Jack Layton's legacy of combatting homelessness lives on in Vancouver

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      Nearly two months ago, former NDP leader Jack Layton died after a battle with cancer. But his influence is still being felt in the streets of Vancouver, where his passion for addressing homelessness has influenced city council’s point man on the issue.

      Vision Vancouver’s Kerry Jang told the Georgia Straight in a recent phone interview that Layton helped frame his thinking about the issue. “He really trained a generation of us to look at homelessness as a health issue from the get-go—and taking the politics right out of it,” Jang said.

      The Vancouver civic politician spoke about this issue with Layton on numerous occasions. The NDP leader advised Jang, a UBC professor of psychiatry, to put himself in the homeless person’s shoes, and then ask: what would get me off the street? “He was very clear with me and others in saying we can tell them ‘Father knows best’ all you like, but that’s not necessarily going to work,” Jang revealed. “We still see this attitude with the province in some ways in their homeless action plans. We deliberately put ourselves in the feet of a homeless person.”

      Following Layton’s death, Penguin Canada reissued his book Homelessness: How to End the National Crisis, which was updated in 2008. Layton wrote the first edition while he was on Toronto city council, and dedicated it to a homeless man, Eugene Upper, who froze to death in his neighbourhood. Layton and his wife, Olivia Chow, were in the area on the night he died.

      “A shiver ran down my spine,” Layton wrote. “Is there anything more awful for a Canadian to imagine than freezing to death? How could this have happened in Toronto? Were there no shelters? Were there no emergency services for the homeless?”

      From there, Layton immersed himself in housing research, spoke to numerous community activists, and traced the history of policies that led to several homeless people’s deaths in Toronto. And then he travelled across the country talking to people like Jang proselytizing about fixing the problem.

      “I cried when he died,” Jang admitted, saying that Layton’s tutelage has energized him to keep focusing on the issue. Layton’s legacy can be seen in Vancouver city council’s decision to create three low-barrier, 365-day-a-year shelters, which accept people with dogs or shopping carts. Jang noted that people are permitted to stay in these facilities even if they’re drunk or high on drugs, as long as they behave.

      Over the past three years, Jang said the number of people sleeping in Vancouver’s streets has fallen from more than 800 to just 145. And he maintained that there are also fewer homeless people showing up in hospital-emergency rooms or committing homeless-related crimes, such as trespassing. “Once you’re inside the shelter, you get to be stable,” Jang said, “because they give you the health care and all that kind of stuff.”

      He suggested the next step is to ensure there is sufficient “workforce housing” to help them become more independent. He said the redevelopment of the American Hotel in the Downtown Eastside is one example, where some of the rents were kept at a lower rate to maintain affordability. He added that there are also about 80 units of interim housing at Dunsmuir House, which was done in partnership with B.C. Housing.

      Jang’s comments came during the sixth annual Homelessness Action Week, which continues across the region until Sunday (October 16). “We’re so close to ending homelessness in Vancouver,” he said. “It’s like I can taste it. We just have to make sure we get those last few off the street.”

      Comments

      7 Comments

      James G

      Oct 13, 2011 at 9:36am

      Well, the politics is being put right back into it. We are six months from an election and this puff piece interviews a total of one person regarding homelessness in Vancouver and he is a candidate for council.

      James G

      Oct 13, 2011 at 1:11pm

      oops ... six weeks of course, not six months.

      To be fair ... I admire Councilor Jang. He clearly has skills to offer the City and he would be far better compensated for his time in the private sector than he would be at City Hall. If we weren't still hamstrung with the at-large system, and he was running in my (not yet established) ward and not with Vision, I would consider voting for him.

      It was pretty easy for me to go to the downtown-east side and speak to outreach workers about homelessness. So, it is a puzzle to me why most observers continue to take Vision Vancouvers stats on faith.

      They work for the provincial and not municipal government and are facing cutbacks and difficulty. One man I spoke with told me essentially, given the provincial cutbacks, they feel beholden to the City for support. Even though the Vision Council numbers may be illusory, there has been some progress. That still is way ahead of the declining interest of Christy Clark's B.C. government. This might be as good as it gets!

      Of course, that is still far short of what was promised during the last municipal election and re-iterated on election night 2008 by the current mayor.

      insight

      Oct 13, 2011 at 6:47pm

      "Jang noted that people are permitted to stay in these facilities even if they’re drunk or high on drugs, as long as they behave."
      “Once you’re inside the shelter, you get to be stable,” Jang said, “because they give you the health care and all that kind of stuff.”
      -------------------
      It's good to know that if someone doesn't behave by stabbing someone else, they're no longer permitted to stay in the shelter. I don't think that once someone is inside the shelter and drunk or high, trespassing is the biggest priority in terms of safety for the other homeless people.

      I continually hear about a concern for safety for homeless women but I wonder what is being done specifically to address safety for homeless men in shelters?

      And how do they come up with the stats of how many homeless people are sleeping on the streets? I still see lots of homeless people around the city and it sure seems like more than 145.

      ronald

      Oct 14, 2011 at 8:49am

      “He really trained a generation of us to look at homelessness as a health issue from the get-go—and taking the politics right out of it,” Jang said."

      Spoken like a true politician, Kerry Jang.

      Mark Fornataro

      Oct 14, 2011 at 9:18am

      This sounds like a pretty successful initiative by council. To help the homeless really get on their feet once they are more or less stabilized in the temporary shelters, council should demand as a condition of licensing large businesses in the area, that they hire at least some of these struggling citizens.

      nachum

      Oct 14, 2011 at 11:59am

      I was struck by Councillor Jang's comment:

      <blockquote>“He really trained a generation of us to look at homelessness as a health issue from the get-go—and taking the politics right out of it,” </blockquote>

      For me Jang's comment really speaks to the "true leadership" that Jack Layton showed by <strong>"mentoring"</strong> the next wave of new leaders across Canada.

      Doubting Thomas

      Oct 14, 2011 at 12:21pm

      I'm neither for nor against Vision Vancouver, but a keen observer will notice that Vision Vancouver is certainly for Development with a capital D. There are good and bad sides to that coin, but one hot-button word that can be used here is gentrification. It is not sufficient to simply move the problem from one municipality to the next and claim victory over homelessness in Vancouver. These statistics do not appear to have a great deal of depth to them, and I would not use them as basis for judging Vancouver's progress towards the stated goal.