I’ve been thinking, lately, about Vancouver’s homeless problem. Having lived in Europe for a couple of years, and having visited many cities throughout the Continent, I was struck by how few homeless people they had. When I returned to Vancouver, I was really surprised by the number of apparent homeless I saw in Vancouver. I was recently talking to a Texan who had moved to our fair city, and she said the biggest difference was how many people there were on the street. In Texas, she said, they just threw them in prison. Efficient, but neither practical or humane.
This article blames the dot-com crash and increased drug use for homelessness. The dot-com crash? If you were employed during the dot-com boom, them presumably you’ve got some employable skills. Regardless, I’m confounded by why our city in particular has such a problem. I suppose it’s the warm weather and traditionally leftwing governments.
Personally, I don’t know what to think. I figure that homeless people fit on a scale, with able-bodied, mentally-sound people on one end and the addicted, the mentally ill and the aged on the other. In truth, I’ve got no time for the one end and compassion for the other. I’m no urban planner, or sociologist, or homeless advocate, so I don’t really have solutions to propose. However, it’s clear to me that the two types of people I’ve described should be treated in radically different ways.
Obviously, this is an issue that needs to be resolved. Like them or not, the Olympics provide a good motivation for making changes. The international media will eat this issue up if there are as many street people kicking around the city as there are today.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
This reminds me of something that happened to me yesterday… waiting in the left hand turn lane on Terminal Ave. to go onto Main St., an apparently homeless woman was wandering down the street beside my row of cars, asking each driver for change. Before she got to my window, but right in front of my vehicle, she whipped down her pants and fully mooned all the cars in front of me. It was REALLY hard not to laugh in front of her.
Anyhow, if you’re interested in the homeless issue, check out some of the debates in City Council lately. They’re dealing with a new bylaw regarding single-room occupancies, which are usually the last stop before total homelessness for people on welfare. Based on some of the stats I’ve seen, the homelessness problem will only be increasing as long as welfare payments continue to be frozen or decreased, because landlords of SROs won’t be decreasing or freezing the rent. This forces more and more people into the streets (or parks, recently).
Er … Have you been to London recently ?
Part of why we have such a high homeless population here is the climate. That doesn’t explain the comparison to Europe, but I know that many homeless people from across Canada (especially in the winter) come here because they aren’t likely to freeze to death. Can’t say the same for, say, Toronto or Winnepeg.
Victoria, too, has an extremely high homeless population for the same reason.
A disused industrial site at Green Square will become Sydney’s first legal squat, where students will live for a token sum pending redevelopment of the site. Six art students and four architecture students are due to move into the dilapidated Waverley-Woollahra incinerator within the next three weeks pending approval from South Sydney Council. The project already has tentative support from the property’s owners, Waverley Council and Woollahra Council
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/06/1065292527665.html
It’s one possible solution, but not for everyone. The not so legal squat off Broadway in Sydney used to be a great place, definitely preferable to the hideous yuppie containment chamber it got bulldozed to build
I am a foot messanger in the downtown core of Vancouver. I have been walking amongst the homeless citizens of Van. for almost three years. I have come to know many individuals who are asking for change, squeeging windows of cars…and yes I have seen that woman on Terminal who walks between cars to beg for change.
Not all our homeless are people who are strung out on drugs, looking for their next fix. Many of them are our elderly and ill citizens. If you take a close look, you will see many people in wheelchairs. Ever stop and talk to any of them? I have personal relationships with some of these people. Many of them are clean and free of illegal drugs. I know of a man who is having numberous surgeries with neurological problems. I know of another man with Colits, one with Cerebral Palsy, and others with missing limbs, for whatever reason. They are on the street because we haven’t looked after our sick and elderly. Our hospitals are closing and the budget is being slashed. Where are these sick individuals going to go for help? Health care is not in a good state. We don’t have enough resources to treat our ill. Our gov’t is making it more difficult to be on the welfare system, limiting it to two years. Who is going to help them? They are just happy IF they can get enough money to pay for an $8.00 – $12.00 bed in a hostile for the night.
