Homelessness in Vancouver
Watching the news last night, I couldn’t help but marvel at the lack of creativity in the minds of our politicians. While the homelessness problem in downtown Vancouver has raged on for months, finally as winter fast approaches, mayor Kennedy Stewart has decided to ask the federal government for help. He feels that a reasonable number is $30 million dollars and that this could house 750 people.
Now $30 million dollars may not seem like a lot to a politician, but it seems like a lot to me. I think I could do a lot of good with that much money. Never mind that there were almost triple that amount of homeless at the last city count (2095 as of March 2020).
Mayor Kennedy spoke last night of buying up vacant hotels as a solution to this problem. I can think of a cheaper option. How about using all the vacant sports and exhibition facilities that are closed during Covid to at least get them through the winter. They had considered using the Vancouver Convention Centre as a Covid triage centre. The same could be done with other facilities like the vacant PNE fair buildings, known as the Forum, Agridome and Colliseum. He could reach out to other municipalities to jointly use spaces like the huge Abbotsford Tradex building.
They could divvy up the space with 3 temporary internal plywood walls and create four spaces: one for men; one for women; one for youth and one for the elderly. The building would have supervision in the form two nurses and two security guards per shift. There could also be an area set aside for a nurse supervised injection and clean drug management site and another area for eating tables. Food could be brought in by local restaurants or food banks or volunteers. Folding cot beds could be set up in rows with temporary privacy screens around them.
I realize that when Covid is over, these facilities would have to revert back to their former uses. In the meantime, politicians could build a structure more cheaply than buying hotels, unless said hotels were already in foreclosure with deep discounts.
I am a single person with a single idea. Why has it taken until mid-October for the powers that be to generate some solutions? Meanwhile crime, overdose and despair have run rampant in our city to the point where homeowners in the Strathcona neighborhood are threatening to withhold their property taxes. They should at least have a think-tank up and running to generate solutions. What ideas do you have?
