldrugs, and that the downtown community court will link social services and health resources with the justice system to address crime in Vancouver's downtown core. But Graves worries the picture isn't so rosy. She said only 90 of the 1,200 new social housing units to be constructed on city-owned sites are targeted for the homeless. "So the rest are people who will be moving out of other places," she said. "And you think that would create a vacuum, but, in fact, we're losing hotel rooms at a really fast rate and so we will be functioning with a zero vacancy rate." While it's beneficial the province has saved 17 low-income hotels from conversion by purchasing them, and the rooms in them will be safer for tenants, Graves says they will provide few new homes. Sullivan and Hurford disagree. "Not all of [the occupants] were people who needed [social] housing," said Sullivan. "They were backpackers, people who did not have any of these mental illness or drug addictions or other troubles like that... the people who need supports now will be given those supports in those buildings that will be managed by non-profit associations for the benefit of people who need the housing."
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