Vancouver also has many individuals from our First Nations population whom we have treated disrespectfully since the beginning. They are the result of our govt’ interfering and keeping the natives in turmoil by forcing them to integrate and assimulate into our society. Giving up their rights and land.
We have people on the street for many reasons, so many I can’t get into them all. However way they became homeless we need to regard them as people and come to viable solution, for if we push them out of one area, they will only move on to the next. That is no solution. They need help, bottom line.
My question is this: for Atlanta ’96, the City and State rounded up the city’s drug addicts and homeless and shipped them off to other cities. i know of many drug addicts/homeless were in Calgary who were given the same choice when Vancouver had previously tried using this way of ‘dealing’ with its problem: Kelowna or Calgary, decide right now. The reason that you never heard anything on the news was because no one cares about the homeless or the addicted, it is ‘just make the city look pretty for the tourists.’ Actress Tracy Lords (when Millenium was filming in Vancouver said about what she saw day after day, “I thought LA was bad, but Vancouver is ten times worse (for addicts and homeless).’
I used to live in Calgary, AB. They are inundated with homeless. As a former homeless man who was evicted (for having one complaint too many), i spent three months in the Calgary Drop In Shelter, i sat and took in most of the conversations and this is what i learned: that 40% do not need to be there…they were employees of the City, of Enmax, but were addicted to drugs and booze to the point that they were unrentable. There are 15-16 yr olds using it as a result of having no where else to go. The remaining ‘castaways’ are either unemployed, looking for a ‘free’ ride, wanted by the Police, natives, hard core drug addicts, alcoholics, and the mentally challenged and handicapped; plus, if you come in with a virus (flu, cold, whatever), it will make its rounds inside of three days. These denizens do not wash their hands, do not cover their mouths after coughing, etc….i was thoroughly disgusted and spent time in Glenmore Park under the bushes…..and i have had three strokes, too. Try and do THAT when you feel that there is no where else to go.
wow….
amaziing…..>
Last night I was out in Coquitlam and was approached by a young man begging for money. At first I said no but then I asked him what he needed this for. He replied that he needed 20.00 to get into a hostel/shelter. I asked him old he was to which he replied that he was 16 years old. I offered him the heat of my car and although he was very nervous he did get in and I warmed him up for a little while. He told me that his Mom and Dad were drug users and he had no family that were interested in helping him out. I offered to drive him to the shelter because I wanted to make sure he had a warm place to sleep but he was waiting for a guy to bring him osme clothes and he didn’t wnat to miss this person. So right or wrong I gave him the 20 and left. But before I left he kept hugging me and telling me that he loved me.
How can this happen in a place like Vancouver. How incredibly sad that his parents chose drugs over their son. And what prospects does this child have? And here I am staying with my friend after leaving my partner. I have a warm bed, food and tv. Something is very wrong here.
I have only been in Vancouver for a month and a half now and well within an hour of arriving in this great city (oh it is great by the way) I found myself asking the question how can Canada, Vancouver more specifically, a place continually ranked in the top ten for places to live have an issue like this on its doorstep.
It saddens me deeply to know that I am going home to a warm bed and hearty meal at the end of the day. I have no qualms at giving to these people, however all I am told is don’t give money to them they are all addicts….what even the old woman I see every week on the corner of robson street or the 70 year old man who tries his best to look smart and respectful yet has no choice but to as for change…from someone half his age…
Having recently been in India I thought I had seen it all I really did, unfortunately my time so far in Vancouver leaves me thinking that maybe it too is tending towards teh third world, as in such a great country with all these natural resources you could wipe out an issue like this overnight. Yes I know the UK has its problems but we get immigrants by the thousands that fly and catch the ferry in every day….so it is inevitable that this is going to be an issue for us too, however if I am not mistaken the homeless people in Canada are most likley citizens of this country…so much for society huh….the solution? I wonder what will happen in the year before the Olympics…it will be very embarressing and I am sure eye opening for the rest of the world if things haven’t changes…then again you could do like the Texans and put everyone in jail, at least they would be warm.
