Hope blooms through Flowers for Food

Promising program for the homeless rooted in one man's initiative
STORY BY UNNATI GANDHI and VIDEO BY JOHN LEHMANN
Globe and Mail Update
March 25, 2008 at 8:01 PM EDT

[Note: TJ was part of the Streams of Justice Squat last Fall.]

VANCOUVER. TJ Walker's raspy voice is difficult to make out over the sounds of the SkyTrain passing overhead and the constant traffic manoeuvring around him.

But as the slight man shuffles from his makeshift flower display at the corner of Expo Boulevard and Carrall Street to the curb, extending a dozen roses out to anyone who glances his way, his message is clear.

“Flowers for food?” TJ, as he prefers to be called, asks a pedestrian obviously trying to get out of the rain.

“I don't have a girlfriend,” the man shrugs.

“Well, not if you don't give her flowers.”

The man smiles, but walks off.

But for every 15 people that walk or drive by the man with the heaps of roses and carnations near GM Place, one usually stops and buys, he said. And with those sales, TJ last month was able to get his first home after 11 years on the streets.

Business wasn't always so brisk for TJ, who has been selling flowers on the street for five years.

At first, the only flowers he could find were the ones he and a volunteer weeded out of a nearby community garden. The wilted fistfuls didn't attract much attention, let alone cash.

But he continued to sell flowers, he said, because “what else can you give someone and always get a smile?”

Then one day, two years ago, a man in a Honda Civic stopped to ask, “How much?”

“Whatever you're happy to pay,” TJ said.

The man, Marrett Green, a local businessman and homeless activist, said he was inspired by TJ's entrepreneurship.

“My heart just immediately went out to him because he's trying to do something with himself. So I thought if there's any way I could help him, I would,” Mr. Green said.

It took dozens of phone calls, and a little begging of his own, he said, before he got his first bite.

Make Scents, a Vancouver-area flower distributor, agreed to help Mr. Green turn nothing into something. From that point on, other distributors agreed to do the same, and Flowers for Food blossomed.

Read the rest and watch the video here

ACTION: Lie Down To End Homelessness

What: Lie Down To End Homelessness
When: 2:45 -3:15pm, Sunday, April 13, 2008 (rain or shine)
Where: The Olympic Clock, North Side of the Vancouver Art Gallery

In the spirit of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-ins, photographer Spencer Tunick, and Flashmob, Streams of Justice (www.streamsofjustice.org) is staging another sleep out at the Olympic clock.

In light of the recent homeless count, we want to fill the square with hundreds more people than we have had before, as a visual representation of the growing number of homeless in the face of our city’s wealth and prosperity, and to highlight the lack of decent income levels, affordable housing, and supports needed for people to have a home.

This is a both a protest and a live art installation, which will be photographed and turned into a media presentation, to raise awareness and push for change both at the government levels and in our communities. Can we say to one another, “You are welcome in my neighborhood?” and offer one another space and resources to find, and call a home?

Invite your friends and media, bring something to lie down on, and come out as an act of solidarity with the homeless, as we attempt to wake up both ourselves and others to end homelessness. Thanks to all who have been out before, we need you again.

For more information e-mail Deegy at streamsofjusticearts [AT] gmail.com

Download information sheet here

Cost of homelessness in millions, report finds

JUSTINE HUNTER
With a report from the Canadian Press
March 24, 2008

VICTORIA -- The federal government could easily bring some relief to B.C.'s homeless population by restoring incentives to the construction industry to build rental housing, the province's Housing Minister said yesterday.

"Governments can't build this stuff fast enough," Rich Coleman said in an interview. "We need tax incentives back in the marketplace to build more rental housing."

Mr. Coleman was responding to a new study that concludes providing shelter for homeless people with severe addictions and mental illness throughout British Columbia could save taxpayers millions of dollars.

The paper, commissioned by Simon Fraser University and released this month, found that providing non-housing services for such people costs the public system more than $55,000 a year per person.

Providing adequate housing and supports could reduce this cost to $37,000 a year, the study found.

