Metro Vancouver Homelessness Key Issues and Numbers - Social Housing Updates - North Shore Homeless Count - Affordable Housing on Its Way?

Downtown Eastside Vancouver Rainier Hotel Re-Opens for Women’s Social Housing

The complex offers homes and hope according to Kristen T. of MetroNews Vancouver. Forty one women who had been sleeping in alleys or shelters will now have a safe place to call home with the opening of the women’s housing social apartment complex in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Rainier Hotel was re-opened yesterday after a $9.5 million contribution from the provincial and federal governments and $5 million from Health Canada. The 41-unit, single room occupancy Rainier Hotel Vancouver downtown eastside building will have a 20 unit treatment program for women in recovery from detox and 21 units for social housing tenants. “In our community there is a lot to be sad about,” said Liz Evans, founder of the Portland Hotel Socity, which will be managing the third floor units at the downtown Eastside social housing Rainer Hotel in Vancouver. “This building represents homes and hope for the women in the Vancouver downtown eastside. This will have a great impact on the lives of the people here.” Heather Hay, with Vancouver Coastal Health said yesterday was a “benchmark day,” for the women of Downtown Eastside Vancouver and social housing. “Housing is often the first step in recovery, but it isn’t enough,” she said. “By offering a rnage of supports to vulnerable women after detox treatment, we are giving them the tools to become stable, regain control of their health and establish a foundation for ongoing recovery.” Expanding social housing has been a priority for the provincial government. The Rainier Hotel in Downtown Eastside Vancouver was one of six single room occupancy social housing hotels bought by the BC government last year to protect and expand affordable housing. To date, the province has acquired 23 hotels with 1350 units in Vancouver, mostly in the downtown Eastside for social housing and treatment facilities. Renovations are currently underway at 11 of the buildings.

Vancouver Social Housing Update - March 2009 - BC To Fund New Affordable Social Housing Sites

The provincial government of British Columbia has announced that it will fund and build six long awaited social housing sites in Vancouver, part of a year old pledge to fast track a dozen social housing projects on city-owned land. This is according to 24Hours Vancouver and written by Irwin L on March 18, 2009. The six new Vancouver social housing sites will be located at: 1338 Seymour Street (with 105 new social housing units in Vancouver Downtown), 1005 Station Street (with 80 new Vancouver social housing suites), 525 Abbott Street in Gastown with 108 units, 188 East 1st Avenue in East Vancouver with 129 new social housing units, 3212 Dunbar Street with 51 units and 339 West Pender Street with 96 new affordable housing suites. This move by the BC government came on Tuesday as advocates in the Downtown Vancouver Eastside accused the province on failing to deliver on their election promises. By kick starting $172 million in funding for affordable social housing in Vancouver, these will be an additional 569 units built in the next year. Five of the six Vancouver social housing sites are in downtown Eastside. This is only half of the promised Vancouver social housing projects that was promised back in 2007. If fully constructed, the dozen Vancouver social housing sites would see up to 1200 small studio units of housing for low income singles, with many catered towards hard to house clients with mental health and addiction service providers.

Metro Vancouver Homeless Tally Up 22 Per Cent

This according to 24Hrs Matt K: Metro Vancouver has 22 per cent more homeless today than it did three years ago. The Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness published the final results of its March 2008 Homeless Count. “We’ve approximately named the report ‘Still on our Streets…,’” said Val MacDonald, the chair of the Steering Committeee’s communications working group. “Without exception, all communities showed an increase in homelessness.” Volunteers tallied 2,660 homeless people during the 24 hour count, which is meant to provide a “snapshot” of Vancouver’s homeless situation. In 2005, volunteers reported 2,174 homeless people. This year’s homeless numbers are particularly staggering for the Aboriginal community. After a 34 per cent spike in their homeless population, Aboriginals now make up 32 per cent of all homeless people in Vancouver included in the count. “The findings of Aboriginal homelessness are some of the most disturbing,” said Ken Clement, the chair of Lu’ma Native Housing Society. “We can’t afford to look at Vancouver homelessness just as one piece of the problem. It’s a system issue. We need to act.” Both Clement and MacDonald challenged all levels of governments to step up with funding to meet the growing demand to house the Metro Vancouver homeless.