Ste
I had never been to Vancouver before. I really haven’t travelled much out of Saskatchewan, only to Calgary, Edmonton and a couple times to RedDeer. I booked a room at the Best Western on Hastings for the few days I was going to be visiting Vancouver on my hunnymoon, since it was said to be near downtown. My husband and I decided to take public transit everywhere since it is cheaper and you get to see more of the city ( I am very impressed with the public transit in vancouver by the way. Very efficent and the drivers are wonderful). To get downtown we had to drive through Hastings. The area got worse and worse. The buidings bcame more vandalized, more windows were boarded up. I started to see people laying on the sidewalk with thin blankets. More people where walking down the street with carts full of cans and junk. it was a very startling first impression of Vancouver. We had to take that bus alot to get to and from the hotel. I saw people come on there that were on serious drugs, postitutes trying to catch a “friend” on the bus. At one point I was afraid that a very intoxicated man was going to pick a fight with my husband. But off the bus we met homeless people that kept to themselves, were helpful and polite and just wated to go about their business unnoticed. They were old, sick looking, and nonthreatening. I hope that something can be done. I guess I just wonder how many other people visit our fair country and have a similar first impression.
Homelessness is a huge issue and I believe it goes hand in hand with mental illness and other sicknesses. That is why I am absolutely appalled at the notion that the Provinvial government is considering turing Riverview in coquitlam into joint condos (for sale) and rehab facilities. for those of you who aren’t familiar, Riverview is a large property that was once devoted to mentally ill patients. It has been cut down, and most of those people are probably on the streets. So… I just can’t understand why the government won’t reno it and make it full capacity for those who need it. We already have condos coming out the ying yang in the lower mainland.
Check out the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram today (Oct. 28, 2007) Opinion Section. Then you will see that Texas just doesn’t throw the homeless in jail. Kind of tells you not to believe everything everyone says.
I am touring the cafes on main street. One of the problems for these cafes are the homeless people that come into the cafe and ask people for change. One day on two seperate occasions there was a scene with yelling and aggression. Since I have come back from travelling I have also noticed a rise in numbers and with this comes a higher level of desperation and search for resources (for these people).
I find it dispicable that we can actually write something like, this is a problem and we need to clean it up for the Olympics (which seems to arise in all my conversations when this topic comes up). Shame on us if we only feel the need to clean up this problem because of the Olympics… that should have nothing to do with it.
I visited Vancouver in August and was so shocked at the number of homeless people on the streets of such a beautiful, wonderful city. I have never witnessed this before, and I have travelled the world a great deal. It is such a let down to and so very sad. This is now November and I still cannot stop thinking about those poor people. What a shame.
I am 20 and have lived in Vancouver all of my life. It seems that everyday there are more homeless people living on East Hastings and other streets, and this is truly saddening.
I take this issue to heart because this is my city, and I hate to have its named tarnished by this fixable problem. But I don’t care just about how Vancouver looks to a worldwide audience, as some people have taken to doing. I feel more strongly that we (the people and the governemnt) have failed these people and
we owe it to them to do something about it. Don’t get me wrong, the homeless people themselves have an equal part in a solution, but we must give them somewhere to help themselves.
I am an Interactive Design (read: Web Design) student at Cap College, and I have decided to create a webpage to illustrate and educate people about the problem of homelessness.
I would love any suggestions anyone has for a direction… please email me at matt@blindsitedesigns.com
This is because women stealing their husbands money and houses after they seek divorces, this because Canadian law fight real men in favour of gays to make it easier for the bankers to keep stealing the country. This proves that the high taxes in Canada including real estate is just to steal people money to let them become slave to the banker and their usury manipulation. Keep advancing Canada.
This is for the bank culture made that is established by the bankers in North America. Get a loan to buy a big house, get a loan to buy an unneeded big car, become a slave to us, the bankers and we will put misandrist laws to control your straight men and to break every family and to double their loans! You want to become independent then:
1- Never get a bank loan.
2- Enforce 0% interest rates in banks.
3- Replace the paper money with gold money.
4- Don’t get involved (both you and America) in wars that are engineered to get your governments in more debt, thus more taxes that serves those lazy bloodsuckers.