It put the cost of failing to act in excess of $200-million each year.

Read the rest here
See also Coleman disputes homeless estimate from the Vancouver Sun

Reading the Text / Reading the World

Capitalism and the Economics of Enough

Monday March 31, 2008
7:00 – 9:20 pm

Grandview Calvary Baptist Church
1803 East 1st Avenue
Vancouver

Capitalism is the dominant ideology of our age. The market economy has brought enormous benefits in wealth creation and rising living standards for millions throughout the world, but how is capitalism related to social (in)justice? How does capitalism manufacture the materialistic and consumerist orientation of our desires in the modern world, and in what ways does it encourage imperialist enterprises?

Leading us into these issues will be Paul Williams, Associate Professor of Marketplace Theology and Leadership at Regent College and Executive Director of the College's Marketplace Institute. Paul also works as a Director and Economic Advisor to DTZ plc, a multinational real estate consulting and investment banking group headquartered in London UK where he previously worked as Chief Economist and Head of International Research. As well as advising global corporations and investors, he has undertaken substantial work for government departments and agencies, particularly concerning policy for economic development and urban regeneration and renewal.

Dave Diewert will offer some reflections on the biblical notion of the “economics of enough,” drawing from the traditions of the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospel narratives.

The high cost of homelessness

Every homeless person costs system $55,000, an amount that could buy supported housing for each of them
Lori Culbert, files from Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, March 21, 2008

VANCOUVER - We've been counting them and governments have been scrambling to try to help them, but a recent university study has been looking at a new question about homeless people in B.C. - what each one costs taxpayers a year.

The answer is $55,000 per person, or an annual total of $644.3 million in health, corrections and social services spending for all the homeless in B.C.

But the conclusion of the 150-page report - written by five academics at Simon Fraser University, the University of B.C. and the University of Calgary - is that B.C. taxpayers could even save money if that cash was instead spent directly on supported social housing.

"We wound up generating an estimated cost [of homeless people] in B.C. that is roughly the same as the cost of implementing the full-meal deal of housing and supports for every one of those people," said one of the authors, professor Julian Somers, director of SFU's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction.

The report, completed last month, says its research shows that approximately 130,000 people in B.C. have a severe addiction and/or a mental illness; about 26,500 of those people are "inadequately housed and inadequately supported," including 11,750 who are "absolutely homeless."

Read the rest here

Mayor to exempt faith groups from seeking permits

Will table motion waiving their soup kitchens, shelters from some regulations

JUSTINE HUNTER
March 22, 2008
The Globe and Mail

Religious groups should not have to beg city hall for permission to offer succour to Vancouver's poor, Mayor Sam Sullivan said yesterday.

His comments mark a policy change after a lengthy battle that pitted city hall against a wide array of faith-based organizations.

Mr. Sullivan announced his new position outside Holy Rosary Cathedral, where he attended a Good Friday service. He said he wants to exempt faith organizations from a controversial permit process that threatened charity services aimed at the city's most disadvantaged.

"It seems counterproductive that we would ask the faith communities to take out a permit simply to do good works in the community," he said in an interview yesterday.

Read the rest here
See also Mayor seeks church exemption, from the Vancouver Sun

London's new look offers lessons for Vancouver

British architect Paul Davis doesn't shy from building social housing side-by-side with tony shops and galleries

TREVOR BODDY
tboddy@globeandmail.com
March 21, 2008

LONDON -- Imagine 30 units of social housing plopped down amidst the art galleries, exclusive shoe shops and high-end restaurants of South Granville. Incongruous?

How about these ideas: subsidized rental apartments literally on top of Robson Street's flashy strip of Asian tourist-attracting designer boutiques; seniors, students and artists living close enough to its Hollywood C-list-attracting Cal-Italian restaurants to wake up to the smell of garlic.

British architect Paul Davis has just built juxtapositions as radical as these for one of the toniest zones in all London.