Numbers Show Homelessness Still Rising in Greater Vancouver

According to Andrea W of Metro Vancouver newspaper: The findings of last March’s homelessness count were released yesterday, confirming what is no surprise to Vancouver locals: homelessness is on the rise. The count, done by the Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee (RSCH), showed that there were at least 2,660 homeless people on the streets in Metro Vancouver during the 24 hours in which it was conducted. The total number of homeless people in Vancouver, however, is likely much higher. “Considering that 24 hour point in time counts inherently undercount the homeless, the numbers in the report tell us that the region is experiencing a continued growth in homelessness,” said Alice Sundberg, co-chair of the RSCH, in a statement. The report also found that Metro Vancouver homeless people in the region increased by an estimated 22 per cent since 2005 and 137 per cent since the first count in 2002. Street homelessness in Vancouver increased by 40 per cent since 2005 and by 373 per cent since 2002. Aboriginal people represented 32 per cent of all Vancouver homeless people surveyed, despite making up only two per cent of the Greater Vancouver region’s population.

North Shore Outlook- Homeless Count in Vancouver

The North Shore’s homeless population is now the fourth largest in Metro Vancouver real estate. According to the 2008 Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver the number of people living without shelter grew 40 per cent (to 113) since volunteers last conducted the 24 hour survey in 2005. Based on the number of homeless turned away at the North Shore Lookout Emergency Shelter, executive director Karen O’Shannacery knew this wasn’t a typo in the report. “The visible homeless is on the rise not just on the North Shore, but everywhere,” she said. “We’re not surprised by the drastic jump at all.” The overall number of homeless people in Metro Vancouver jumped by 22 per cent from 2005. The number of homeless on the North Shore ranks only behind Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey. If anything, O’Shannacery said the homeless numbers collected during the point-in-time count are underreported. The North Shore homeless shelter has limited capacity: 45 temporary beds and 25 traditional housing units. “There’s a number of people living on the streets [in North and West Vancouver] because they refuse to leave because this is where their comfort zone is,” she explained. Many are forced to live rough because of a dearth of shelter beds and – perhaps- more importantly – supported North Shore housing units. “Where is the affordable, supported housing?” she asks. Breaking the cycle of homelessness on the North Shore required permanent housing options with support services for those wishing to transition from life ont eh streets. At the moment, there’s only a “nominal” supply of supportive housing units on the North Shore, she added. Last year the provincial government announced more than $80 million in funding for approximately 1,000 supportive housing units in Vancouver, Victoria and Burnaby. O’Shannacery conceded that North and West Vancouver may suffer from the “attitude that the North Shore is wealthy and can meet their own needs,” and believes North Shore municipalities must increase pressure on federal and provincial governments to start an affordable housing supply program for the homeless on the North Shore. “The North Shore has even less affordable housing than Vancouver and other municipalities. [The temporary shelter] is the pathway to the solution – not the solution.” – The Outlook.

