The site of the proposed Welcome House Centre at 2610 Victoria Dr. (Photo: Meghan Mast)

The hundreds of refugees who pour into Vancouver every year will soon get a base unlike any they’ve had before — a one-stop housing, support, and services centre in the Commercial Drive heart of east Vancouver.

The new $24-million Welcome House Centre, whose rezoning application was rapidly approved at Vancouver council recently, will provide 200 beds in short-term apartments and house several support organizations. Those groups will provide services for an estimated 2,000 refugees, nearly double the number of people served at the current Welcome House in downtown Vancouver.

“It will be far easier than it is now because [refugees] won’t have to navigate all over the place,” said Chris Friesen, the project manager from Immigrant Services Society. “They will be able to go to one place to get the support they need.”

The city has agreed to lease the land, near Victoria and Broadway, to the society and its partnering organizations for the next 60 years. The new stability comes as a relief to Settlement Orientation Services and Inland Refugee Society, which were forced to move three times in the last six years.

“For non-profits who offer social services, it’s hard to find sympathetic landlords. Another reason that a secured site will be a godsend,” explained Alexandra Charlton, Settlement Orientation Services co-ordinator.

According to the city’s report, the city sped up the rezoning and development process because of the “potential social benefit of the proposal.”

“This centre is aligned with the city’s long-term priority to cultivate and sustain vibrant, creative, safe and caring communities for the wide diversity of individuals and families in Vancouver,” said Kent Munro, the assistant director of planning.

The rezoning and development permit application was submitted on April 30 and construction is projected to finish fall of 2014.

Funding flows in

Friesen said 70 per cent of the necessary money has been raised. Vancity credit union has donated $500,000, the City of Vancouver and BC Housing have both donated project-development funds, and a number of private donors are contributing.

The Pokharels at their new home in Coquitlam. (Photo: Meghan Mast)

“Over a quarter [of the funding] is coming from ISS ourselves through the selling of the building and cash reserves that we have,” said Friesen. “We’re also intending on taking out a mortgage for part of it.”

The current Welcome House building, at 530 Drake St., is for sale for $5 million.

The idea is to have everything — financial training, primary health care, government offices, housing, refugee trauma treatment, a youth drop-in space, a food bank, a law clinic, and a community kitchen — under one roof in order to simplify the process for newcomers.

That’s something that past refugees know will make a difference.

Kewal Pokharel was one of about 500 refugees who arrived in Vancouver last year. Now living in Coquitlam and working as a janitor, he came to Vancouver after living in a refugee camp in the Jhapa district of Nepal for over 18 years. His son needed medical treatment after suffering a brain injury from a motorcycle crash.

As soon as the family landed, Pokharel’s son was checked by medical staff and immediately taken to hospital, where he remains today. The family stayed in a hotel because there was no room at the tiny Welcome House that exists now.

“Yes, of course, the stay at hotel was not difficult, but we would be missing that support and guidance,” said Pokharel. “So if ISS could have such a housing place where such families with medical needs can be housed, that would be very nice.”

Pokharel found it difficult to navigate through social services and the medical system. Simple things like banking, buying groceries, a phone card, or a bus pass, were challenging, because services are so spread out.

Neighbours respond favourably

Mari Wright lives in the housing cooperative behind the proposed site. (Photo: Meghan Mast)

The first community open house was in February. Residents’ main concern was the height of the buildings — one will be four storeys and the other, six storeys.

But many, like Mari Wright, support the project. Wright has lived in the neighbouring co-operative since the mid-’80s. She arrived in Canada from Sri Lanka when she was seven.

“I think this neighbourhood is probably more welcoming to something like this than many others I can think of,” she said.

Friesen said the community’s overall response so far has been positive.

“We haven’t had anyone come out and say, ‘This is a bad idea,’” said Friesen. “I think people listen to what we’re trying to do and they say, ‘Why has it taken so long to get this together?’ Some people are saying this may be a new model for social services.”

Robertson and Anton promised to fight for all winter shelters at the mayoral debate.

BC Housing, citing the most recent homeless count and a focus on supporting more permanent housing solutions, announced on Oct. 11 that it would only finance three out of seven so-called “lower barrier winter shelters.”

The decision could mean leaving as many as 160 people seeking a place to sleep out in the cold.

In a debate held on Nov. 7, candidates for Vision Vancouver and the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) said they were committed to lobbying the provincial government to fund the other four.

In other words, Vancouver’s homeless population as well as churches and other organizations that provide them with services are now counting on the politicians to convince the province to change its mind.

Shelters become political hot topic

The affected shelters were set up under Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was started in December 2008.

Most of the $1.5 million in funding came from the city, the province and the Streetohome Foundation.

The first four, in the downtown core and the Downtown Eastside, opened in December of that year and closed in the spring of 2009. Two of them, Stanley / New Fountain Hotel on West Cordova Street and the Aboriginal Central Street Shelter on Central Street, along with First United Church on East Hastings, were then turned into year-round shelters for 340 people.

First United Church has become a main refuge for Vancouver’s homeless people.

At the same time, the city expanded the program, opening up additional shelters in Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, Northeast False Creek and the West End. Taken together, the seven shelters provided space for 500 people.

The city council aimed to re-open the additional four lower barrier shelters to meet this December, but the provincial government has thwarted those plans.

According to the Metro Vancouver Homeless Count as of March 2011, there was an 82 per cent decrease in street homelessness in Vancouver between 2008 and 2011, leaving just 145 people unsheltered, or sleeping on the streets.

That figure, combined with the erection of 309 new supportive apartments this year and an increase of 100 spaces in so-called “extreme weather response shelters” has prompted BC Housing to decide there is no need to fund the four lower barrier shelters. That’s despite the most recent weather forecasts predicting one of the coldest winters in the past 20 years.

Don Evans, co-chair of the initiative “End Homelessness Now”, which tries to educate people about this topic, raises money and constantly lobbies politicians, called BC Housing’s decision “a big mistake”.

With churches not able to pick up the slack and existing shelters maxed out, he said: “You’d end up with people out on the street and some of these people would probably die during the winter.”

The candidates respond

On Oct. 18, Councillor Kerry Jang put forward a motion asking the province to reverse its decision. It was approved unanimously, opening the way for lobbying BC Housing.

“I’ll use any method possible, from hard data to political pressure by the mayor and of course, myself,” Jang said. The city needs around $2 million from the province to cover operational costs used to keep all seven of the shelters open.

NPA’s mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton said during the homelessness debate at the beginning of November that “a shelter was not a home” and that the focus should be on building more permanent housing units.

Nevertheless, she agreed that the province needed to provide funds to re-open the lower barrier shelters this winter.

Comparison of shelters offered by the city and the province

Lower Barrier Winter Shelters

• Created by Mayor Gregor Robertson’s initiative “Homeless Emergency Action Team” (HEAT) in 2008
• Located in churches and/or empty office buildings
• Currently three permanent shelters: First United Church, Stanley/New Fountain Hotel and Aboriginal Central Street
• Capacity of 340 beds
• Opened every winter, regardless of temperature
• Generally open between Dec. 1 and March 31/April 30 (depending on funding)
• Available 24/7, beds can be reserved
• No rules regarding drugs/alcohol, pets, etc.; storage for personal belongings available

Extreme Weather Response Shelters

• Created by BC Housing as part of “Emergency Housing” initiative in 2005
• Mostly in places such as church basements, e.g. First Baptist Church
• Currently nine shelters in the city, though locations rotate
• Capacity of about 1,000 beds around Vancouver
• Only opened in winter when certain temperature is reached
• Generally open between Nov. 1 and March 31 (subject to change)
• Typically available from 6 p.m. until the next morning
• Rules include no intoxication, no pets or belongings allowed; no storage available

But Downtown Eastside housing activists are worried that forced renovations in single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels could result in higher rents, evictions and a loss of low-income housing units.