Read the rest here

Homelessness Petition

To: BC Legislative Assembly

END HOMELESSNESS
BC NEEDS AFFORDABLE HOUSING NOW

More than 10,500 British Columbians are homeless. This crisis is province-wide. In every city and town homelessness is a shame and an embarrassment.

Thousands of British Columbians are one paycheck away from homelessness; one illness away from homelessness; one family emergency away from homelessness.

Homelessness is not the fault of the homeless. There have always been people in our province who were less privileged than others. There have always been people in BC who have mental health and addictions challenges. But we have never had a crisis of homelessness like the one we face now.

Homelessness results from a lack of affordable housing. It results from wages and social assistance rates which are inadequate. Solving the problem of homelessness in our province is about political will and public policy choices.

BECAUSE children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life, and a child�s success is tied to having a stable home,
BECAUSE people should be able to afford housing and still have enough money for groceries and basic necessities,
BECAUSE homeless people are not the cause of homelessness,
BECAUSE everyone in BC deserves a safe, decent place to live,
BECAUSE we support diverse, tolerant and caring communities and reject communities that are divided into haves and have-nots,

DECLARATION:

• We will do everything we can to protect existing affordable housing units. While many of these require significant upgrading, it�s wrong to renovate them just to raise rents or turn them into expensive condominiums.
• We will oppose the demolition of affordable housing so that it can be replaced with homes accessible only to the wealthy.
• We will work at the local, provincial and federal levels to secure the capital funding needed to build the thousands of units of social housing, co-op housing and affordable housing our province needs.
  

Sincerely,

The Undersigned (Click to sign petition)

Homeless challenge Victoria's no-camping bylaw

JUSTINE HUNTER
March 19, 2008
The Globe and Mail

VICTORIA -- Heidi and Mike have just been given two hours to pack up all their belongings and move.

The homeless couple were camping in Cecelia Ravine Park in Victoria, in a sun-dappled nook next to a river where ducks are nesting. It was a nice spot to sleep, until a Victoria police officer arrived yesterday to enforce the city's no-camping bylaw.

In a city that is spending millions of dollars dealing with homelessness and its attached problems - drug addiction, mental health and crime - Heidi and Mike get the feeling they aren't wanted.

"They want us to go in the shadows and hide," said Heidi, as she began rolling up a tarp that has kept them and their three shopping carts' worth of possessions sheltered.

Read the rest here

New doc sheds light on Vancouver homeless problem

Mar 13 2008
Westender

How do we help those in need if they don’t want to help themselves?

There are lots of different ways to look at the little gathering that took place last week at Cinema 319 on Main Street. You could see it as the premiere screening of the Paperny Films/CBC Newsworld documentary The Devil Plays Hardball, which it was. You could also see it as the first unofficial face-off between 2008 Vancouver mayoral candidates, a number of whom were there to respond to the issues raised by the film. And as for the film itself, about a project to mentor homeless people, you could see it as a bleak reminder of just how difficult it can be to help those on the street. Or, if you looked around the room a bit, you could come away with a sense of optimism about what hard work and attention can accomplish.

Read the rest here

DTES - Stations of the Cross

Every year since 1986, on God's Friday, we have carried the cross through the streets of the DTES in memory of the way of our Saviour. In the same way this Friday we will gather:

First United Church
320 East Hastings
11:00 am - about 1:00 pm
Friday, March 21

Leaving from First United, and ending at the War Memorial in Victory Square, we will stop at stations along the way, to remember the horrors and comfort, joys and brokenheartedness we have experienced as a community in the DTES since Easter past. We do this as a community, together, remembering that we go on in hope of the acceptable year of our Lord in the year to come. This time every year allows us to grieve, and celebrate, to bond together again in one body.

Please come join us.

Turning the Screws

Give up on social programs, says Harper budget.
By Murray Dobbin
Published: March 4, 2008
TheTyee.ca

Harper's Conservatives in their latest budget have taken their lead from the Bush administration. They are simultaneously increasing the military's budget and cutting government revenue to set the stage for future cuts to social programs.