Government Parties Promise Housing

According to Carlito P for the Georgia Straight Real Estate section. When police started ticketing homeless people camped out in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park last summer, Kathy Walker and her neighbours decided to take action. They started going to the park early in the morning, when police started arriving, and they stood in solidarity with the campers. One evening, Walker, a resident of the Jackson Avenue housing cooperative on the east side of the park, camped out with her young daughters amid the homeless. At one time, walker said, she counted about 30 tents in the park. In mid-August, the campers were moved into hotels and housing units owned by the provincial government. Walker recalled that one woman told her she had been on a housing wait list for the past five years. Oppenheimer Park has returned to what it was prior to the camp-out. But according to Walker, there are always homeless people hanging out there. With the federal election campaign in full swing, Walker wants to hear politicians talk more about what their respective parties intend to do about homeless and housing the homeless. “It’s such a basic thing for human dignity,” Walker to the Straight by phone on September 22nd. “People need decent, safe place to live.” On Sept 16, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that if reelected, his government will give first time home buyers a tax credit of $5,000 of the closing costs of a house purchase. The next day, ministers Monte Solberg and John Baird rolled out a pledge that a new Conservative government will extend for five years three programs with funding of $1.9 billion. These are the Affordable Housing Initiative, the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program and the Homelessness Partnering Strategy. For their part, the federal Liberals have promised to tackle the Vancouver housing crisis by providing 30,000 new social housing gunits. They will also refurbish 30,000 existing units. The Liberal platform also includes expanding subsidies for low income people living in federally funded co-op housing in downtown Vancouver east side.

More about Social Housing Vancouver

Like the Conservatives, the Liberals pledged to renew the RRAP. They will also continue with the Homeless Partnering Initiative, a component of the HPS. If ever they get to form a government, the NDP has am ambitious program to implement. They will start a 10 year national housing program that will build 200,000 social housing and co-op units. They will also renovate 100,000 existing units. Rent supplements will be given to 40,000 low income tenants. An NDP government will underwrite low interest mortgages on affordable housing. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation will be redirected to fund social housing. The Greens are more modest. They have promised to build 20,000 social housing units and rehabilitate 10,000 existing units over the next 10 years. They will also provide credit and loan guararntees to nonprofit housing organizations and co-ops. The Greens will subsidize private real estate developers who include affordable housing in their housing projects. If politicians aren’t saying much about the housing and homelessness, voters themselves can put these issues front and centre. The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, a national organization representing nonprofit housing groups, has assembled a tool kit so that anyone can be a “housing champion” in his or her riding. The kit has a sample letter or email to candidates that explains why social housing in Canada has to be on the campaign agenda. It states that four million Canadians “live in housing they can’t afford, that is overcrowded or that is unhealthy or unsafe.” When the Striaght first talked with Walker on August 15, the day after campers were removed from Oppenheimer Park, she offered a smiple solution to help ease the problem of homelessness. “With all the energy and resources and time going to prepare for the Olympics, if we can divert some of the time and energy and money… we could get people off the streets and into decent social housing.”

Tents No Vancouver Housing Answer
According to the 24Hrs Vancouver newspaper: Vancouver’s less fortunate can no longer be shuffled out of sight, homeless advocates charged yesterday. Speaking outside of city hall, Streams of Justice organizer David Diewert cited a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that allows Vancouver homeless people to erect tents in parks and on public grounds in Victoria as a catalyst for a parallel action in Vancouver. “All this is really doing is brining into the visible landscape the true reality of desperation and homelessness that are in our cities,” Diewert said of the decision. Pivot Legal Society lawyer Laura Track said a case before Vancouver courts to strike down a similar vagrancy bylaw should yield the same result since the number of homeless people in Vancouver is more than double the number of available shelter beds. If city attorneys in Victoria had been able to provie there was sufficient shelter space, the judge would have faced a more difficult position, she said. Still, Diewert said tents are no solution, and called for the immediate opening of vacant Vancouver housing. Diewart is taking part in a seven day fast and vigil on city hall property to mark Homelessness Action Week. An article by Dharm M for 24 Hours.