5- Deport thopse bloodsuckers.
In USA, The fed reserve is a private bank which LOANS every penny of money in the US at interest. The money you pay in taxes only covers the interest of the loan. The principle is not ever touched. The US does not have it’s own money. Every dollar is borrowed and it is not back by gold or anything else. JFK wanted the US to go back to printing its own money. Lincoln did too.
There are many reasons why homelessness is a rampant problem in Vancouver. Why don’t we begin be looking at the outrageous prices of living costs. Even those with a roof over the heads are barely making ends meet because of such expenses. Yet minimum wage is only eight dollars an hour. First Call: BC Child and Youth Coalition study reports that “a person working 49 hours a week for 52 weeks would have to earn $9.60/hour to reach the poverty line for a single person living in Vancouverâ€.
These are statistics from a few years back but I cannot imagine much has changed. What really bothers me is that everyone is more concerned that all this poverty will look bad for Canada when the Olympics come around. Rather then being concerned with the poverty itself it seems some are more concerned with how it will look to the rest of the world. We are now pumping so much money into building huge stadiums and other developments that are only to be used for the Olympics. That money could all be redirected to where it should be going to stop Canada’s poverty problem. I heard of some program to build more affordable housing downtown and now all development has stopped. Why? Let us not blame these unfortunate individuals who are suffering even if they are drug addicts (not all of them are by the way). Those who are addicts need medical help. Everyone deserves equal support.
Love Cherri
I met a couple of girls from Czech, a guy from Mexico and Kenya, all here working temporarily. They have jobs! nice clothes, cell phones, place to stay etc. Not to mention English is not their native language, no relatives to help them here, everything new like a baby just learning how to walk the first time. It must be tough.
Now all these homelessness nonsense. Miami, Key West and most of those southern US cities who’s a lot warmer than Vancouver never have as many homeless people on their streets. I hear a lot of people blaming welfare, expensive housing, mental illness, etc etc. (How about the Czech, Mexican and Kenyan who dont have a house here??)
How about blaming our politicians that have allowed these drugs into our cities?? If you get yourself hook by Meth or Coke and if you aint rich or your momma don’t have that much money, you better have warm blanket because your next job will be begging in the street with no address. Drugs is the core of the problem! Im sure there are just as many wacko’s and sick or elderly in Alabama but I dont see them begging in massive numbers! I have been to the Ghettoest Ghetto in NY and Detroit, Chicago and Phyllie but Hasting was something else the first time I see it. It reminds me of that Mad Max movie as if it was the end of the world! My solution on all this is that give them jobs to the able body, provide free housing to mentally ill and elderly. And anybody who gets caught after that sleeping or begging on the street 3x will then be sent to a Government housing facility 1000 Kilometer away from Vancouver to get sober-up. SIMPLE!
It’s now 5 years later since the first posting of this subject and not much has been changed.
I have traveled quite a lot around the world, especially in Europe, and I have never seen so many people living on the streets as in Vancouver. When I meet people from Europe visiting Vancouver, the first thing they mention is how shocking it is to see so many people living in the back alleys. Watching people suffering on the street, in your own town, is unethical and this problem needs to be solved immediately. What can we do in my opinion ?
1. Closing the mental institutes like Riverview is absolutely wrong. Many people living on the streets have mental illnesses like schizophrenia and can’t take care of themselves or make decisions. They should have a place where they can go for treatment, and not return back until they are able to live independently. As one of the world’s richest countries, the government of Canada should make sure to provide enough money and support for these people.
2. Because we are living in a very independent society where family control doesn’t seem to play a very important role, the government should be responsible of taking care of the poor and ill ( isn’t that something our parents learned from Bible school ? ).
A law that came in place about “homeless people have the human right not to get forced in treatment†should immediately be changed. People who are mental ill can’t decide if they want treatment, and where to go. The government should obligate mental ill people in treatment until they can live independent. And living on the streets should simply not be allowed.
3. There should be more money for resources, especially local, including assisting people re-integrating in society.
4. The same is for drug and alcohol addicts. These people should be obligated in treatment and not be allowed to live on the street.