Vision's proposed database is based on a NY site

The proposed database is based on a successful model from New York, said Vision incumbent candidate Kerry Jang.

It will compile information about landlord-operated buildings, including inspection reports and work orders, and map them online building by building.

The database is a key facet of Vision’s plan to strengthen renters’ rights. Jang said it will allow prospective renters to “find a bad landlord” and “avoid them.”

Andrea Reimer, another Vision incumbent candidate, said the database will also aid renters since “public shame is a very powerful motivator.” If people are aware of how poorly cared for a building is, it might “prompt [landlords] to action they might not otherwise have taken.”

Database’s potential role in the DTES

Housing advocates see both potential and drawbacks in the database.

Ivan Drury, an elected member of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council, acknowledges that the database could be a useful tool.

Drury frequently meets with, and advocates on behalf of, DTES SRO tenants. He compared an online landlord database to making restaurant inspection reports public, since they are both matters of “public interest.”

However, he believes the database has the ability to empower SRO tenants as they “are people who have almost no agency as far as choosing their housing is concerned.”

Being able to have easy access to inspection report means tenants could use the information as evidence when making claims of negligence against their landlords, he said.

Listen: Drury describes the worst conditions he’s seen in an SRO (0:53)

Jamie Richardson, who has lived in DTES SROs for almost 15 years, frequently finds himself battling with landlords for better housing conditions.

He likes the idea of a database, because he believes “we need more transparency when it comes to SRO hotels and what orders the landlords and owners of SROs are under. That way, it can be a little easier to [enforce] compliance with city bylaws.”

Richardson outside The Bourbon, where he frequently fought with landlords for better conditions.

Although Richardson supports the database, he’s not optimistic about it being implemented.

It’s “still a lot of talk, and it’s not any action,” he said. “If we don’t have the right parties elected at city hall, who knows if it could ever come to fruition.”

Joe Carangi, an NPA candidate for city council who has represented SRO tenants as a lawyer, is skeptical about the database’s viability.

“You’re telling me someone who’s living in the Downtown Eastside will be able to access computer records?” he asked. “You need someone who can advocate on their behalf. Without that, all this stuff is useless.”

Unintended consequences of forced renovations

Despite seeing the database as a potentially useful legal tool, Drury and Richardson are concerned that forcing landlords to improve SRO conditions may result in higher rents.

Richardson said that has already happened at the American Hotel and the Lotus Hotel.

The landlord shut them down “on the auspices of upgrading the rooms, and then re-rented (them) at rates that we cannot afford,” he said. Rooms that were previously rented at “$400 a month or less, were now renting out … for $800 and up.”

“The city has not developed the mechanisms they need to ensure that upgrades do not equal up scaling,” said Drury. He is trying to pressure city council to change the definition of “conversion” – how a room or building becomes a different type of residence – in the Single Room Accommodation bylaw.

Right now, the definition does not include rent hikes. Drury said specifying that conversion also means raising the monthly rent above $375 a month – the current welfare rate – would force landlords to go through an application process to justify the increase.

An example of conditions in DTES SROs. Taken by the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council

“I’m happy that Vision’s doing [the database], but … will they support tenant rights and security against evictions?” he asked. “If they [don't], all of the work they’re doing to improve conditions in the hotels is going to be for people who are not currently residents of those hotels.”

Vision’s Reimer said that numerous challenges, including mental health and addiction, “complicate” the fight for improved SRO conditions.

She was unwilling to say what she believes the solution is, but hopes that the SRO task force set up by this council will figure out how to provide both housing security and livable conditions for DTES residents.

Councillor Ellen Woodsworth: Little Mountain a "really good model that was working."

Advocates of the Little Mountain social housing site and local MPs are calling on the B.C. government to stop selling off public lands as a strategy to fund social housing.

