Homeless to Housed

Homeless to Housed in One Day
BC's new way of finding people shelter will fail if new housing isn't built.
By Monte Paulsen
Published: June 1, 2007
TheTyee.ca

Judy Graves has spent much of the past two years waking the homeless and asking them a simple question: "If I got you on welfare today, and got you a room today, would you move in tonight?"

"They'd say yes," Graves described. "But I could see that what they were really thinking was, 'Bullshit, Lady.' Sometimes they'd say it out loud. They'd say, 'Nobody can do that.'"

Graves, who coordinates the Tenant Assistance Program for the City of Vancouver, was ready to reply.

"Nobody else can do that," she'd tell her newfound client. "But I can do that. And I'm going to show you. So pick up the blanket and tie up the pit bull, 'cause I'm taking you for breakfast."

Graves did show them. In less than two years, she and her small team of outreach workers have ushered more than 700 people from the streets of Vancouver into affordable housing -- not shelters, actual housing.

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