Pubdate: Sun, 25 Sep 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Matthew Ramsey

IT'S TIME NOW FOR SECOND PILLAR: CAMPBELL

Supportive Housing: 'You Can't Get Well Without A Roof Over Your 
Head,' Mayor Argues

Mayor Larry Campbell has vowed not to let efforts on the Four Pillars 
drug strategy slip into a senatorial stupor when he heads to Ottawa.

Speaking to the Four Pillars Coalition Friday, Campbell said the next 
biggest task now is to address the urgent need for interim and 
long-term housing for people struggling with addiction.

"You cannot start to get well when you don't have a roof over your 
head . . . It's impossible," Campbell said.

The city needs 1,000 to 1,200 units as urgently today as it needed a 
safe injection site three years ago, the mayor said. "If we do not 
see the need for this massive investment, then we're not really 
serious about the Four Pillar strategy."

Campbell insisted he would take his goal of shaking the federal money 
tree for housing funding with him to the Senate.

His comment came in response to one by Dave Jones of the Downtown 
Vancouver Business Improvement Association, who asked why no one from 
the federal or provincial governments was present.

"Ten years is too long a time frame to deal with addictions. Many of 
those [young] people will be dead. We've got to do something faster," 
said Jones.

Campbell's promise also comes as the need for housing the homeless 
and addicted in Vancouver has become acute.

Of the 2,000 people living on the streets in Vancouver, at least half 
are suffering some kind of an addiction. Half of the city rents, and 
roughly 20 per cent of renters pay more than 50 per cent of their 
incomes on rent -- putting them at very high risk of joining the 
growing ranks of homeless crowding into jam-packed city shelters, 
sleeping in doorways and parks.

The city's Homeless Action Plan envisions the development of 3,200 
units of supportive housing and 600 units of transitional housing 
over the next 10 years. The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is 
also planning a major increase in subsidized and supportive housing 
stock. The authority plans to have 1,050 units for hard-to-house 
people by 2015 (compared to 550 today), 2,100 units for people with 
mental health issues (compared to 1,200) and 1,190 addiction support 
beds of which there are only 90 today.

The coalition also heard from organizations representing youth and 
people living with AIDS.

Darcy Lapushinsky, of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, told 
the group she's living in a Downtown Eastside shelter after being on 
the streets for three weeks -- and on a waiting list.

She said she moved out of her squalid room in a downtown hotel 
because it was infested with spiders and bed bugs and residents were 
routinely hauled out in body bags.

"I'm sure a lot of people, if they were given a walkabout [of a 
single-room occupancy hotel], wouldn't want their friends and kids in 
there," she noted.

Cameron Gray, director of the city's housing centre, said staff are 
"hopeful" there will be some stable funding from Ottawa, given that 
the 2005 national budget sets aside $1.6 billion for housing.

But too often, Gray said, federal funding comes with unrealistic 
spending timetables attached and the planning needed to house people 
with addiction and health problems isn't given enough time.

"It's a race that's won by the tortoise. It's not going to be won by 
the hare -- and we're running like hares now," he said.

Another major problem is neighbourhood resistance to such facilities, 
Gray noted.

Campbell hopes to have the city's draft prevention strategy before 
council Nov. 1, for approval before the Nov. 19 municipal election.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman