A dark disturbance in the Force; that may be as close as I can come to putting my feelings upon seeing the addition of the locked gate to the doorway alcove at the Abbotsford District Teachers Association building.

The way the building was built had resulted in a sheltered alcove protecting the door that leads into the teamster’s area of the building. Over the years it has served as home to several of the homeless I know, being handed on from occupant to occupant because it was a prime location if you are homeless.

With the Paliotti’s just across the road the evenings often brought the generous gift of a good meal from patrons of the restaurant, sometimes even cigarettes or cash.

The alcove provided superior shelter from wind and the elements. Still the best point of this location was that, because the police had not received a complaint from the owners, homeless tenants could sleep through the night without being disturbed – removing themselves when the building opened.

Knowing the history and the people who had used this alcove over the course of several years, the appearance of a locked gate whose only purpose was to deny access to any homeless seeking shelter from the elements was very disturbing; a dark disturbance in the Force.

Yes the owners have the legal right to put up the gate, as the East German government claimed a legal right to build the Berlin Wall. Yet in that action, and in the context of the history of the alcove and homelessness, there lies a deep symbolism whose message is of a bleak exclusion and uncaring.

Provincial politicians speak of their plans and of “knowing” what is happening, while on the streets more people find themselves seeking food and shelter. Our local politicians form committees and say all the right things – but have not provided a single shelter space for any homeless person, nor a single meal for the hungry. The community pats itself on the back for being so generous and boasts of the number of places of worship, while hunger and need grow.

The letter pages of the local are full of letters from local Christians complaining about magazines at checkout stands, about Darwin, about the lack of moral behaviour, about…, about…, about… … but about the need to follow the example of Christ and love thy neighbour, minister to and help the homeless or the hungry?

I look at that gate and wonder if, as happens at other places of loss and accident, I should leave flowers to mark this diminishing.

The dark forbidding clang of that gate as it closes resounds through our community, province and across Canada.

Is it the sound of the alarm calling us to arms and action against poverty; or is it a Bell tolling out a lament for our souls?

Stop, look at the gate, light a candle and meditate on what kind of world you want to create.

Homelessness in Metro Vancouver up 20 per cent since 2005

Frances Bula and Doug Ward
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

METRO VANCOUVER – Homelessness continues to increase across Metro Vancouver, especially in the suburbs, according to preliminary numbers from the latest homeless count announced today.

There are now close to 2,600 people in shelters and on the streets any given night in this region, almost a 20-per-cent increase from the last count done in 2005.

But the numbers didn’t go up as much as people thought they would and it’s far less than the increase between 2002 and 2005, when numbers almost doubled, said Alice Sundberg, co-chairwoman of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness, which directed the count.

That is giving people such as Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts some hope that increased services and aggressive efforts to reach out to the homeless are beginning to slow the flow a little.

Surrey’s counts indicated that 386 people were either in shelters or, predominantly, sleeping outside on the night of March 11, when the count was done. On one hand, that’s grim news. On the other, the number of street homelessness is up only 15 per cent from 2005.

“We have the lowest increase in the region,” Watts said. “I think that’s because we’ve made a really concentrated effort with outreach. We’ve housed almost 300 people in the past two, 21/2 years, and put them into permanent housing.”

So although the tap of homelessness is still turned on, the drain seems to be working better.

The early counts show that suburbs such as Burnaby, the Coquitlam region, and the Langleys showed the sharpest jumps in homelessness. At the same time, they had the fewest shelter beds proportionally to accommodate them, so that the majority of their homeless were out on the street.

Langley city Mayor Peter Fassbender said that picture will be drastically different in three years. A new centre that combines 30 shelter beds with 25 transitional housing units, along with a “feeding centre” and space for counselling and training, is due to open in June next to the Kwantlen University College campus. That centre, jointly financed by the city, township, Salvation Army, province and federal government, is Langley’s acknowledgement that it must help.

“It’s a big step. We have come to the place of saying we have to be part of the solution,” Fassbender said.

In Coquitlam, Mayor Maxine Wilson said the area’s three municipalities are looking for a location to put a permanent shelter. Coquitlam is also working with the YWCA on another project to build supported housing for women and children.

But Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said he thinks it’s reprehensible that municipalities are constantly made to feel that it’s their job to solve homelessness, when it’s the provincial government that cut housing programs and tightened up access to welfare.

His city is focusing on long-term housing solutions, building on a foundation of the second-highest number of social-housing units of any other part of the region. (Only Vancouver has more.)

The homeless-count statistics prompted responses from both Downtown Eastside advocates and Housing Minister Rich Coleman about what they meant and what the trends for the future are.

A coalition of advocacy groups held a press conference outside an up-for-sale rooming house downtown to highlight the ongoing problems of evictions and speculation in the Downtown Eastside, which they say are accelerating homelessness. And they accused the provincial government and city of doing little to address the problem.

But Coleman said he was actually relieved by the numbers.

“People were predicting it would be double or triple [the 2005 numbers]. The way I look at it now, we have 2,500 homeless and what have I got in the pipeline? Do I have 2,500 units coming? The answer would be yes.”

But even Coleman cautioned that doesn’t mean the problem is solved, because there are always more people becoming homeless.

That’s something that certainly proved true in Vancouver where, in spite of Mayor Sam Sullivan’s commitment to reduce homelessness by 50 per cent in time for the 2010 Olympics, the number of street homeless actually increased by 32 per cent, so that there are now almost exactly the same number of people on the street (about 780) as in the city’s numerous shelter beds.

The count also fueled debate about what is causing the significant increases in suburban homelessness.

Sundberg, from the regional homelessness steering committee, said she believes it’s a case of homeless people now being able to stay in their home communities because there are finally some services there for them.

David Eby, a homeless advocate with the Pivot Legal Society, said he thinks the numbers are going up in the suburbs because people from Vancouver are being driven out of the city by the continuing losses of the city’s cheapest housing in the Downtown Eastside.

Corrigan said he thinks the numbers increase, especially in cities like his, are driven by a deliberate plan in Vancouver to “push these people out into the suburban municipalities, trying to clean up for the Olympics.”

Those actually out on the streets see it a little differently.

Chris Fontaine, whose battered face fits his life story of bad luck and bad decisions, has been homeless in Surrey for about 18 months.

“It’s a crappy life to live. But, hey, I get by,” Fontaine said Tuesday while staying at The Front Room shelter in Surrey – a last-resort place for people whose addictions and mental illness make it difficult for them find housing elsewhere.

It’s no surprise to Fontaine that a homeless task force recently found about 390 homeless people in Surrey over a 24-hour period.

“I can believe it. They come from Vancouver, Burnaby, New West – they all come to Surrey,” he said.

“There’s better resources here. It’s a better area. More drugs, I guess. There are at least 40 guys that I know who are down here from the Downtown Eastside.”

The 33-year-old single man hopes to find a cheap apartment but knows the odds – and his own past – are stacked against him.

“You need a rental history and my rental history around here ain’t so good.”

For now the Front Room, with its 40 beds, is home.

“The people here at the Front Room – they care about us a lot. They give us hope.”