Just like Bush, who also came into office with the "problem" of huge budget surpluses, Harper is well on his way to achieving the neo-con objective of permanently hobbling government's ability to fund anything but the military. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a dedicated Bushite, might have been speaking for Harper when he said "My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Previously announced Conservative tax cuts will mean an annual loss of government revenue of $40.2 billion by 2012-2013. Economist Erin Weir has commented, "It is striking that the tax cuts will cost as much as it currently costs to run the government of Canada's entire non-military side."

The tax free savings plan announced in the February budget will, through its compounding effects, mean another erosion of government revenue. Initially involving only small amounts, in twenty years this plan is estimated to cost the government $3 billion each year. Since poor and middle class families are mostly heavily indebted and not in a position to save, the rich are the most likely beneficiaries of the plan.

Read the rest here

March Actions

SUMMARY:

• March 15 - a global day of action to mark the 5th anniversary of the war on Iraq (Noon @ Art Gallery)
• March 19 – Picket @ U.S. Consulate for Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Gaza (11-1pm)
• March 21 – MARCH AGAINST RACISM! (1:00pm @ Commercial Drive and 14th)
• March 29 – ILAN PAPPE: ETHNIC CLEANSING of PALESTINE ( 7pm – Vancouver Public Library)
• Mar 25 – 29 - PALESTINE SOLIDARITY WEEK @ UBC
  

DETAILS:

Rally
Saturday, March 15
12 Noon
Vancouver Art Gallery
(Georgia side, at Hornby)

This March, people in Vancouver and across Canada are joining the World Against War, with a global day of action to mark the 5th anniversary of the war on Iraq. Mark your calendar today for the rally to kick-off a day of action: In Vancouver, the StopWar Coalition - with over 160 endorsing organizations and individuals - is joining with others including Canadians Against War to organize a day of activities to oppose an attack on Iran, and to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, on Wednesday, March 19, there will be a picket to mark the 5th anniversary of the war:

Picket
Wednesday, March 19
11am to 1pm, U.S. Consulate (1075 W. Pender, at Thurlow)
For now, spread the word, get your organization to sign on to endorse these events, and invite your friends to be part of this worldwide action against war.
Email contact[AT]stopwar.ca for more information.
Website with more information on March actions against war:
http://theworldagainstwar.org/
http://canadiansagainstwar.org/

MARCH AGAINST RACISM!
COMMUNITY MARCH
Friday March 21 at 1 pm
(Good Friday Holiday)
Meet at Clark Park on Commercial Drive and 14th
Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories

March 21 marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting against Apartheid's passbook laws, killing 67 and wounding 186...

Join us on March 21, International Day for the Elimination o Racism, to show our communities collective strength in challenging ongoing racism. Canadian multiculturalism is not enough!

Bring your children and family.

• There will be food, water and snacks during the march.

• Rest vehicles will accompany the march.

• All welcome!

For centuries, communities have led countless courageous struggles against racism and the many ways in which it manifests itself in our daily lives. Although many would like to believe that racism no longer exists, we are reclaiming the tradition of anti-racist marches to reveal the ugly truth about the worsening reality of racism both locally and globally.

Join us on March 21 to celebrate the dignity, strength, and resilience of our communities!

End individual and institutional racism, racial violence, and racial profiling!
Stop the theft of indigenous lands!
End all racist wars and occupations!
Stop the deportations now!
Living wages, healthcare, education, and housing for all!