The Community Advocates for Little Mountain (CALM) held a news conference at the site near Main and 33^rd Street on Nov. 9.

The date marked the second anniversary of the demolition of the Little Mountain site, which today still sits empty and unbuilt.

“There is a lesson here for every level of government,” said Linda Shuto, an organizer with CALM.  “We call on the provincial government to abandon the plan to sell this land. Go back to square one. Do not sell this land!”

The provincially-owned Little Mountain site in Vancouver was sold in principle to Holborn Properties in summer 2008. The sale agreement requires the company to replace the 224 units of social housing demolished in 2009. Proceeds from the sale are to be used to fund social housing on 14 other city-owned sites.

Related: Vancouver politicians press for federal housing strategy

The finalization of the sale has been held up in negotiations with the city over density, building height and site amenities. In mid-October, social housing advocate and former city councilor Jim Green left his role as community liaison for Holborn, raising questions as to whether the process had stalled entirely.

Handing off public land

CALM to Province: "abandon the plan to sell this land."

Given the upcoming election, some council candidates have taken advantage of what is becoming known as the Little Mountain “fiasco” to bring attention to what they say is a flawed housing strategy on the part of the provincial and the city governments.

“The strategy of selling off these public lands to private investors is just a continuation of neo-liberal policies of privatization that we’ve seen with increasing frequency over the last 35 years,” says Aaron Spires, R.I.C.H. (Rent is Crazy High) party candidate for city council.

“Once we put public land into the hands of private interests, it’s removed from the public sphere. We don’t have any recourse to change it,” said Spires.

Spires says Vision’s promises to end homelessness “were just smoke and mirrors to get elected and hand off these very lucrative properties to developers.” He would like to see Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vision held to account for broken campaign promises.

Lauren Gill, also a council candidate with R.I.C.H., lived in the Little Mountain community for a period of time. She says the value of the land was “worth more than the well-being of the tenants.”

“Before you start tearing down social housing in the middle of the worst housing crisis since the Depression, you better make sure there is housing stock for people to go to without displacing others,” she said.

Gill was at Little Mountain when Vision councillors Kerry Jang and Andrea Reimer campaigned on the steps of the site in 2008. They told residents they would do everything within their power to keep the land public.

“We can’t just let this slide under the rug,” said Gill. “I would like to see [Robertson] step down as mayor.”

A provincial problem

However, city councillors have a different point of view. Tell it to the province, says councilor Kerry Jang.

“It’s not our land,” said Jang. “That’s crown land. If the province chooses to sell its own land, there is no law on this earth that the city can use to prevent it. I said ‘I’ll do everything I can to keep it public,’ and I did. I’m damn proud of it.”

He says the city held up the Little Mountain demolition permit until they were convinced that residents were moved to housing of their satisfaction.

Jang says the role of the city is restricted to land use. The city is negotiating with Holborn for increased units of social housing and community amenities. Holborn wants a rezoning for increased density and increased height, Jang said.

Tiah: Holborn "full steam ahead" since 2009.

“The developer can ask for the moon – and that’s what he’s done,” said Jang. “But that’s just an opening gambit.” Jang says city revision of Holborn’s proposal “could take years.”

Rebuilding community

Holborn CEO Joo Kim Tiah says an initial delay on Holborn’s part in 2008 while the company recovered from the global economic downturn slowed the process initially. However, they have been “full steam ahead” since then.

“Obviously, some people are maybe impatient and want quick results, quick solutions,” said Tiah. He says the community consultation process laid out by the city is a labour-intensive affair.

“If people have doubts, they should come to the advisory group and be involved,” Tiah said.

However, some advocates say the public consultation is a PR event that only looks at surface issues like aesthetics.

Ingrid Steenhuisen, who lives in the one remaining building on the Little Mountain site, says she has attended all but two of the 40 consultations.