How will the government and society profit from this ? There will be clean streets during Olympics. They can show international press that they do care about the lives of their citizens. Many people living on the streets have great potential in society, there are even doctors and lawyers who got depressed, started drinking and ended up on the streets.
And what about the patients ? They get the chance to recover and return in society. And at least getting some respect and humanity.
I welcome everybody’s feedback to the solution of this problem. My email is onomimono@hotmail.com.
You cant blame the system for homelessness.
You cant blame homelessness on the homeless.
There are many reasons for it. We all have a different life story. Why is it that most people manage to keep a home. We need to do better helping people without the guilt trip. I am not responsible for drug addiction.
I do however believe in what is right. When people are short on dignity and self respect sometimes a kind hand can help them turn things around. Most homeless need housing first, counselling and detox. When this help is given there should after a period of time be reasonable ecpectations placed on the people being helped.
Unless there is a mental disability the system should expect positive results from each person being helped. It is not your fault , my fault and may or may not be their fault.
In the tri-cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam ,and Port Moody there are approx. 220 homeless.
Information put out by the Hope for freedom society (they run an outreach program in the tricities) say approx. 80% of homeless there have an addiction to meth , crack cocain, alchohol or combinations of all of these. 40% have a mental illness and of those most are drug addicted.
How can you reach the majority of these people without outreach ,counselling and detox.
The detox and counselling should be mandatory. The first petty crime committed should enable the system to dictate detox and the counselling that goes with it. This is where our system is most disconnected in my opinion.
the number of homeless on the streets of vancouver reflects an apathy on the part of the citys general populace, government included. ..theres rhetoric but no action, no will!
this is ridiculous
This is not ridiculous. This is serious issue we have to solve.
What is all this sympathy and leniency all about…I have recently moved from London to Vancouver and I have to be perfectly honest, the homeless problem is a complete joke and an embarassement to this wonderful city. Why cannot more hard lined methods be taken into action??!! Someone made a comment about “have you seen london” earlier in the thread, and YES, i lived their for 23 years and never saw what I have seen here and more importantly the ignorance and way people ignore the problem here aswell…People just walk on by as a guy with no nose (drug abuse) asks for change for a shelter…If half these people with their trolleys and schemes to collect cans invested half as much time and energy into sorting themselves out as they did at collecting cans for their next fix, god knows what they could achieve…They are selfish and lazy, the majority of them, highlighted by the junkies who thought it would be a good idea to get smashed out where my bins are, infront of my house…Disrespecful animals who left a nice syringe there for me so when I went to put my bins in the dustbin I could have pricked myself…I am furious at the problem in this city and I have been here for 4 weeks..Would that happen in London, NO…
I live in San Diego – called “America’s Finest City”. We have a very large homeless population here – over 5000. We also have a very large support system in place to support our very large homeless population. Shelters (some are winter only), employment placement programs, work programs, and many, many free food programs. Gee it makes it very easy to be homeless. The average low temp at night in the winter is 50 F. Pretty warm. And free food all over… You guessed it, the work programs don’t get many subscribers. Most of the homeless are just sitting on their duff all day chilling out and eating free food. They seem to feel they deserve to be supported by the rest of us hard working tax payers. They have a HUGE sense of entitlement to their “rights” to block the sidewalk all day and night and eat the free food they are also entitled to. It’s disgusting. Laziness is a sin and it should be a crime as well. Of course there are always the druggies, for whom I have no sympathy – must be nice to be high all day. And there are the crazies, many of whom became crazy due to drugs, I’m lacking sympathy there also. Then there are the lazies – no sympathy. Then there are the recently laid off but not lazy or crazy or addicted – I don’t see them much – they are in the work programs all day and have a home again within a month or two.
Check these videos out! They all talk about how we can do more about the homelessness situation!
I have lived in Gastown for 7 years now, and must say in those years things have got worse every single year. After see all sorts of soft handed attempts to solve the problem I have come to a very simply conclusion: City, and people simply don’t care. I am not a homeless advocate, in fact I feel more frustration towards what I see then compassion.