(Events organized and supported by a community network including No One Is Illegal, Indigenous Action Movement, Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation, Canadian Arab Federation, John Graham Support, Siraat Collective, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society, DTES Elders Council, SIKLAB - Overseas Filipino Workers Organization, Anniversaries of Change, International Indigenous Youth Conference Secretariat, Canadian Muslim Union, Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS, Justicia for Migrant Workers, Al-Awda Vancouver, Salaam Vancouver, Iranian Federation of Refugees, Cafe Rebelde Coalition, VIRSA, Latin American Connexions, Hogans Alley Memorial Project, Filipino Nurses Support Group, La Surda Latin American Collective, Indigenous Free School, Communities for Laibar Singh-Vancouver, Canadian Network for Democratic Nepal, Canada Palestine Association, Group of Relatives and Friends of Political Prisoners in Mexico, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magon (CIPO-Vancouver), Chetna Dalit Association, Philippine Women Centre of BC, Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence, Vancouver Status of Women, The North Shore Women's Centre, Battered Women Support Services, Friends of Women in the Middle East Society, Women Against Violence Against Women, Grassroots Women, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Hospital Employees Union, Industrial Workers of the World, SFU Teaching Support Staff Union, Vancouver District Labour Council, Canadian Union of Public Employees - Local 1004, Gallery Gachet, Rhizome Cafe, New World Theatre, Colouring Book Project, UBC Realities of Race, SFU Public Interest Research Group, BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, StopWar.ca, Anti Poverty Committee, Politics Re-Spun, Building Bridges to Chiapas, Alliance of People's Health, International Solidarity Movement Vancouver, SFU Interfaith Summer Institute Community Consultative Committee, Vancouver District Labour Council Young Workers Committee, Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, UBC Students for a Democratic Society, Solidarity Notes Labour Choir)

To add your name to the list of supporting organizations, please do get in touch! CONTACT noii-van[AT]resist.ca or call 778 885 0040.

In commemoration of the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakbah, NECEF and SPHR present
ILAN PAPPE
The ETHNIC CLEANSING of PALESTINE
Saturday, March 29th, 7pm
Lecture & Book-Signing
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, Alice Mackay room, lower level
350 W. Georgia St. (at Homer)
~ Admission by donation ~
Vancouver co-sponsors: CanPalNet, Jews for a Just Peace and Canadian
Friends of Sabeel
Info: 604-765-7074 · www.canpalnet.ca
support[AT]canpalnet.ca · sphr.ubc[AT]gmail.com

SPHR - UBC
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (UBC Chapter)

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY WEEK @ UBC
March 25th-29th 2008!

More info & posters to come soon....
For more information, contact sphr.ubc[AT]gmail.com

Tuesday March 25th, and Thursday March 27th
TABLING @ the SUB, southside, outside!
10 am- 3pm

Join us for great resistance music, information, slide shows and more!

Wednesday March 26th 2008
MOVIE SHOWING: Arna's Children
SUB 205. 4pm-6pm

Arna Mer-Khamis, a Palestinian Jewish woman, was a legendary activist for the rights of the Palestinian people. During the First Intifada she helped establish a children's theatre group in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, teaching children to express themselves through acting. Her son Juliano, a director for the group, filmed Arna working with the children over a 6-year period. Following Arna's death, he returns to the camp to find out what became of the young refugees.
Best Documentary Feature winner at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.
www.arna.info

Thursday March 27th, 2008
Lecture and Discussion with JON ELMER
Topic: Gaza, Gaza, Gaza.
SUB 207/209 12:30-2 pm

Jon Elmer is a Canadian freelance writer and photojournalist specializing in the Middle East. He has researched and reported from the West Bank and Gaza Strip - based in Jenin and Gaza City – during the al-Aqsa intifada (2003), following Israel's "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip (2005), and during the sanctions regime and factional strife (2007). He will have a short lecture in regards to developments since the disengagement from Gaza, and the recent siege from the past few weeks. He will also touch on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We will also have the opportunity to see a slideshow of his photography. There will then be a discussion and Q & A.

Survey of homeless in Lower Mainland attracts surplus of volunteers

JEREMY NUTTALL
Special to The Globe and Mail
March 12, 2008

Volunteers had to be turned away from the Lower Mainland's homeless count this year as more people than ever before wanted to help with the 24-hour survey.

It was conducted on Monday night, beginning at midnight.

The last count was three years ago, and it showed a significant increase in homelessness in suburban areas of Vancouver. This year, as a result, there were more volunteers from those regions.

Pastor Linda Rubidoux of the Northside Foursquare Church in Port Coquitlam said homelessness in the Lower Mainland is becoming a key issue in her city, and more people are coming to her church asking how they can lend a hand.