“I don’t know that the developer fully grasps the concerns of the residents,” Steenhuisen said. The community lost more than buildings, she said. “I don’t think they get that we’re a family.”

The city is being forced to pick up the province’s responsibility for affordable housing, something it doesn’t have the financial ability to deal with, says Councilor Ellen Woodsworth.

“We’re in a terrible situation right now where Vancouver is becoming a city just for the wealthy. But here at Little Mountain, we had a really good model that was working,” said Woodsworth. “We need to look at what worked so well for so long and why we’ve turned away from that.”

Occupy Vancouver in front of the Art Gallery.

Occupy Vancouver has ended up being one of the most important issues in the run-up to the municipal elections, ranking right up there with housing in terms of what concerns the city’s voters the most. Its organizers view housing as one of the local arm of the movement’s key issues.

Public protests, both peaceful and not, but especially those that involve housing, or rather a lack thereof, have a long history in Vancouver.

Michael Barnholden, an English instructor at Emily Carr University, recounts the many housing-related revolts that have occurred in the city over the years in his book, Reading the Riot Act, a brief history of riots in Vancouver.

In the 1930s, for example, Vancouver City Council, which owned real estate in the neighboring cities and towns such as Burnaby, repossessed homes there when the regions went bankrupt, leading their residents to start rioting.

A group of 35 soldiers, protesting the fact that they couldn’t find any housing upon their return from the war, occupied the Hotel Vancouver in 1946. Some 1,000 veterans and their spouses subsequently lived there until 1948, before the hotel got demolished the following year.

More recently, the Woodward’s building in the Downtown Eastside was occupied by a group of activists seeking social housing from the provincial government. The 2002 Woodward’s Squat, also known as “Woodsquat,” was an important issue in the municipal campaign that saw Larry Campbell elected on his promise to address homelessness.

Visiting the Occupy Vancouver camp, Barnholden noticed a placard on which the two main contenders, Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vision Vancouver and the NPA’s Susan Anton, were featured alongside local real estate mogul Bob Rennie, with a caption that read: “For developers, by developers.”
“It shows that despite political changes, the real estate market will still pull the strings in Vancouver,“ he said.

Placard seen at Occupy Vancouver.

Housing concerns of Occupiers

Members of Occupy Vancouver also see housing matters as an important component of their struggle.

“It is the most usual, the most obvious and the most local issue in Vancouver,“ says Max Winther, one of the main organizers of the housing rally that took place last Saturday.

Whinter contributed to draft a document titled Housing is a right, not a commodity, which addresses housing problems in Vancouver.

Endorsed by the Occupy Vancouver General Assembly, it details what its authors contend is the growing corruption, gentrification and speculation of the Vancouver real estate market.

Housing also preoccupies Maureen Fishpond, a member of Occupy Vancouver’s media committee. She plans to vote for Randy Helten, of Neighborhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver.

As she said, “Helten advocates for a better use of public lands and is committed to defend historical areas of Vancouver that are threatened by the construction of condos.”

A chronology of protests

• 1907: Rampant racism toward Asian immigrants led to the 1907 Anti-Asian riotsin Vancouver. It was fomented by the Asiatic Exclusion League, an organization that aimed to bar Asian people from North America, and in particular did not want to them to own private property.
• 1935 and 1938: Unemployment riots began when workers from the surrounding areas of Vancouver were dispossessed from their houses. The Vancouver City Council, which owned real estate in the neighboring cities and towns such as Burnaby, had reclaimed the homes after the regions went bankrupt.
• 1946: A group of 35 soldiers returning from war occupied the second Hotel Vancouver on the ground that they couldn’t find any housing back home. They announced that the vacant hotel would be used for veterans housing purposes. About a 1000 veterans and their spouses went to live there until 1948, before the building was torn down in 1949. They were backed by a large scope of local politicians.
• 2002: The Woodward’s building in the Downtown Eastside was occupied by a group of activists seeking social housing from the provincial government. The Woodward’s Squat – also known as “Woodsquat” — was an important issue in the municipal campaign that saw Larry Campbell elected on his promise to address homelessness.

