Youth emergency shelter to expand

Premier says government has stepped up to address housing crisis all over the province
Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2008

B.C. doesn't need the United Nations to tell us we have a homelessness problem, Premier Gordon Campbell said Monday.

"I think all of us understand that there is work to be done," Campbell said at a press conference announcing the expansion of Vancouver's youth emergency shelter.

B.C. is already in the midst of a huge expansion of social housing, Campbell said. "That's why [the province] has acquired 28 single room occupancy hotels and upgraded them."

A group of activists from the Downtown Eastside announced over the weekend that they will take a human rights complaint to the United Nations complaining that the federal government is in violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by failing to provide citizens with adequate housing.

With the 2010 Olympic Games and the international media scrutiny that comes with the Games now less than two years away, advocates for the poor are ramping up the pressure on governments to reverse the growth of Metro Vancouver's homeless population.

The official homeless count released last week found 2,600 people in Metro Vancouver living in shelters or sleeping rough outdoors, up about 25 per cent since 2005.

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