If the opportunity presents itself when he visits the Vatican next week, Mayor Gregor Robertson says he will renew a request from a delegation of faith groups to personally invite Pope Francis to the Downtown Eastside in an effort to bring international attention to the city’s mental health, addictions and homelessness crises.
Robertson will be in Vatican City July 21-22 as a participant in a two-day workshop with the Pope in which climate change and “modern slavery” will be discussed among city and state leaders, including the mayors of Seattle and Portland and California governor Jerry Brown.
“If I have the opportunity, I’ll certainly be restating that invitation to come visit Vancouver and see our challenges with poverty firsthand, which is surprising for such an affluent city,” said Robertson on Monday. “We have our set of problems that have been tough to solve and he’s demonstrated his commitment to tackling poverty in all its forms.”
Robertson believes a visit from the Pope would draw “enormous attention” to poverty and its associated problems in the Downtown Eastside. Such a visit, he added, would signal the importance of the provincial and federal governments to commit to a second round of investments to continue the work of the now-defunct Vancouver Agreement, which saw all three levels of government spend money in an effort to improve life for residents.
“There’s been slow change in the neighbourhood and lots more people housed, but there’s a lot more work to do and it would be great to have that level of attention from the Pope to catalyze some change with the BC and Canadian government,” the mayor said.