"Everyone wants to know, 'Is it really as serious as people say?' " she said. "They just want to help."

Read the rest here

See also Homeless tally expected to rise in Vancouver from the CBC

Church practises what it preaches, inspiring judge's sentence for homeless robber

As a follow-up to this story...

Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, March 01, 2008
We've heard plenty of stories of sadness and suffering in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. And we've listened to countless attacks on overwhelmed courts, as they try to deal with the problems of mental illness and drug addiction that a lack of social services has left behind.

In this litany of sorrow, it's hard find a good news story. But here is one, a story of forgiveness and redemption that ought to serve as a reminder that it's never too late to help those who are genuinely willing to accept assistance.

Read the rest here

ACTION - 1005 Station Street

Here is something we need lots of people attending, and making their voice heard in support of non-market housing being proposed for the empty lot just down the block from where we did our squat. It's an open house, and there will be opportunity to see the plans, and write down comments of support - all of which get counted. If you are able to make it out (Thursday, March 13th 4:30 - 8:30 pm in the Board Room of Science World), please do so.

Begin forwarded message:

1005 Station Street is the hole in the ground filled with water that is owned by the city and designated for social housing - its just next to 980 Main, the site that Streams of Justice squatted. The Portland Hotel can build there but the NIMBY neighbours are agitating against it. We will bring a copy of the newsletter sent out by NIMBY's to the meeting to show around at the meeting.

We're afraid that we'll have to struggle to keep or get every social service that we need as the numbers of condo owners increase. Right now new condos are increasing by a factor of 3:1 compared to social housing.

Many thanks and hope to see you there.

ACTION - March 8 Stands

CITYWIDE HOUSING COALITION

Immediate Release
Contact: Rider Cooey 604.872-1382
6 March 2008
Vancouver, BC CANADA

Street-corner “STANDS” for Housing Continue this Saturday and next

Neighbourhood housing activists will again stand on Vancouver streetcorners, Saturday March 8 for one hour, 1-2pm, with banners and wearing vivid blue scarves. They’ll be calling attention to federal and provincial failures to build permanent low-income housing, and the City of Vancouver’s proposed abandonment of deals with Concord Pacific for affordable housing in downtown condo towers.

STANDers will also be paying respects to the hundreds of dead and dying homeless men, women, and children— victims of legislated poverty and government neglect in BC and Canada. In Vancouver they populate our streets and lanes, huddle in parks and encampments, burn to death in doorways, are crushed in back alley garbage bins.

Ten “STAND for Housing—Homes for All!” sites have been confirmed for this, the third of four weekly Stands:

1. Main St. & 33rd Avenue (Kia Salomons and Community Advocates for Little Mtn)
2. Main St & King Edward (Ned Jacobs, Mary Ann Code, and CALM)
3. Arbutus & King Edward (Homeless Nation and Random Acts Of Kindness (RAOK)
4. Broadway & McDonald (Candace Simmonds and Kitsilano CHC)
5. Heather & 6th Ave (Rider Cooey and False Creek neighbours)
6. Commercial & 1st Avenue (Anna Truong, Calvin Baird & Streams of Justice)
7. Cordova & Gore (Anne Kennedy and St James Social Gospel Coordinating Group)
8. Oak & W 49th Ave (Leslie Kemp and Unitarian Church Social Justice Cttee)
9. Commercial & Broadway (Lauren Gill, Homeless Nation and RAOK)
10. Burrard & Nelson (Bobbie Phillips and the St Andrew’s-Wesley (Homelessness & Mental Health Action Group)
    

[Christ Church Cathedral, Georgia & Burrard, will resume next week.]

Some STANDs for Housing will pause over the Easter Break, Friday to Monday March 21-24, then continue, calling for substantial funding to be dedicated by federal, provincial, and municipal politicians to building new, permanent, low- and welfare-income housing. Using the
surplus billions in the prosperous economies of Canada and BC to build the full spectrum of housing for all citizens is the primary mechanism by which homelessness must be defeated.
The public and media are invited to join us at any of the above locations. The idea of the STAND is based on the moving example of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose children were "disappeared" by the military, 1976 to 1983. They stood every week in a city square wearing white scarves until the generals capitulated. The scarves became an international “brand” for protests against unjust and inhumane governments.