Social Housing and Homelessness Activists take on Vancouver Housing Hurdles through the Eastside Vancouver Poverty Olympics

According to MetroNews Vancouver’s Jeff H., activists in the downtown Eastside Vancouver held a $6 Olympics yesterday in protest of the $6 billion Olympics in Vancouver-Whistler 2010 that wil take place in Vancouver in little more than a year from now. The Poverty Olympics, as they call themselves featured short skits of athletic events like Housing Hurdles, Wrestling for Community and Skating Around Poverty. Gena, who co-hosted the second annual event dressed as mascot Chewy the Rat, said she was representing all the people of downtown Eastside Vancouver “who have go nothing out of all the Olympic promises.” The Vancouver Eastside Poverty Olympics began with a torch relay and protest march through the Vancouver downtown eastside to the Japanese Language school on Alexander Street. The first event, Sweeping Aside Poverty (curling), featured poverty Olympians pitching rocks (painted milk jugs) across a carboard ice sheet covered with obstacles like bureaucratic red tape and paper clips. Meanwhils, their opponents, a slick looking team called Vanoc, had no such difficulty. They were able to sweep away obstacles with bailout brooms or cut thorugh them with help from their friends in the police and corporate media. The Vancouver Poverty Olympics has been a hot issue around town lately.

Downtown Vancouver Supportive Housing at Doug Story Apartments and Social Housing in the Downtown East Side (DTES) | Also Gentrification of Strathcona

Downtown Vancouver Housing Gets Boost at Doug Story Apartments

According to Kristen T. for the Metro Newspaper, forty four low income people whoa re homeless, at risk of homelessness or living in single room occupancy hotels have a clean, safe and affordable place to call home with the opening of the downtown Vancouver Doug Story Apartments. Yesterday was the official opening of the 45 unit social housing building at Richards and Robson Street, one of 12 city owned apartment sites being developed into social housing. Phyllis Alfredson, a resident of the Doug Story Apartment residences who spent two years on the street, said she feels she’s been given a chance to start over. “It’s like a whole new beginning,” she said. “You actually have a place of your own that you’re not embarrassed about, that you can bring people to.” You can believe in yourself for the first time, believe that things can change, that life can get better.” She said she’s physically and psychologically healthier, in part because the neighbourhood of the downtown Vancouver Doug Story apartment homes is safe and quiet. Pat Zanon, with Coast Mental Health said housing is fundamental to recovery from mental illness and addiction. “Without a home, such as the Doug Story apartments, it is absolutely impossible for people to move forward with their lives,” she said. The Building’s Namesake: The Vancouver Doug Story Apartments is named after a SRO resident who was a member of the Coast Resource Centre from 2001 until his death in 2006. Mayor Sam Sullivan attends the grand opening of the downtown Vancouver Doug Story apartments social housing project on Richards Street.

$1.5 Million Expected For Historic City Vancouver Neighbourhoods in the Great Beginnings Initiative

Great Beginnings – as quoted from the MetroNews Vancouver paper: Mayor Sam Sullivan will announce a $1.5 million investment today to revitalize four historic Vancouver neighbourhoods. The funding, part of the province’s $10 million Great Beginnings Initiative, will support projects like community gardens and graffiti removal in Gastown, Japantown, Chinatown and Strathcona in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. The plan and Great Beginnings Initiative includes a new neon sign at the restored Pennsylvania Hotel, a Japantown commemoration project and the expansion of street and lane cleaning to 40 blocks in the Downtown Vancouver Eastside. Mayor Sullivan is expected to mention start of the Great Beginnings Initiative during a conference on sustainability in Vancouver today.

Gentrification of Strathcona Vancouver Attracts Many Home Buyers

As one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods, Strathcona struggled to survive a proposed new renewal/demolition in the 1950s and is now, half a century later, emerging as an affordable sought after community. Published in 24 Hrs by S. Boyce. Here is where you’ll find the city’s largest concentration of character homes, some of its oldest stores and a vibrant gentrification that’s beginning to attract global attention. Strathcona’s exact boundaries tend to be somewhat flexible, according to who is defining them – some include Chinatown, others not; some say it’s the CNR rail yards that create the southern border, others insist it’s Great Northern Way. However, all agree Clark Drive and Hastings Street are the eastern and northern extremeties of Strathcona real estate. Few single family detached houses come on the market here. When they do, you can expect to pay a minimum of $600,000 for an older home with a typical tall, narrow profile of an early 1900s building. A surprising percentage of existing homes in Strathcona Vancouver have either undergone or are in the process of heritage renovation, and walking much of this area is akin to taking a step back in time. But change is in the air as Vancouver real estate developers eye properties offering affordability and proximity to downtown Vancouver. “As it becomes more and more difficult to find affordable opportunities downtown, people continue to look east,” says Chris Evans, executive vice president of Onni Group of Companies. “First Crosstown had a few projects, then came 33 Living, Woodwards, East, Ginger and Smart Gastown.” Onni, too, is catching the wave with V6A, a nine storey collection of condominiums located at Union Street between Main and Gore. Priced from the low $300,000s, Evans says he believes “V6A provides a unique opportunity for people to buy into a great neighbourhood at significantly less money per square foot than its neighbours to the west.” Earlier this year and around the corner at 718 Main Street (just north of Union) Ginger made a splashy entry into Strathcona with condos priced well under $400,000 and boasting an avante guard, international flair that included individual suite doors decorated with custom black and white photos of the surrounding streetscape. “So many other developments just go for safe, predictable designs,” says Mike Lefeaux, who purchased one of the first Ginger suites with his wife, Amanda Cafearo. “This really stands out – its’ different, very cool, just what we’ve been looking for. We lived in London for a while and Ginger has the same modular, Euro feel to it – it’s about time this style hit Vancouver.”

Supportive Housing Vancouver – In Your Backyard?

A significant majority of British Columbians would welcome housing for people with mental illnesses and addictions in their neighbourhoods, a new poll done for 24 Hrs suggests. More than 83 per cent of people surveyed by 24 hours pollster would say yes to supportive housing in their community. Just over 11 per cent of respondents to social housing in their community said they would be opposed. The results would appear to suggest that the very vocal opposition that inevitably emerges when new proposals for Vancouver supportive housing are pitched could be in the minority. Mark Smith, executive director of RainCity Housing, says the experience of trying to convince local residents of the need for social housing in Vancouver, for a 30 unit facility on Vancouver’s Fraser Street was “awful.” “At the public information session they were lined up and down the two aisles to yess at us,” Smith said in an interview. “I was threatened. It was wild. In my 30 years in this field, I’d never experienced anything like that.” But Smith said he was pleased to see the apparently positive results of the poll on Vancouver social housing in your backyard by 24 hours. Would you be happy to see a supportive housing Vancouver project open up next door to you?

“There’s always such a vocal minority of people that speak up that it feels like the entire community Is just overwhelming against it,” he said. “But I know that there were a lot of people that did support our social supportive housing project on Vancouver’s Fraser Street.” Turning Point Recovery Society Vancouver, another housing project provider, wasn’t so lucky. The group withdrew its application to open a 32 unit recovery house in Richmond BC after facing intense criticism of the project from residents. “We’re up against a very strong opposition,” said executive director fo Turning Point Recovery Society Vancouver, Brenda Plant, who decides what she calls some residents’ NIMBYism – Not in my backyard. “They think property values will decline, children won’t be safe, there will be increased drug activity and drug dealers. These things just simply aren’t true,” Plant said.

