FRIDAY
March 06 2015
Vol. 106 No. 18
FEATURE 14
Pets of the Downtown Eastside SPRING ARTS PREVIEW 19
VSO celebrates Sinatra’s 100th SPORTS 32
Raising the Brar There’s more online at
vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
Homelessness goal in jeopardy Numbers at odds with street scene
Mike Howell
mhowell@vancourier.com
City manager Penny Ballem is worried this month’s homeless count in Vancouver will show people are still living on the street despite efforts of her staff and B.C. Housing to find shelter and housing for more than 500 people recorded in last March’s count. Such bad news would be a big blow to Mayor Gregor Robertson and his goal to end so-called “street homelessness” by this year’s homeless count, which will be conducted by city officials and volunteers March 23 and 24. “I’m concerned because I think we’re still going to have street homeless,” Ballem told the Courier by telephone as she pored over a spreadsheet of homeless numbers and available housing. “We know what we’ve opened but if there’s still 200 people on the street, the question is: Where have they come from and what is causing that?”
On paper, Ballem said, matching shelter beds, temporary housing and permanent housing to the 536 homeless people recorded in last year’s count should leave the city with a surplus of 29 beds. “My hope would be that we’ve just about reached the goal for the mayor,” she said. “But looking around the city, I’m worried. It doesn’t feel like we’ve got there.” Ballem pointed out the city has been unable to accurately track other drivers of homelessness, including the number of people who leave hospital, jail or foster care and end up on the streets. Also, she said, people on welfare are losing their homes to unaffordable rent increases, particularly in the Downtown Eastside. “We are bringing on capacity but there’s other things that may be working against us,” she said, noting the city’s moderate climate is also attractive to homeless people from other parts of the country, Adding to Ballem’s concern is her staff’s inability to account for at least 68 people that moved out of single-roomoccupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside undergoing renovations.
Ballem said she expects to get an answer this week from B.C. Housing, which is renovating 13 hotels, on what happened to the 68 people. “We’re really, really trying to actually to be a bit more scientific than ‘trust us, it’s all good,’” she said, referring to previous responses from B.C. Housing. B.C. Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay said all tenants of the hotels under renovation were relocated to other accommodations. Ramsay said tenants were given priority to move back into the hotels once they re-opened. “Nobody has been lost or displaced,” Ramsay said. “We’ve relocated hundreds and hundreds of people — some vulnerable people — and there hasn’t been one bad news story about it because of the effort we went through to relocate folks.” Ballem said the city also doesn’t know how many homeless people counted last March have received rent subsidies from B.C. Housing, saying “ideally we should all know that but we just don’t have that at this point.” Though the city and B.C. Housing
have worked together to build 14 social housing sites across the city, the Visionled council has repeatedly called for the provincial government to build more housing in Vancouver. Housing Minister Rich Coleman told the Courier in an interview in January “there’s no jurisdiction that I can find in the country that has received more in funding for supportive housing than the city of Vancouver has.” Since the March 2014 homeless count, various B.C. Housing buildings, shelters and temporary housing have opened across the city. But some buildings have also closed, including the 100-room Bosman hotel that could re-open with 40 beds by the homeless count in two weeks. As well, Taylor Manor, a 56-unit building at Adanac and Boundary, is expected to open before the count and be home to people with mental illness. A 146-unit social housing building at 220 Princess Ave., which will house female-led families, is scheduled to open in April. All of the city’s shelters are full. twitter.com/Howellings
‘Most epic project ever’ Cheryl Rossi
crossi@vancourier.com
When Tupper Tech student Zack Robinson suggested he and his fellow students build a boat for an English 12 project based on the novel Life of Pi, their teacher laughed. “And then I challenged them,” said Jennifer Braun, the head of the school’s English department. “Yeah, hey, if you do this, it’s going to be the most epic project ever, and you’ll make Tupper history.” Last Friday school history was made as students christened the SS Piscine, named for the novel’s protagonist Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, in False Creek. It culminated weeks of work starting in December that featured cooperation between the school’s academic and technical education departments. Seventeen-year-old project manager Maricris Evangelista recited a boat christening text and seven of the 10 boys who helped build the vessel chanted, “To the sea, to the sailors before us, to the SS Piscine.” “She’s doing it with Starbucks coffee because we’re not allowed to have alcohol, but how much more West Coast is it than Starbucks coffee?” said Tupper Tech teacher Russ Evans of the christening. “I was sobbing at the end of it. I’ve been at weddings that were less emotional than that.” Continued on page 7
MONSTER MASH A sand tiger shark looks even more intimidating on the inside than it does on the outside, at least in the visually stunning Sea Monsters Revealed exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium. The exhibit, which features the dissected and preserved bodies of impressive sea creatures, opened this week at the aquarium and continues until Sept. 7. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET