■ NOT JUST AN URBAN ISSUE:
Rural communities struggling with an old inner-city issue
Metro Vancouver mayors say homelessness in the region has reached crisis proportions, and the situation may be even more dire in the suburbs and rural areas than in Vancouver.
The latest numbers show the unsheltered homeless population in Metro Vancouver jumped 26 per cent every year since 2011, and about five people become homeless every week. Today, roughly 4,000 people in the region are in immediate need of housing, the report said.
These sobering numbers were released Monday at a press conference announcing the recommendations of Metro Vancouver’s homeless task force.
Metro Vancouver mayors blamed the growing problem on the provincial government under premier Christy Clark, saying Victoria has not supported municipalities with either a comprehensive plan or funding resources for local initiatives.
“We were very successful for three years in bringing the street homeless population down from over 800 to under 150,” said Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, who co-chairs the task force and first ran for election in 2008. “In 2011, things turned and Christy Clark became the premier of B.C. There was no commitment to solving homelessness here in the province.”
Rich Coleman, B.C.’s minister responsible for housing, disagreed with the Metro Vancouver claims, saying the province is in the midst of the “largest investment commitment in history” to affordable social housing in B.C.
“We’re always doing more,” Coleman said. “We’re in the market now with another $900 million for affordability, buying buildings, approving more buildings elsewhere. And not all the mayors agree on this one — I’ve heard from a number of mayors that are disappointed in the report today because they are saying, ‘ Not us. We’re quite happy with the relationship with the province.’ ”
Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read, who co-chairs the task force with Robertson, said the problem in Metro Vancouver’s outlying communities rivals that of Vancouver’s urban core. The report said of the 15 homeless encampments housing more than four people in Metro Vancouver, a significant number (two in Maple Ridge, two or three in Langley township and two in Delta) are in less densely urbanized communities.
Read said she has had conversations with municipal leaders in the Fraser Valley, and they have seen a rise in similar struggles.
“We know that we’ve had a challenge in Vancouver. We are seeing an increasing struggle in all of the suburbs, and the suburbs are less equipped to be able to respond to the crisis we’re dealing with in our cities,” she said, adding that smaller towns have more limited taxpayer bases to draw from. “I see it every day, where local officials and local staff are trying to … divert resources from critical local programming to actually deal with crisis on their streets.”
Monday’s 12 recommendations include plans to serve the needs of the current homeless population (with an increase to the shelter component of income assistance) to initiatives to prevent people from becoming homeless (such as expanding home care for mentally ill patients and boosting the affordable rental housing supply).
According to the rental industry’s Goodman Report, Metro Vancouver’s average monthly rent rose 19.1 per cent from 2011 ($1,027) to last year ($1,223). The vacancy rate fell from 1.4 per cent to 0.7 per cent during the same period. Meanwhile, the shelter component of income assistance — at $375 — has not risen in nine years.
But Mark Goodman, one of the publishers of the report, said municipalities are not free from blame. In last June’s report, Goodman wrote that many municipalities have not granted concessions to developers wanting to build new rental housing, making it financially infeasible to create new stock that would reduce homeless rates in Metro Vancouver.
“Perhaps with the sole exception of Burnaby, municipalities in Greater Vancouver abhor eliminating, demolishing or replacing existing rentals, no matter how inefficient, aging or low in density,” Goodman wrote. “Instead, it’s easier to kick the ball down the road to tomorrow’s politicians. … If they stepped out of the way and let the free market do its job, it would solve the problem.”
Brendan Degan, who lives in a camp at the edge of Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park, said he has lived in tents on and off for five years, and that many in his situation actually prefer camping, since the quality of some social housing options is poor. “I don’t think it should be OK to live where there’s infestations of roaches or bedbugs,” Degan said, adding he thinks officials should allow the homeless to live in abandoned houses. “There’s black mould, asbestos, all of that. You go check these places out, it’s horrid, man … being outside, being able to breathe, I’d rather do that.”
Regardless of blame, Read said it is imperative that officials get people off the streets as soon as possible. The longer a person remains homeless, the more unlikely it is he or she can be re-integrated into the housing market, she said.
“Over time, losing housing creates a cycle of shame in our homeless population,” Read said. “We end up with people who are afraid to even go into housing, who would prefer to live in a tent on a street or in a bush than try again, and that is deplorable. We are Canadians. We can do better.”
We are seeing an increasing struggle in all of the suburbs, and the suburbs are less equipped to be able to respond to the crisis.