In Vancouver, supportive housing projects for mental illness and addictions are overwhelmingly skewed to the east. Excluding the downtown Vancouver social supportive housing projects, there are only three small facilities west of Main Street. Ultimately, supportive housing projects in Vancouver have become concentrated in the Downtown Eastside, even if residents come from all parts of the city. “Richmond is by no means exempt from addictions and mental health challenges,” said Turning Point’s Plant, noing that there are no similar facilities in Richmond for addicted women. Either way, RainCity’s Smith said he was still cautious about the poll results. “It’s easy to respond to a poll when it’s not actually happening,” he said. “How many of them are thinking I’d welcome [Vancouver supportive housing] in my neighbourhood- but not next door?” The poll surveyed 609 British Columbians and is considered representative of the general population within +/- four per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Vancouver Supportive Housing Poll by 24 Hrs

Poll asked… a significant number of homeless people also suffer from a mental illness and/or addition. It is generally acknowledged that there is not sufficient supportive housing in Vancouver for such people. Which statement is closest to your view: 83.7% - I would support a supportive housing project for people with mental illness or addition issues in my community. 11.4% - I would be opposed to a supportive housing project for people with mental illness or addition issues in my community. 4.9% - Don’t Know. Strategic Communications poll for 24 hours on if people support social Vancouver supportive housing in their communities.

Social Housing Facts in a Nutshell

1,720 – Vancouver Coastal Health has 1,72 supportive housing units in the communities across its regions catering to tenants with mental health and addiction issues
?? – Most are found in non-descript apartment buildings
900 – Fraser Health Authority has at least 900 units of Vancouver supportive housing in its communities
137G – Adults in B.C. meet the criteria for having severe addictions and/or mental illness
39G – Adults with addiction and/or mental illness in B.C. are ‘inadequately housed.”
$$ - The average street homeless adult with mental health and addiction issues costs the public at least $55,000 a year
2 Years – Vancouver Coastal Health says many tenants are ready to move on after stays of 18 to 24 months in alcohol and drug-free social housing.
$$ - Providing adequate Vancouver supportive housing reduces the cost by $37,000 a year.
7.741 – A government initiated review of SFU’s Centre for Applied Research in Medical Health and Addiction found there were 7,741 beds with adequate support available to adults with mental health and/or addiction issues in B.C.
Sources: Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health, Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health, City of Vancouver

Vancouver Downtown Eastside Seeks New Lease on Life

So, what does the Downtown Vancouver East Side district have in its future plans? This article published in the Georgia Straight and written by Matthew Burrows analyzes what is to become of the forgotten community in downtown Vancouver. From our standpoint, the Vancouver Downtown East Side (also known as the DTES) will provide great opportunities for business growth, affordable housing and rental suites and an ecletic and boutique retail district. Fresh from lunch on a balmy Saturday afternoon, Councillor Peter Ladner strolls westward from the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings and confronts Vancouver’s socioeconomic underbelly. Already on this short walkabout, the NPA’s mayoral hopeful and two term councilor has talked with VPD Sgt. Tim Henschel in an alley, where the officer had recovered a stolen city engineering truck. Flustered Chinatown Vancouver Downtown East Side (DTES) security guard Harold Johnson pulled Ladner aside a minute later to tell him drug users should “start rehab or serve time.” Back on East Hastings in DTES Vancouver, Ladner told the Georgia Straight the open drug use, dealing and general street activity evokes “extreme frustration.” “It shouldn’t happen here. We shouldn’t be putting up with it… I’ve seen the Herzog photos of this place back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The Smilin’ Buddha, wherever it was – I think right over here – was a great nightclub. It was a normal neighbourhood, and it has been destabilized by focusing all of the region’s problems in this one neighbourhood [Downtown East Side Vancouver]” On Thursday, July 24, Ladner and the rest of Vancouver city council will devote more time to the issue when the city planning and environment committee address two staff reports dealing with “economic revitalization and “commercial revitalization” of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside community.

The first report, for information purposes only, is a 14 page update on the Vancouver Agreement Economic Revitalization Plan and its “Downtown Eastside implementation”. According tot eh report, it builds on principles of a council revitalization strategy established in June 2000; to involve those already in the Vancouver Downtown East side in the renewal; to “reserve and enhance the sense of community” felt by residents there; to listen to those most affected; to improve the “liveability and safety” of the Downtown Eastside; and to develop and implement a well-understood plan that delivers results. The second document will ask council to report back to staff within a year on the effectiveness of current city policy, passed in May 2007, which created the Building Opportunities With Business Inner City Society (BOB). According to the report, BOB is an expansion of a $150,000 lease subsidy program established in March 2000 to help bring viable commercial storefront activity to Hastings Street, between Gore and Cambie Streets in the Downtown Vancouver East Side district. If council sees BOB as effective, the city will kick in $1 million over three years toward the revitalization.