Here is what I would suggest. In order for things to change voters need to want it to change, and in order for voters to want it to change the problem needs to be put right in there face. Doe anyone remember the heat shelter which was closed in Yaletown? After talking with city hall I found out the reason it was closed was because of 64 complaint from residents. It was reported on the news that someone dropped a bag of human feces and a note attached which said “Go back to the east side where you belong”
I know people who post here care, and many others do too, but we are WAY out numbered by those who simply don’t care, and as long as the problem is not in their face they are happy with it staying in the DTES.
here is what I suggested to the city: Evenly distribute social house around the entire city since it is a city problem and not a DTES problem. Include Kits, West End, Point Grey, Kerrisdale, etc etc. Round up the homeless and evenly distribute them into house in those areas. Imagine how much of a priority and pressure the City would have if everyone had the problem in their face.
Payforward makes some good points. Instead of trying to outbid each other to show how compassionate we are, let’s take a logical and rational look at this problem. Let’s look at what other cities are doing and what ACTUALLY works.
But the hard truth is that politicians don’t want to fix this problem, because to actually fix it would be political suicide. That’s because to get rid of the homeless problem, you’d have to get rid of the support system that makes it possible for so many homeless to flourish and for their own families to wash their hands of the problem. That’s right – their FAMILIES. The trouble is when you get so many social programs, it basically encourages these people’s families to wash their hands of their relative’s (read homeless person) problems and let the government state step in instead. A couple of years back Pete Martin in the Vancouver Sun had a very interesting article about one addict and how he was sent to the interior, far away from the easy streets of Vancouver. Temptation removed, this guy pulled himself together. You know what they say about a job – best social program there ever was.
Theodore Dalrymple (British prison doctor, google him) also has some very interesting things to say about curing addiction.
Before we all try to outbid each other in compassion (with the end result that nothing is done), let’s consider that it may take tough love to clean up the streets and help these people to help themselves get out of the cycle of dependency that Vancouver has encouraged. As for the person that suggested that the DTES should be brought to the rest of the neighbourhood in the city, that’s really a cure isn’t it!!! And sure, there may be a percentage who cannot be helped (5%, 10%?) but that is no reason to do nothing that works, which is where we are now. The person who wrote above that because we live in an independent society the government should step in – this is part of the root of the problem and it’s actually the other way around. When the government steps in, it gives families an excuse to step out. Why would you give your brother a room to stay in when the government will for ‘free’?
Vancouver is soft and it shows every time you walk around downtown. For those of you who have said it is a blight. You are right. It is. It shows the state of the government that we have chosen and the weakness of us as citizens that we continue to choose fake solutions like SRO hotels, welfare and a shooting gallery.
Vancouver will never take a hard hand to this situation. I hate to say it and I know it sounds glass half empty, but the problem is only going to get worse, and I dont think we will see even a light at the end of the tunnel in any current generations lifetime. It has got worse not better over the last 12 years, and the city has proven that it will not stand up for tax payers against groups with their hands out.
The city is enabling the problem with all the social programs attracting more and more homeless people.
Aristotle has often been quoted as saying “you can judge a nation by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens”.. its homeless.. obviously vancover treats them very badly.. so many.. a disgrace for one of worlds richest cities.!! same in la.. sonta monica .. all the homeless on the beach parks… i never saw this to this extent in europe.. obviously there are winners and losers in capitalism
you have no damn right to say that. i am a homeless youth in vancouver and im frankly annoyed that when i look for something to make my life better there are no services that can truly help someone with multiple barriers to their employment and yes being homeless is a barrier to employment so is the fact that when you get into a shelter you’re not even in there long enough to make a difference. i was able to land multiple interviews but the bullshit they put us through is just crap cause when you get a step ahead of the game the shelter pushes you out and you come crashing down. now im not on IA and i require those shelters at this point in time to live and as it stands i refuse to go on ia because of the fact that its just free money and id rather have self worth than just sit on my fucking ass and do nothing. now dont give me that shit than the homeless that are able bodied dont deserve compassion because we bust our asses and people like you who think we can get by on our own JUST SCREW US OVER WHEN WE TRY.