Drastic action eyed to combat homelessness
FEES: Increase considered for SRAs
Street homelessness in Vancouver has gone down by 10 per cent since last year and Vancouver council is considering more steps to improve the situation, but Mayor Gregor Robertson’s promise to house everyone in the city remains just a dream.
Among the moves being considered by council is bumping the fee for removing a room from single-residency accommodation (SRA) from $15,000 to a staggering $125,000 per room.
Robertson campaigned in 2008 on a promise to end homelessness by the spring of 2015, but conceded earlier this year the city was unable to meet that target.
“The City has done everything in our power to make a difference and will continue to do so,” Robertson in said a release Tuesday.
“Despite the progress we have made in adding new units of permanent and interim housing and shelter beds, without further senior government support we can only do so much.”
Information from the 2015 Report on Homelessness showed 488 homeless people remain unsheltered, a decline in street homelessness of 10 per cent.
But those people remained out on the street despite the opening of 615 net new permanent and interim/supportive housing units over the last year that housed 458 street/sheltered homeless.
The March 24 homeless count showed a total of 1,746 homeless people in Vancouver, with 1,258 sheltered and the remaining 488 street homeless. In 2014 there were 1,803 homeless people, with 1,267 sheltered and 536 street homeless.
About 50 per cent of the homeless had been in that category for less than a year.
To try to improve the situation, council is considering changes to bylaws around single-room accommodation hotels and will listen to speakers on the topic July 22.
SRAs often provide shelter as a last resort for people in vulnerable situations, but they’re also the target of developers, which is why there is consideration of hefty new conversion fees.
Also being contemplated are such steps as requiring a landlord to allow a tenant to return to a renovated room while paying the same rent as before and developing a grant/ loan to support the improvement of private single-resident occupancy facilities.