UN observer: "Massive crisis" in Vancouver
Mike sends in this link to an interview in the Tyee with Miloon Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur for Housing who recently visited Canada (including Vancouver). Here’s what he had to say about our town:
There is a deep homelessness problem here. I must say I was taken aback by the scale of the crisis here in the Downtown Eastside.
It’s glaringly apparent in Vancouver that for quite some time… successive governments have failed to create the housing that is necessary. You have a legacy of misguided government policy that has led to this massive crisis in housing and homelessness.
We didn’t hear this in other places. The decrepit nature of SROs, the conditions of the buildings that people are living in, very poor health…I was repeatedly struck by the contrast that I see because it is such a beautiful city, because there has been so much investment. It is striking that a few blocks from million-dollar condominiums, that there is such immense poverty.
November 4th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Patriotz said:The real cost of rental housing is in fact lower than it was 10 or 20 years ago.People are homeless because they have mental health, drug, alcohol, or other personal problems that keep them from functioning properly.To address homelessness, you have to address these root causes. It's a social problem, not an economic one. And yes that's going to cost money. But let's not pretend that spending taxpayers' money on housing is the cure. It's not. Quite the opposite, it just pumps up the housing market more and makes housing less affordable for everyone.I said:Maybe Patriotz is really living in a fish bowl. Words like this is simply shown an ignorant person with absolutely lack of facts!Take Hong Kong for instance.In Hong Kong, government housing is available since the early 1960s. They are 2 kinds, namely the first is similar to our co-op here and the second kind is a bit more of an upgrade but still a bit below luxurious standards of private housing. This kind is only for people who are living in a co-op and would like to purchase their own. Here's how it works. The Hong Kong government encourages its poorer citizens to apply for public housing. Remember that in the early 70s and 80s, Hong Kong was then the China of today for cheap manufacturing labour. This scenario is not that much different than our local work force of cheap Asian and Canadian labour that work in restaurants and grocery stores. Applicants must meet certain income standards and once approved goes on the list to be assigned a housing unit. The housing unit is really very basic. Once applicants are able to generate substantially better income, they can apply to buy government housing with a higher and more luxurious amenities, but still lower than private housing.This brings homelessness there down , but of course there always will be some because you can't force all people to live in a building. Now, the problem with social housing is location. This is something you can't really choose. But then you can't expect much would you.When you say people who are homeless because they have mental health, drug, alcohol and other personal problems that keep them from functioning properly, it is BECAUSE OF OUR GOVERNMENT lack of commitment in general funding, or major cuts in funding. It seems like, when cuts come, mental health patients get the axe first! This is fact! Ask the schizophrenia society and they'll tell you a lot of sad tales. Most of the problems these mentally disabled people were left from functioning properly was because of cut and lack of funding.Social services for them that were there were cut or eliminated by the Liberal government. The only saving grace from the NDP government was that, they were a bit more sympathetic to the poor, but didn't do much either to further assist them. Medicine for the mentally challenged are super expensive. The most commonly prescribed medicine for schizophrenics are Haldol and Olanzapine. Except, the side effects are so great it makes these people completely dysfunctional. Better medicine will make them productive members of society, so they can start making real wages. But, how they can afford to buy them when they don't have jobs? Government still subsidize for these people, but criteria for approval are getting much more difficult. And these jobs require these people to function properly only with these expensive medicine. A chicken and egg thing right?Another note is that, many of these social problems were parents who simply didn't have the economical means to support them. It was their parents who gave birth to them. When they ran out of financial means, they leave the responsibility solely to the government. This is happening in Canada. So when you say that our social problems are not economic, I think you are living in a fantasy world.Coming back to Hong Kong, the government gives the opportunity for these people to get back on their feet with social housing. Once they are, they are allowed to buy their own government housing if they so wish.Your take about social housing pumping the general housing market is totally incorrect! As demonstrated in Hong Kong, they have RE-bubble just like we do and the busts that came after. But that happens in the private sector.Here's why social housing does not pollute the general housing market.1, Facilities are sub-standard, so people who are used to living in a nice apartment may not want it.2, Status problem. If you live in a social housing, you are automatically branded "poor". In Hong Kong, this is a typical problem because Asians like to save face. Nobody wants to be branded poor.3, Location. You can't really pick location in social housing.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:45 am
The reason you will never get the drug addicted mentally ill person into a group home or Riverview: Rule number one – no drugs allowed in the building. Patient: bye-bye – straight back to the street. Can we force him/her into treatment? No! civil liberties will scream, cry and howl all the way to the supreme court, if need be – "Every street person has the right to rot, don't infringe on their right!!!"I just love the catch 22 we all get to live near. A person who is too mentally ill to live on their own, goes off and self-medicates with street drugs. Now the person, already ill, is in desperate need of detox, but, due to the drugs worsening their mental stability, they resist it (paranoia of doctors, believing they are living in a Castle, or whatever). If they do get into a group home, they get kicked out (due to their addiction)they can't succeed at kicking their addiction unless they also get help for mental illness. AFAIK, there is no way we can force this on them – legally; however, since most illegal activities are overlooked in this province, perhaps we could just kidnap them and chuck them into detox at Riverview, I am sure another bus-load from Alberta would take their place anyways.There is a guy downtown who thinks he is a mother and his plastic garbage bag is a real baby – well, glad he can make adult decisions about what he (and is "baby") needs.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:15 am
More affordable housing, increased social assistance and a continued open-air drug market. It's a perfect storm of government incompetence.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:25 am
vanguy What tires me is the people, like Warren, who drive through the DTES and think they have all the answers on how to help these people.Don't put words in my mouth.I merely mentioned that some low income housing is coming, yet homeless advocates are now complaining about what they asked for earlier. You're advocating blanket spending with no concrete ideas.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:00 am
The real problem in Vancouver is that we're Canada's dumping ground because the weather is pretty liveable year roundLet's not forget that Ralph Klein actually bragged about giving his less desirable citizens free bus tickets to BC.Now that there's a kindred government in Victoria, you don't hear this any more, but I wonder if the practice has really stopped.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Patriotz and Clarke are right. What tires me is the people, like Warren, who drive through the DTES and think they have all the answers on how to help these people. Give these people dignity first, and then help them with housing, drug addiction, mental issues. It is a massive undertaking and one that no politician in BC really wants to undertake. We are running a massive budget surplus, we are overspending on civil projects all over the province, yet we don't have the will to help those who need help the most. Everytime Carole Taylor congratulates herself and her colleagues for their sound fiscal management they should feel a deep shame that with all they think they have done for this province that we still have people lined up 40-60 deep at the Union Gospel Mission, every day.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:10 am
The real problem in Vancouver is that we're Canada's dumping ground because the weather is pretty liveable year round. Canada refuses to help foot the bill and calls it a city problem, Vancouver politicians say they're not going to do it because it really is a country problem and the homeless are stuck in the middle.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:24 am
Milan(miloon)Kothari's report may be old and just got published on this date.Because government have a plan in process.City have donated all dtes side hotel for the purpose,some of them are under construction, and they also have found responsible authority to take over as management in Vancouver.Two weeks ago law inforcement in Victoria took those homeless people by force to accomodate them in decent home.In victoria homeless counts are miner but in Vancouver lots.There was related article in the Vancouver Sun or Province for Victoria and Vancouver. I can not find that if anybody intrested and know how to. I have searched through 30 days archive but did not find those.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:50 am
If everyone was given an aparment many people can't manage living on their own. Keeping their places clean, buying food etc. They can't manage day-to-day tasks that we take for granted.This all started with the closing down of institutions and putting them out on the street to fend for themselves.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:10 am
I agree with most of the comments here. And, the government is (finally) doing something about it, with a number of projects coming. I really get pissed off when people from other places act like all of these homeless people are my problem.Don't get me started on how these people "deserve" homes on arguably the highest valued, most desired land in the GVRD.Some blog around here recently had a list of the social housing projects that have recently gotten underway after the City and Province bought up a bunch of land and are in the process of rebuilding social units. The numbers are not insignificant.But now of course "homeless advocates" are complaining about the planned size of these units, some as small as 250-300 square feet. Soon they'll be complaining about the lack of water views.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Reopen Riverview.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Patriotz is right. I honestly wish that all it took to solve homelessness here is simply giving the homeless free housing downtown, like many activists seem to advocate. The bulk of our homeless population have major substance abuse and mental health problems. These people do need housing, but probably in some sort of controlled group home setting where they would get lots of help in other areas too. Aside from the civil liberty issues in keeping people in these places, this sort of major intervention would cost lots of money. It would likely be less expensive for society over the long term, but that is a hard political argument to make.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Homelessness has nothing to do with the cost of housing. There are plenty of people working crap jobs for minimum wage or less in Vancouver and they aren't homeless (hint: Asians).The real cost of rental housing is in fact lower than it was 10 or 20 years ago. People are homeless because they have mental health, drug, alcohol, or other personal problems that keep them from functioning properly.To address homelessness, you have to address these root causes. It's a social problem, not an economic one. And yes that's going to cost money. But let's not pretend that spending taxpayers' money on housing is the cure. It's not. Quite the opposite, it just pumps up the housing market more and makes housing less affordable for everyone.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:14 pm
You'd think these people might consider moving. But I'm not an all-knowing bureaucrat at the UN so what do I know.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Well if it does, our new license plates still proudly proclaim that B.C. is "The Best Place On Earth"!We'll have to all go driving to the States to advertise that fact to the Americans…
October 31st, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I really hope this doesn't mess up our "bestest places ever" rankings for 2008.