Lawyer David Eby told the Georgia Straight he lives just off East Hastings in what he describes as a “unique neighbourhood”. Eby, who is seeking a council nomination with Vision Vancouver, said the first order of business must be improving housing conditions in the DTES or Downtown East Side of Vancouver “so that people don’t need to spend all their time on the streets because their rooms are infested with bedbugs or they’re scorching hot or freezing cold.” With people’s “personal space” established, Eby said, he would then address mental health and addiction issues, along with the homelessness that he said “plagues” the area. “Without dealing with that, no business is going to want to located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver,” Eby said, after noting: “Welfare rates are so low. People just don’t have the money to spend on traditional stores, so they buy three processed cheese slices at a time or one piece of fried chicken, or they use food depots…. There are a limited number of people that come from outside to the Downtown Eastside to do their shopping, with the exception of the annual Army & Navy shoe sale.”

City staff have used the phrase “revitalization without [population] displacement,” something Eby describes as “not only important, but absolutely essential” to the Vancouver Downtown East side community. Ladner said he too believed zero displacement was achievable. “All we have to do is ensure that we don’t lose downtown eastside social housing here, and we are not,” he said. “We are losing some, but we are replacing it too, and if you look at the numbers, generally speaking, it is being replaced.”

The Vancouver Downtown Eastside By The Numbers

Number of geographic areas the Vancouver City includes in the Downtown Eastside: 7 (Oppenheimer district, Industrial, Victory Square, Gastown, Chinatown, Thornton Park, and Strathcona). DTES residents interviewed as part of Carnegie Community Action Project visioning sessions: 300. DTES residents who filled out a CCAP questionnaire in March and April 2008: 655. Percentage of questionnaire respondents who would stay in DTES “if they had safe and secure housing”: 95. Units of DTES market housing to be built between 2005 and 2010: 1,597. Total number of units of DTES social housing for singles for same period: 557. Source: Nothing About Us Without Us, an upcoming CCAP housing report (release date: July 28): City of Vancouver housing centre.

What are the chances of the economy in the Downtown Eastside taking off?

Wendy Pederson, Organizer of the Carnegie Community Action Plan: “I think it very well could take off because of Woodward’s and if there is more condo developent that comes into the neighbourhood. I think we could see Gap stores and bigger places in the neighbourhood easily, unless there are some tools to manage change. We don’t see what those are. What is going to protect small business owners and the low income renter in the neighbourhood?” Jorge Mar, Chinatown Shop Owner: “Not in the near future. Because of the price of gas and the U.S. economy, especially in Chinatown here, we are dependent on tourists and that doesn’t help. The past three years have been going down [in terms of revenue]. Last year, really, we felt the effects of the U.S. economy. This year is the worst. I don’t think the city can do much, maybe some cosmetic stuff.” Bernie Magnan, Chief Economist, Vancouver Board of Trade: “There are businesses that are already there in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and doing ery well, thank you very much… What we need to do is help the people – and I’m not just talking about those who have a drug and/or a mental health addiction problem – but also the residents of the downtown Eastside and their children in making sure they get a proper education so they can succeed in life.” David Eby, seeking Vision Vancouver council nomination and DTES-Strathcona resident: “I guess that depends on what you mean by the Downtown Eastside economy. I mean, the Downtown Eastside economy is doing really well. But until we deal with the underlying issues of homelessness, drug addiction and mental health in the Downtown Eastside community, the Downtown Eastside mainstream economy will never take off.”