October 21, 2009

HOMELESSNESS

J. Kwan: Last week was Homelessness Action Week. It is estimated that there are over 10,000 homeless people in our communities, of which 32 percent are aboriginal, and amongst women, 50 percent. A homeless person dies every 12 days in B.C. Last week the opposition leader and I met with representatives from the aboriginal transformative justice project, where they once again raised the desperate need for additional aboriginal-specific services, housing and homeless shelter.

We met with VanDo and the Carnegie action project. CAP recently finished a community visioning and mapping process that involved over 1,200 low-income residents in the Downtown Eastside. The mapping project identified at least ten community assets in the Downtown Eastside that residents want to preserve. They include acceptance, empathy, social justice, appreciation for community and cultural heritage, a strong sense of community.

People at all the mapping sessions stated the need for good-quality, affordable self-contained housing to be built in the community. As one woman said: "I could have a whole other life if I could just be in affordable housing. Living in an SRO limits my capability of being a grandmother. More social housing is desperately needed.”

One person said of Mavis McMullen Housing: "When my life crashed and burned, I needed housing, and welfare was only $610. This housing saved my life, and life lost is harshness. It kept me from destitution.”

Currently there are nearly 700 people homeless in the Downtown Eastside. Displacement is really happening. In 2009 CAP’s hotel survey found an additional 800 hotel rooms between 2008 and 2009 lost to rent increases beyond what people under the low-income cutoff can afford.

Canada is the only G8 country without a national housing plan or poverty reduction strategy. I ask all members of the House to join me in renewing our resolve to end homelessness.