NEWS: Housing advocates call for more action
 |
|||
|
By Jessica Barrett
Two recent victories in the fight for quality low-income housing in Vancouver have local advocates applauding cautiously — but also renewing calls for a national strategy to tackle homelessness on a larger scale.
Last week’s announcement by the provincial government that more than 1,000 supportive housing units are to be built in the city drew a bittersweet response from Laura Stannard of the Citywide Housing Coalition. “Any time there’s money for the new construction of social housing, we are very happy,” she said in a telephone interview with WE. “I think the housing is somewhat tinged by the fact that this funding has been announced repeatedly since March of 2007 — many, many, many times.”
On May 25, the province announced its commitment of $205 million toward the development of eight supportive housing sites on city-owned land, valued at more than $30 million. The Streetohome Foundation, helmed by mining magnate Frank Giustra, has committed a further $20 million to be raised from the private sector.
The eight sites, scattered throughout the city, represent the completion of a 2007 agreement between the province and the city to develop 14 supportive housing sites, six of which are already in development. While Stannard said she is pleased to see that the agreement will be fulfilled, she remains skeptical that the partnership will make a real impact on alleviating homelessness. “The problem with relying completely on the city and the province and philanthropy is that it’s not going to work,” she said. “If we don’t have a national housing strategy with funding that comes out yearly, this is just going to end up being a drop in the bucket… because of the lack of affordable housing for everyone in Vancouver.” In order to seriously impact the homelessness problem in B.C., she added, a minimum of 2,000 units of low-income housing need to be built annually.
While Stannard said she believes the new sites will provide much-needed housing for people requiring support offered through B.C. Housing and non-profit social services agencies, people who simply can’t afford market rental rates are left out. Those who do not require support are at the mercy of Vancouver’s tight rental market, putting them at risk for homelessness or forcing them to settle for substandard accommodation. “When you have a low vacancy rate, rents go up and tenants are afraid to demand that even their basic rights get enforced,” she said.
That was the case for some former residents of a three-storey East Vancouver apartment building at 2131 Pandora Street, who were evicted in October 2007 after the roof caved in and suites were flooded. Last week, a B.C. Supreme Court judge upheld two previous rulings from the Residential Tenancy Branch in favour of the tenants. Madam Justice Gerow ordered the building’s owners, the Sahota family, to pay $170,000 in damages to 36 residents. Lawyers with the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre called the decision a “massive victory for tenants” during a press conference with residents of the building.
Former tenant Roberta Dixon, 51, recalled squalid conditions at 2131 Pandora. She said the roof in the one bedroom-suite she shared with her roommate, Frank Sowers, 66, leaked for six of the 10 years they lived there. The building was also rife with black mould that has caused lingering health problems for both tenants, who are now living in a building operated by B.C. Housing. With no other options for affordable housing, the pair felt forced to stay put, said Dixon. “We had no place else to go; we don’t have money,” she said. “If we’d had money, we would have left a long time ago.”
Sowers said he is relieved by the decision, but isn’t sure he’ll ever see a dime from the Sahotas. “It’s good, but it’s also on paper,” he said, noting his former landlords may choose to file another appeal.
City councillor Kerry Jang applauded the court decision, saying the city has since stepped up its enforcement of the Standards of Maintenance Bylaw, the legislation that forces landlords to properly maintain their buildings. Jang added that the court ruling would add a financial incentive for landlords to maintain their properties by hitting them in the pocketbook.
Jang went on to say he hoped the newly announced supportive housing units would provide a viable alternative for some people currently living in poor conditions in single room occupancy (SRO) buildings in the Downtown Eastside, but only for those who meet certain criteria. “Certainly it’ll [accommodate] the people who are living in these crappy SROs, and if they’re on the B.C. Housing list they can certainly apply, or we’ll go out with our outreach workers and go find them, to get them into somewhere where they can get treatment,” he said.
For other populations, Jang echoed the need for federal intervention to put a permanent end to the city’s homelessness problem. “We’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing, and passed motions pressuring the feds for a national housing strategy,” he said. “It’s just not profitable for a private developer to build this stuff. That’s the problem.”
© Copyright 2007 WestEnder