Improve Access to Affordable Housing

From a City of Vancouver News Release...

March 1, 2007

City launches public discussion on supportive housing

The City of Vancouver, working in conjunction with Vancouver Coastal Health, is seeking public input on the City’s Draft Supportive Housing Strategy for people with mental health and/or addiction issues. A series of meetings have been organized to provide information about mental illness, addiction and supportive housing; and existing supportive housing buildings.

The federally mandated National Council of Welfare is looking for input from Canadians on the problem of poverty in our country.  As part of global anti-poverty events this week the council is inviting Canadians to give their two-cents to an online survey at the following LINK.  The survey will be available until mid-December and ask respondents to weigh in on thier anti-poverty strategy and what shape that strategy should take.  Results will be available next year and will form part of the council's recommendations to Ottawa.

Dormitory style housing is being proposed to deal with Vancouver's homeless problem.  Several city councillors are proposing building the housing which would consist of 100 square foot units with shared amenities.  NPA councillor Kim Capri said that they units could serve as transitional homes for people, until more specious accomodation could be found.  But the fear was that people would live in these units indefinately as there probably wouldn't be anywhere to transition to for many people.  Councillor from the opposition raised concerns about health and the safety of women in the facilities.

When I was young my mother, who had divorced our father, moved from place to place with my sister and I, and we never had a lot of money. We lived in different shelters for a time, then eventually my mother got a good job and managed to get into some subsidized housing. I was young at the time so I didn't think much about it, it was just the way we lived our life. But now that I am older and I own a nice townhouse in North Vancouver with my wife, I look back at those times and realized how difficult it must have for my mom, to always just scrape through life.