Homeless population skyrockets
Vancouver now has the largest homeless population since the city began counting the number of people living on the street and in shelters.
A city report released Tuesday revealed 1,847 people were recorded as homeless when city staff, politicians and volunteers conducted a count over two days in March.
The total surpasses the previous high of 1,803 people counted in 2014. The city has led or participated in homeless counts in Vancouver and the region since 2005.
“They are sobering numbers,” said Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs after hearing city staff’s presentation at city hall on the 2016 homeless count.
Of the 1,847 counted, 539 were recorded as living on the street and 1,308 in some form of shelter. Last year, 488 people were on the street and 1,258 in shelters.
The increase in homelessness has come despite the provincial government opening 13 supportive housing buildings in recent years and the city securing four former hotels to house more than 400 people at risk of homelessness.
The unpredictable marker in each count is the number of new homeless, with 61 per cent (about 1,127 people) telling volunteers this year they had been homeless for less than one year.
While the Vision-led administration of Mayor Gregor Robertson has repeatedly lobbied senior governments for more housing, this year the Vision team has shifted the focus to the provincial government needing to do more to address the main drivers of homelessness.
Those drivers include poverty, lack of treatment for addiction and mental health, low welfare and disability rates, young people aging out of foster care at an early age and high rents.
“You can build a lot of housing but until you turn off that tap, homelessness will exist and it’s showing up all over the province,” Vision Coun. Kerry Jang told reporters.
–Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier
Province announces more money for transit
Despite commitments made by three levels of government, Metro Vancouver’s painful, drawn-out transit funding deadlock isn’t over.
Last week Peter Fassbender, the minister responsible for TransLink, announced the province would spend $246 million over three years for transit improvements in Metro Vancouver.
Fassbender maintained the funding was an increase of $130 million over the one-third funding the province had previously committed, because the money announced today was for bus, Seabus and Skytrain expansions. Fassbender said the province had previously only committed to pay for one-third of the cost of major capital projects: light rail systems for Surrey and along Vancouver’s Broadway Corridor.
But Metro Vancouver mayors say that commitment still comes up short because the province has only agreed to fund the first three years of a comprehensive 10-year, $7.5 billion plan drafted by the mayors in 2015.
“The phase one funding will put into play some of the elements of the plan,” said Linda Hepner, mayor of Surrey. “What it doesn’t put into play is the elements of preparation for the advancement of those other dollars.
–Jen St. Denis, Business in Vancouver
