Mayor Gregor Robertson “disappointed” Vancouver not closer to ending street homelessness

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      Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson issued today (March 24) this statement:

      "This morning I took part in the City's annual homeless count. I'm proud that as a City we set an ambitious goal seven years ago to end street homelessness. While I'm disappointed today that we're not closer to zero than we are, we've made progress as a city. No one ever said it would be easy, but I know Vancouverites want and expect us to set important goals and take action.

      "The projects we've invested in have helped save lives, including over 500 units of permanent, interim, and shelter housing added in the last year alone. Interim housing at the Ramada on Hastings now provides warm homes for 40 people. Taylor Manor offers 56 people housing and mental health supports. The Holiday Inn on Howe Street is housing more than 100 people, many of whom were homeless in Oppenheimer Park last fall. The 14 sites in partnership with BC Housing are giving hundreds of people safe, permanent homes throughout Vancouver.

      "These are homes for some of our most vulnerable residents. People on welfare, foster kids, people who deal with addictions and mental illness who would otherwise be on the streets. I'm proud that we've enabled homes for them, and the successes we've seen are directly related to setting a bold goal and taking action."

      "I remain fully committed to building a Vancouver where no one is ever forced to sleep outside at night, both by continued work with our partners and by taking action with every resource at the City's disposal. We've come a long way since 2008, and we're going to keep following through on what we can do as a City: providing space for shelters, investing in interim housing, and providing land for social housing with the Province."

      Comments

      9 Comments

      Jon Q. Publik

      Mar 24, 2015 at 3:58pm

      I can't wait to trawl through the comments on this one. But seriously though this is all on Gregor, over promise and don't even come close to delivering. Why would you ever try and solve a problem that can't really be helped unless all levels of government are willing to cooperate.

      Orinoco Ninja Flow

      Mar 24, 2015 at 5:24pm

      I just saw one of those new hipster coffee shops in Chinatown/Pender get jacked by crackheads waving around knives. It's total chaos down here again, but can't 100% blame the mayor but instead blame the weather back east for the mass migration of every hobo and criminal from across Canada to here. During the homeless count do they ask where these people are from because I'm betting the answer will be Ontario.

      Mousanony

      Mar 24, 2015 at 6:19pm

      When he promised to end homelessness in two terms, he forgot to say, "read my lips!"

      Too bad he meant the other lips, 'cause he was talking out of his ass.

      Natty

      Mar 24, 2015 at 8:57pm

      Poor Gregor, I bet he really feels super bad and stuff.

      But then if he had made realistic promises, he probably never would have gotten elected.

      Arthur Vandelay

      Mar 25, 2015 at 4:44am

      Worst. Promise. Ever.

      wintermutt

      Mar 25, 2015 at 7:40am

      Gregor is crying crocodile tears while blaming other levels of government for not throwing enough money at the problem - as if more money were the only solution possible. He neglects to mention that it's his own policies, fueled by his developer paymasters desire to turn the whole city into expensive condos for wealthy offshore buyers, that is worsening the unaffordability and homelessness crisis.

      The City of Vancouver may not have the cash to build yet another homeless shelter but they certainly have the tools, in the form of zoning and development bylaws, to force the developers to include affordable units in all new developments. Instead they have raised the income threshold for "Social Housing " to nearly double the annual income of a person working full-time at a minimum wage job, while simultaneously providing massive (and profitable) density bonuses to developers. The proposed new Jubilee House demonstrates Gregor’s vision: the “low cost housing” units transferred from the old Jubilee House rented for an average of $436/month, while the new “social housing” units will rent for $1,142/month (source: City of Vancouver Administrative Report, February 6, 2014). These changes, which come courtesy of Gregor's policies, increase homelessness and reduce affordability in Vancouver.

      For his next trick Gregor wants us all to approve his pet Broadway subway, which will create stupendous profits for his corporate backers while bankrupting any possibility of a comprehensive overall transit network for the city. Think Vancouver is unaffordable now? You won't recognize it if Gregor gets his way. Gregor's city runs on Big Money, not compassion.

      Seriously?

      Mar 25, 2015 at 9:09am

      He is "proud" he made a promise that he failed to keep? That is pathetic. Visions entire "social justice" platform was a sop to useful idiots on the left who somehow missed out on Gregor's ties to developers. Vision has made more money for their developer friends than the most amoral NPA administrations in our city's history. The NPA faced protests and outrage for rezoning a few lots in Kerrisdale along with angry articles in The Straight about the evils of development yet Vision are changing zoning city wide with barely a mention. Here we are years after Gregor's promise and the city has changed markedly yet the homeless numbers remain roughly the same as when Gregor took office.

      Gregor likes to trumpet the number of people housed by the city in hotel space leased by the city but he is touting a model that was shown to be easily corruptible when used in other cities. Some of the properties are owned by numbered companies and at least one has a sole director who happens to be a Friend of Gregor and owner of a major development firm. The same individual owns a company subsidized by the city to buy "green" power from another company, also owned by the same individual, which was the beneficiary of a grant from one of FoG Joel Solomon's venture capital charities. The "solution" used by the city allows transfer of taxpayer funds into private hands at ridiculous cost and the spending of our money doesn't end there.

      The leased properties are then turned over to "non-profit" groups for operation, groups where executive salaries are often similar to private sector salaries and expenses add up very quickly. Did any of you bother to look into just how little PHS was spending on maintaining their properties as compared to executive remuneration and expenses like those incurred by Ms. Kwan & family. Ultimately the entire Vision program for dealing with homelessness is a shell game where the status quo is maintained while taxpayer funds go into private coffers.

      Juddc

      Mar 25, 2015 at 11:15am

      Did anyone actually buy that campaign promise? The dude from Happy Planet is going to solve a major city's complex homelessness problems where all others (including a former city coroner) failed?

      BigMac

      Mar 25, 2015 at 12:05pm

      Homes for all...paid for by those who actually work.