Student Christian Movement Canada

FYI we've just added a link to SCM Canada under the Friends & Blogs section of the sidebar.

They also have an upcoming conference you may be interested in hearing more about.

New City Data on Housing

Reprinted from David Eby's blog:

Recent data released by the City of Vancouver indicates that market housing growth is far outpacing affordable housing in the DTES. The numbers provide a helpful measure of the change taking place in the neighbourhood, and social housing building overall in Vancouver. Why these numbers aren't more widely available is beyond me.

First, two charts show social housing developments in and outside the DTES, including anticipated timelines. These graphs show approximately 1,557 units over the next 3 to 4 years, suggesting between 400 and 500 new units per year, and well short of the 2,400 units quoted by Coleman in this recent press release and well short of Mayor Sam's absurd claim of more than 3,000 units.

The next graph shows SRO buildings purchased by the province recently, with unit numbers. Anticipated opening dates for buildings not currently in operation are not shown; however, I understand from BC Housing that the renovations will have started on all projects by the Fall.

Of these hotels, all were open and operating except for the Pender, Marr and Rainier hotels, although some were operating at less than full capacity.

Finally, the City is keeping tabs on market housing development in the DTES. This chart shows that 1,597 units have been constructed, are under construction, or are in the final stages of approval for the neighbourhood. This chart does not list the rumoured nine towers that many people in the neighbourhood have heard are under consideration at the City currently.

Finally, the City produced a helpful chart to enable a better understanding of housing trends in the neighbourhood. I apologize for not producing a better version, but this is what I have.

The purple bar reflects non-market housing. The red/burgundy bar shows market housing. The yellowish bar shows SRO/lodging house/residential hotel housing.

A trendline for market housing in the DTES would look like a stock market run in the '80s. A trendline for SRO/lodging house/residential hotel housing would look like a stock market run in the '90s. A trendline for non-market housing would look like a panicked provincial government worried about looking uncaring during the 2010 Olympics, but not really giving much of a crap after that.

Naive experiment or exploitation of the homeless?

Program sends well-meaning mentors into Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

MARSHA LEDERMAN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
March 5, 2008 at 4:14 AM EST

VANCOUVER — What to make of a "documentary" that sends four established Vancouverites onto the streets and pairs them up with homeless people, giving them 10 months to mentor their less-fortunate partners and turn their lives around?

Is it a reality television rip-off, naive in its intent and discomfiting in its use of desperate lives to create good television?

Or is it a serious attempt to showcase a growing crisis and bring it to a national, mainstream audience?

The piece of television in question, Devil Plays Hardball, will air on The Passionate Eye on CBC Newsworld Sunday night (and be screened at a forum in Vancouver tonight).

Read the rest here

ACTION - 5 Minutes for Darrell Mickasko

Chief Coroner Terry Smith has not ruled out the possibility of a coroner’s inquest into the death of Darrell Mickasko, the homeless man who burned to death trying to keep warm last month.

Your taking five minutes to contact the Chief Coroner of B.C. to ask him to conduct a public inquest into Darrell’s death could make the difference between Darrell’s death being forgotten, or publicly examined with the aim of preventing future deaths like his in British Columbia.

If you can, and you care, please take the time to send a polite e-mail to the Chief Coroner, Mr. Terry Smith at Bc.corser@gov.bc.ca to ask that the Coroner’s Service conduct a public inquest into the death of Mr. Mickasko.

In your e-mail, you might consider mentioning:

• that as a member of the public, you do not want this tragic death to be overlooked;
• that Darrell’s death was preventable, and a public inquest will assist in preventing similar deaths from occurring in the future; and,
• that if people are dying on the streets as a result of homelessness, the public has a right to know of such deaths.
  

Thanks.