Trouble In Paradise

[jillybean]

Ive come across the thread Class Struggles’ very late and I'll admit I'm not going to read the 9 pages which seems to have turned into a debate on free trade and globalization. I do want to add a plug for what is happening in Vancouver BC. . We are of course hosting the 2010 Olympics, construction is going on all over the city. The highway between Vancouver and Whistler is undergoing major reconstruction at cost of $130million.

 

Vancouver, voted Number#1 city in the world to live. This could be true if you are one of the privileged, it is a different story if you are on income assistance or earning minimum wage. Income Assistance is currently 25% lower than was it was in 1995, after considering inflation. The government stopped building new social housing 10 years ago and federally since 1993. Low-income housing continues to disappear, illegal evictions are increasing making way for construction of upscale condominiums. Has anyone noticed the increase in self-storage facilities? I find it hard to believe that we pay to store our extra possessions but fail to house our most vulnerable citizens.

 

The 2008 count put the number of homeless at 2,600 in Vancouver, this does not include the hundreds more who couch surf. The figure is 11,000 province wide, this is a problem everywhere.

 

2,600 people in Vancouver without homes, sleeping in shelters, parks, under bridges, without food, clean water. Homeless.

 

I think we all need to take care of our citizens, we need to lobby government to ensure there is sufficient low-income housing and adequate income for these people. If you are in Vancouver, you can join the next public forum May 22nd and the next ‘stand for homelessness’ on June 7th.

http://www.my-calm.info/page4.html

[luke warm]

jilly, you ain't seen nothing yet... the trans-continental highway system will bring more and more jobless into canada until (theoretically) they even out between mexico, america, and canada... much like a dam breaking, there will be a wave rushing downhill (in this case uphill), until there's equilibrium... the borders will blur or disappear and we can then link arms and be one 3-headed nation

[Winstonm]

Sounds to me like Canada has bought into trickle-down economics, too, i.e. if you make the rich rich enough everyone will be better off.

[sceptic]

I think this is what is happening all over the world, I do not think it is just about Vancouver, I think it is Globalisation and free trade that is causing it to happen

[DrTodd13]

Has there ever been a country and a time in which poverty, relativistic or absolute, did not exist? I get the sense that people still believe that if only we fix X, Y, and Z and provide this bundle of free services that we can eliminate poverty. Why is it that many poor people who win multi-million dollar lotteries are broke just a few short years later? Poverty is not due to the Olympics. It isn't due to lack of caring or money or housing. Governments try to make these people productive but for probably many psychological reasons beyond their control, many of them don't want to be productive. Around here, there was a problem at some point with a large gathering of homeless in a tent city. People tried to help them and get them into housing and many of them refused or were quickly back on the streets.

 

So, in short, if you subsidize poverty, you are going to get more of it. Stop blaming people as if they are heartless as if that were the cause of poverty.

[jillybean]

No, its not just Vancouver at all, it just happens to be where I live and where I can get off the debating couch and do something about it. Globalisation and free trade of course have an impact but I think part of the problem is closer to home. :)

[jillybean]

DrTodd13 , the problem is more complex than simply being unable to help the drug addicts and low lives who would rather bum around than work. Of course, it isn’t due to the Olympics. The Olympics highlight where the money is being spent and escalate the shortage of affordable housing while landlords cash in on the opportunity. Many people are a step away from being homeless, homeless rates have doubled here between 2002 – 2005.

 

The 'affordable' housing is often worse than living on the street. Typical down town Vancouver, single room accommodation is boarding house style, intended for short term stay rather than permanent housing. These buildings, if they haven’t been demolished to make way for high end apartments are run down, vermin infested with shared bathrooms and ancient plumbing. Drug dealers and sexual predators prey in these areas but good luck finding even one of these rooms – vacancy rates in affordable housing are between 0 and .5 percent.

 

Is your answer we cant help them, lets makes it illegal to sleep on the streets, move them out and ignore them?

[DrTodd13]

I'm not in favor of punishing them but the sense I get is most people will say "we aren't doing enough." What I'm saying is that no matter how much you do, you are always going to have the homeless. You shouldn't force people to be productive. If they want help, then private charities are available to provide real help, not just a series of handouts that result in dependency.

[jillybean]

Im not sure what exactly we are doing? I do know that government and most provinces continually fail to meet their commitment to increase affordable housing funding and have cut welfare rates and other benefits.

 

The problem is bigger than what I think you believe and the numbers continue to grow. Not all homeless start out as drug addicts or bums.