Metro Votes: Tent cities shine light on Vancouver’s homelessness. The tale of two tent cities has put the spotlight back on homelessness ahead of this year’s municipal elections. Despite concerted efforts from cities and the provincial government recently to stem a crisis that peaked in the mid-2000s, homelessness continues to highlight the region’s failure to address issues of poverty, affordable housing, mental health and addiction. Homeless camps in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park, where campers have protested the lack of affordable housing, and Abbotsford’s Jubilee Park, where the homeless have been embroiled in a battle with the city over their right to shelter, have put the problem into laser focus. “What you’re hearing here is not just a housing issue, but a human issue,” said DJ Larkin, the Pivot Legal Society lawyer who has represented both camps against legal challenges in each respective municipality. “We see camps like the ones that are happening in Abbotsford and here in Vancouver because our federal government has failed us. We have no national housing plan. The provincial government has been created less social housing since the 90s … and the resources that they are now throwing at people is just barely enough to start get the ball rolling again.” “The answer isn’t to make them go somewhere where we can’t see them,” she said. “Honestly, you’re going to see tent cities all across this country until the national and provincial governments do something. This has less to do with litigation and more to do with solutions.” In granting an injunction against the Oppenheimer camp Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Madame Justice Jennifer Duncan sympathized with those in the camp, saying their stories informed her decision to give the tent city a week to close, in the hope the City of Vancouver could find adequate housing for the people there. Earlier in the hearings, she expressed being “gob smacked” by the apparent disconnect between funding and the lack of coordination between service providers and government to find campers suitable housing. Visions’ rival parties aren’t impressed. “In 2008, Gregor Robertson promised to end homelessness. After six years of corporate tax breaks, luxury condo development, and renovictions, homelessness is at its highest level in recorded history,” argues an Oct. 8 statement from the Coalition of Progressive Electors. metronews.ca/news/vancouver/1179954/metro-votes-tent-cities-shine-light-on-homelessness/
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 07:06:40 +0000
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