|
1) Survey on
keeping Howe St. shelter open
2) On the Howe
St. shelter
3) Ex-US homelessness
czar says housing less costly than homelessness
1111111111111111111111111111111
The City is
doing an online survey to help it determine if it can keep the Howe Street
shelter open. The link is found
at:
https://www.surveymk.com/s.aspx?sm=Czhf4yEblLlZcNYxb8Pc0g_3d_3d
Please take the survey (it doesn’t matter where you live) no
later than Wed. July 23. Help keep
the shelter open!
22222222222222222222222222222
Community to
discuss homeless shelter at meetings
City responds to West End residents' complaints of activities around facility
BY DARAH HANSEN, VANCOUVER SUN, JULY 15, 2009
The city will hold a series of community consultations in an effort to assuage
concerns about a homeless shelter operating in the West End.
Residents complain that the low-barrier Homeless Emergency Action Team shelter
at 1442 Howe St. has attracted a number of drug dealers, addicts and
prostitutes to the trendy downtown neighbourhood.
They say public urination and defecation, public sex and open drug use have
become common in the back lane behind the facility.
"No one should have to live with that," said John Roberts, a resident
of False Creek north who opposes the shelter's location.
Public protest forced the closure of a similar 36-bed shelter on Granville
Street last month.
The Howe Street shelter, meanwhile, has been placed on probation until the end
of July as the city attempts to engage area residents in ways to keep it
operating.
"We'd like to hear what people's concerns are and ... what they think are
the solutions," said Jill Davidson, Vancouver's assistant director of
housing.
Roberts, though, said the city's current offer to reach out comes too late for
many in the area who feel their interests have been too long ignored.
"We've lost trust in the city and the way they have approached things. I'm
not sure if anything could happen short of closing it and moving it
elsewhere," he said.
Shelter manager Aaron Munro said he remains hopeful the Howe Street facility
will find a way to keep its doors open, despite neighbourhood opposition.
Munro nixed allegations that homeless people from other areas of the city had
been bused in to fill the space, saying demand for shelter in the area is high,
especially among the city's street youth.
"The Downtown Eastside just isn't safe for them," he said.
Munro said the shelter currently serves as a temporary home to about 40 people
every night. Two-thirds of the shelter's users are under the age of 30, he
added.
The city also continues to work to find space for those displaced by the
Granville shelter closure. Neighbours say that has only added to the problems,
with many homeless camping out in the alley behind the Howe Street shelter.
dahansen@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
'They don't
understand how hard it is'
Neighbours claim shelter has attracted drug dealers to their upscale
neighbourhood
BY DARAH HANSEN, VANCOUVER SUN, JULY 17, 2009
Nine o'clock on a sunny weekday morning and the business of the day is already
well underway at the Howe Street homeless shelter, tucked under the Granville
Street bridge.
Most of the 40 men and women who only hours earlier were sprawled out on blue
plastic mats across the linoleum floor, have long since vanished into the city
streets.
Only three people -- and a mop-headed little black-and-brown dog -- remain
inside the rough but clean facility. They miraculously cling on to sleep even
as brooms and mops whisk around their prone bodies.
The scene is only slightly livelier out back, where three tattooed young men
and one woman sit quietly on camping chairs, leaning into the shade of the
doorway.
A woman, her eyes firmly closed, lies stretched out in the sunshine on a pile
of her belongings.
Shelter manager Aaron Munro is quick to point out the woman has only just set
up the outdoor bed after spending the night inside. No one is camping out in
the alleyway, he tells a reporter.
It's a point he emphasizes, twice.
Media relations like this have become something of a necessity for the shelter
lately. Since its hasty opening in February following a particularly long and
bitter winter, the low-barrier Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) facility
has provoked strong reactions of anger and frustration among its neighbours in
the surrounding condominium towers of False Creek North.
Residents complain that the shelter has attracted drug dealers, addicts and
prostitutes to their upscale West End neighbourhood. Fights, public urination
and defecation, public sex, and open drug use have only added to the worries.
"Used syringes, needles and condoms continue to be found. Public areas and
ground-level balconies of the nearby seniors' residence are being used as
toilets," residents who oppose the shelter wrote in a recent e-mail sent
to news outlets.
A 36-bed shelter nearby on Granville Street was shut down after Housing
Minister Rich Coleman withdrew provincial funding last month due to public
discontent.
Now staff and users at the Howe Street facility fear the same fate after
Coleman put the shelter -- and its landlord, the City of Vancouver -- on notice
to clean up its act before the end of July and prove it can operate in harmony
with the neighbourhood.
"We've obviously had an experience here that hasn't worked well for the
neighbourhood or the city," Coleman said in an interview Thursday.
City officials have responded by scrambling to put together a series of
community consultations in advance of the end-of-the-month deadline. Late
Thursday, staff announced they expected to begin meeting with residents,
businesses and service providers as early as this weekend.
"We're looking for the full range of opinions on this. Homelessness is a
difficult issue to solve here in Vancouver and we really need to hear as many
opinions and solutions as possible," said Jill Davidson, Vancouver's
assistant director of housing.
Residents can also fill out an online survey linked to the city's website at
www.vancouver.ca.
