The number of people sleeping on the streets in Vancouver this winter dropped to levels not seen since 2002.
But preliminary numbers from the Vancouver homeless count done last month also showed that overall numbers have climbed to almost 1,800 – a 12-per-cent increase in only two years. Only about 400 people were sleeping in the streets because more shelter spaces were available for the other 1,400.
The city will use those numbers in the next 21 days in an attempt to persuade the province to come up with money to move all 1,800 homeless to interim housing or at least continue paying for the operation of some of the seven emergency winter shelters the province agreed to fund during the Olympics. Those shelters housed an additional 600 people on top of the 800 shelter beds that operate permanently in Vancouver.
And city politicians and bureaucrats warn there will be dire consequences if the province refuses.
“We’re petrified that all the gains of a year and a half will be lost,” said Councillor Kerry Jang, the Vision politician who oversees the homelessness file. “I’m just horrified that they might just let it go. For them to toss these 500 people back out on the street every night is mind-boggling.”
City manager Penny Ballem, in a note to council accompanying the count results, also writes that “the risk of moving backwards … is high. The resulting reduction in our well-documented statistics on crime reduction, disorderly behaviour, and health status will tarnish the reputation of Vancouver, our fragile economic recovery, and the experience of our city.”
Councillor Jang said the message to the province is simple: “We need some of those shelters to remain open.”
Housing Minister Rich Coleman said last month he was willing to keep three shelters in the Downtown Eastside open if the city would pay half the operating costs.
Mr. Jang said the city hasn’t got the revenue sources or the jurisdictional authority for housing. And it shouldn’t have to pay the bill for a homeless problem created by provincial policies, like making welfare harder to get or not building social housing for several years.
“We told them we can’t do that. ‘That’s your job. If you made poor choices in the past, that’s your problem.’”
But Mr. Jang said the city is prepared to throw in any land or buildings it has available and provide money to fix buildings up for interim housing. He said real-estate staff have identified enough properties for this purpose – housing one step up from shelters but not quite as spacious or with as many amenities as permanent quarters – for all 1,800 homeless people.
City councillors also voted to move forward with a plan to allow people to keep chickens in their backyards, a plan that city staff have suggested should include spending $20,000 for facilities to keep abandoned chickens.
That element of the staff report has generated both outrage and hilarity inside and outside city hall. It also prompted several people to appear at council wearing chicken costumes and signs asking for help for homeless people as well as homeless chickens.
The urban-chicken plan will now go to public hearings.
Special to The Globe and Mail
