Mayor admits city has ‘more work to do’ on homeless front
Staff expect number of people living on streets to rise compared with 2017 count
When City of Vancouver volunteers arrived at the Union Gospel Mission overnight Tuesday for the annual homeless count, Mission staff had a larger-than-usual number to add to the total.
“Last night we had 98 and we had 15 turnaways,” UGM spokesman Jeremy Hunka said Wednesday of the Downtown Eastside temporary shelter for the homeless that is full to capacity at 72 souls.
During the colder months, UGM has been regularly putting out 20 mats in its drop-in centre in addition to the 72-bed sleeping quarters. On average for the first two months of this year, they’ve been filling up and then some.
“They (staff ) make space creatively,” he said. “They add a bed or two extra wherever they can.”
He said the night of the count was cold and rainy, which usually pushes up demand for cots.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who 10 years ago promised to eliminate homelessness but earlier this year conceded Vancouver’s indigent will always be with us, commented on the annual count at City Hall on Wednesday.
The results will be released in June, but city staff in a fall report forecast the number of homeless would likely be 2,200 this year, up from last year’s 2,138.
“We’ve got some more work to do,” said Robertson, who will not run in this fall’s election.
Last year’s count found 39 per cent of homeless were Indigenous, which Robertson said is a “massive over-representation.”
Indigenous residents make up less than two per cent of the general population, “so that’s a huge concern for us.”
He said homelessness is a problem across Metro Vancouver, where some cities during the last region-wide count saw their numbers of homeless more than double, although those cities have much smaller homeless numbers. He noted the greater Seattle area has 10,000 homeless, compared with Metro Vancouver’s 3,000.
Among the city’s fixes are plans for 300 more temporary modular units, including at the next approved site at Little Mountain off Main Street, and 1,000 additional social housing units by the end of the year, the mayor said.
Hunka is not surprised, as UGM has been hosting an average of 92 people a night in January, compared with 67 a night on average in January 2017.
“We’re full most nights, right to the max, and that’s extremely worrying to us that there are that many people without a home who immediately gobble up the beds we have,” he said. “It’s just really troubling.”
Bed-seekers are limited to a twoweek stay once a month at UGM because the beds are intended as emergency shelter — except in extenuating circumstances and for those in the alcohol/drug recovery program.
UGM considers anyone without a permanent residence homeless, as does the city in its count. But the city further identifies the homeless into “sheltered,” those in an emergency shelter, transition house, hospital, detox facility or jail. Those living on the street, including in tents, vehicles or abandoned buildings, or on a buddy’s couch, are identified as “unsheltered.”
Of last year’s total, 537 were unsheltered, compared with 811 ten years ago. But in 2011, that number was 154.
B.C.’s housing ministry has promised to spend $7 billion on affordable housing over the next 10 years, including 2,000 modular housing units, a spokeswoman said in an email.
The investment would include 114,000 affordable rental units, but B.C. has released no details.
Ottawa has pledged to spend $40 billion on its housing plan, but no details have been provided.
Robertson said he hoped the new mayor would continue to build more affordable housing.
NPA Coun. Hector Bremner, who is running for mayor, wasn’t available for comment.
Green Coun. Adrian Carr said her party will release its stance once all candidates are named and have had input on the party platform.
But she said the condition of “deplorable” single-room occupancy suites needs to be improved and more temporary modular housing built. And she said developers have to be provided tax breaks and other incentives to build affordable purpose-built rentals.