The housing problem

SUSAN J. KATZ

Imagine this: British Columbia's anticipated earthquake strikes and thousands of Vancouver's residents are suddenly left homeless. The government declares a state of emergency and rallies its resources to re-house the displaced homeowners. Some people suggest that housing crisis is here today: more than 2,600 people in Vancouver are homeless.

According to Laura Stannard, housing coordinator for Jewish Family Services Agency (JFSA), the people who are homeless are not all living on social assistance and roaming the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Homeless people include your friends and relatives whose employment doesn't help them make ends meet, she said.

The people who are susceptible to imminent homelessness are mid- to low-income families who cannot afford to buy into the condo market that took off in the 1980s and replaced most of the rental options.

"You can't believe how often they come in," said Stannard, "With the 0.3 per cent vacancy rate, all I can do to help is fill out forms and advocate to get on a waiting list. I can also ensure they keep safe and find rental assistance. I can't go on Craigslist for them; no landlord wants to talk to me about a tenant I'm describing. It's such a competitive market; I coach people on how to meet landlords, such as preparing for questions about their bank information, credit, etc."

"It's lucky that JFSA supports both individual and systemic advocacy; for those of us in advocacy, after the 11th time someone has come to them with the same crisis, it's time to look to change things at a higher level."

The housing crisis is also breaking up families. "The housing crisis here is squeezing people out of Vancouver, not just down in affluence." said Stannard. "Westside residents move to the eastside, prices go up there and eastside people shift to the Downtown Eastside and suburbs." Young families have to move away from their parents and familiar neighborhoods and relocate in distant suburbs and beyond.

Stannard believes the homelessness crisis began in 1992-93 when the federal government pulled out of its provincial social housing programs. "Social housing was now considered a provincial issue. Now housing [is] left to the open market – medical care is not an open market, yet shelter is just as essential. You can't be healthy when you're on the street."

Some argue that the selling off of public lands, such as Little Mountain, where 224 units will be for social housing and 18,000 units will be at market purchase, has fueled the imbalance.

"Then, in 1998, the federal government got out of the Canada Assistance Plan, which had stipulated that welfare had to be a universal affair in Canada. That, combined with more punitive provincial rules for accessing welfare, created a need for social housing. Not everyone at that time needed supportive housing, just a roof. Now, people have been on the street so long, they also need supportive housing."

Stannard, whose background includes advocacy, was hired by JFSA in 2007 to create solutions for the Jewish community and join with other communities. As a result, Stannard works not only with several local Jewish housing organizations, including Tikva Housing Society, Vancouver Yaffa Housing Society and the Royal Canadian Legion Shalom Branch #178, but represents JFSA as one of the founding members of Citywide Housing Coalition.

JFSA and several other groups partnered in the spring of 2007 and formed Citywide because they felt the housing promises made in the bid for the 2010 Olympics were not going to be kept. Since then, Citywide has held community meetings, press conferences, marches, a co-production of the Downtown Eastside opera Condemned, a letter-writing campaign requesting the federal government to restore a national housing program and other public awareness campaigns throughout the province.

On Saturday, April 4, 1:30 p.m., Citywide (citywidehousingcoalition.org) will hold the Grand March for Housing at the Vancouver Art Gallery, where Stannard will be one of two keynote speakers. Walks will begin from several starting points in Vancouver at noon.

Susan J. Katz is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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