Coleman said he doesn't expect a "formal report" from the city, but
is interested to know what citizens are thinking.
The facility will be shut down "if we can't address the concerns of this
particular community," he said.
Munro says the threat of closure is devastating to shelter users, many of whom
had spent years on the street before "finally finding a place to call
home."
To that end, he says everyone is working hard to convince wary neighbours the
shelter is a positive addition to the area, or, at the very least, an
unobtrusive one.
Already changes are underway to address some of the most critical concerns.
As of Tuesday this week, the facility is staying open 24 hours a day to provide
a toilet, shower, or place to nap to those in need. Prior to the change,
shelter users had no official access to the facilities between 10 a.m. and 6
p.m.
Police have beefed up patrols to the area and, according to Munro, the shelter
users themselves have taken up daily "needle sweeps" of the
neighbourhood.
Inside, users are asked to abide by a simple set of rules: No violence, sex,
drug abuse or weapons are allowed. The shelter requires a staff member to
remain in the alley throughout the night in order to curb illegal behaviour or
excessive noise.
"You can't have 40 people in a room without rules," Munro said in
response to allegations that shelter staff appear to have little control over
clients.
Meanwhile, shelter users say they don't understand what all the fuss is about.
"Drugs in the alleyway, that has been going on for 15 to 20 years. It's
just now they [city residents] are paying attention to it," said Dave
Ryckman, 29.
Still, Ryckman added, "Nobody deliberately goes out of their way to make a
condo owner unhappy, but we get blamed for everything."
From his perch in the shelter doorway, 30-year-old Rob Reid says he hopes the
public will change its mind and allow the shelter to stay in operation.
"They don't understand how hard it is living on the streets," he
said.
dahansen@vancouversun.com
Comment on this story at vancouversun.com/unews
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Local
meetings to decide shelter's fate
Vancouver mayor to consult with neighbours, business owners
Anupreet Sandhu Bhamra
Vancouver — From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 17, 2009 02:29AM EDT
Consultations with residents and business owners over a controversial shelter
in their Vancouver neighbourhood will determine if it'll stay open past its
trial period, provincial Housing Minister Rich Coleman said.
“If I am not satisfied that the concerns of the residents have been addressed,
I wouldn't continue to fund [the shelters],” he said in an interview about the
facility under the Granville Bridge.
“We want to keep it open,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson Thursday morning. Mr.
Robertson is making last efforts to maintain the emergency shelter on Howe
Street, which is halfway into its 30-day trial that ends on July 31. On Sunday,
he will be meeting local residents around the Howe Street shelter, who have
complained of drug problems, crime and unacceptable social behaviour outside
the shelter.
The city also launched a web survey Thursday to get more feedback on the
problem.
B.C. shut down another emergency shelter that was across a back alley on
Granville Street on June 30 after neighbours complained of increased crime and
drug activity. These two shelters, along with three others, were opened by the
mayor's Homeless Emergency Action Team as interim solutions to get people off
the streets during cold weather.
The provincial money for running these emergency shelters ran out on June 30.
The province agreed to extend funding for the other three emergency shelters
until April of next year, and gave the city 30 days to resolve neighbours'
concerns about the Howe Street shelter.
“We can't let these people go back on the street,” said Mr. Robertson, who will
try to work out an agreement with the neighbours. At 38 beds, the shelter is
operating at capacity.
Mr. Robertson campaigned on a promise to end homelessness in the city by 2015.
The mayor said he plans to draw on U.S. models to achieve his goal. One example
of this is the so-called Homeless Connect Project – a dedicated day in parts of
the U.S. where homeless people get together and connect with people in the community
that can help them.
“This is something we can boost in Vancouver,” said Mr. Robertson.
Meanwhile, construction will soon begin on at least a couple of the 12 new
social housing projects that the city and province have agreed to build.
“We should see shovels in the ground in the next number of weeks on the first
couple of projects,” said Mr. Robertson.
33333333333333333333333333333333
We all know this
already, including the City. Maybe
it should be brought to the attention of Gordon Campbell and Stephen Harper
(again).—RA
Housing is
cheaper, says ex-U.S. czar
By IRWIN LOY, 24 HOURS, July 17, 2009
The only thing more expensive than housing the homeless is leaving them on the
street, according to a former U.S. homeless czar.
Philip Mangano, former executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness, has been credited with overseeing what appears to have been a
dramatic drop in homeless numbers in several U.S. cities.
Civic leaders gathered yesterday to hear his thoughts on Vancouver, a city, he
says, with significant but not insurmountable challenges.
"Obviously the [Downtown] Eastside is ground zero for homelessness in
Canada and I think it needs special attention," Mangano told reporters
after meeting with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson yesterday.
"But it's not attention that's beyond what the innovative ideas out there
have been able to accomplish."
Mangano, who was appointed to his former post by former U.S. President George
Bush, said he visited the emergency room at St. Paul's Hospital yesterday
evening.
With an average of 75 homeless people in ER at $1,000 per visit, he said the
cost just to keep someone on the street is high.
"We're spending more money to maintain people on the streets than it would
cost to end their homelessness by providing them with a place to live and the
services that support them," he said.
| 