Based on Michael Barnholden’s book, Reading the Riot Act, a brief history of riots in Vancouver.

Click on the photo to listen to 55-year-old Pete, who prefers to keep his last name private. He will move into The Dunbar Apartments in early December.

Homelessness and housing are among the leading topics in this year’s municipal elections, but none of the parties have made the city’s aging homeless population a priority on their housing agendas.

Advocates for homeless seniors warn that the new complex and the nearly 1,600 other supportive units to be built in the city over the next two years won’t be nearly enough to meet demand.

Numbers of homeless seniors spiking

A preliminary count of homeless in 2011 in all of metro Vancouver was virtually unchanged from 2008, at 2,623 vs. 2,660, respectively.

But the overall proportion of seniors (55+) increased to 14 per cent from 9 per cent, according to preliminary findings released by the Homelessness Secretariat.

Alice Sundberg is co-chair of the 40-member regional steering committee that allocates federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) dollars in metro Vancouver. She said that based on this spike, seniors housing has been noted as a priority to receive federal capital money through HPS as recommended in the committee’s 2011-14 community plan.

And as outlined in its Vancouver Housing & Homelessness Strategy 2012-21, 1,600 supportive housing units will be built by way of a city-province partnership by 2013, and an additional 1,300 by the end of 2021.

When it comes to the city’s aging homeless population, they can’t be built soon enough. That’s especially evident on Vancouver’s west side.

West side story

Until now, Mayor Gregor Robertson’s 2008 campaign promise to end homelessness by 2015 has left the men and women living on the streets and in the parks of the west side mostly untouched.

According to Judy Graves, who heads the city’s tenant assistance program and has been one of the most outspoken advocates for the city’s homeless for 35 years, the west side’s homeless population is the oldest, most dispersed and chronically unhoused, most of them for decades.

The mayor’s shelter-first and house-later approach has achieved an 82 per cent reduction in street homelessness in Vancouver.

But Graves said that as shelters and single room occupancy hotels (SROs) opened up beds in other parts of the city, most of the homeless in Kitsilano, Point Grey, Dunbar and Kerrisdale refused to move. Instead they opted to stay outside in parks and doorways rather than leave the communities where they’ve lived for years.

Click on the photo to listen to 56-year-old Arthur Langill, right, who will move into The Dunbar Apartments with his nephew Daniel Lagrois, left.

The solution that’s finally getting them inside: housing that’s local, and supported by mental health and addiction workers as well as by community and faith-based groups.

Dunbar Apartments is the first supportive housing site on the west side; a 62-unit site will open at West 7th and Fir in mid-2012.

The complexes are designed as low-income, low-barrier housing for those with disabilities, mental health and/or addiction issues.

In the west side and elsewhere, those that work with homeless seniors are straining under the weight of the population’s demand.

Already overwhelmed

Kara-Leigh Jameson describes the waitlist for seniors as “atrocious.”

She sits on the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness (RSCH) and is the executive director of Seniors Services Society (SSS), the only agency in the Lower Mainland that specifically serves aging homeless people.

In 2008, there were 818 seniors on the list, according to B.C. Housing. As of November 2011, there were 1,162, a 42 per cent increase. Such numbers are too much for SSS. The agency recently announced that it could no longer accept new referrals.

Jameson said the bubble of aging boomers that threatens to overwhelm the medical system within a decade is hitting the homeless and marginally housed population now.

Many of these people have been dealing with hunger, cold, addictions, mental illness and violence for decades, she explained, so while they may only be in their late 40s or 50s, she says, they require the most complicated kind of support there is. Studies show the average life expectancy to be at least 10 years less than in the general population of Canada.

“The supportive housing that’s being built is not being built quick enough for what we’re going to need in the next 10 years.”

The Little Mountain site remains unbuilt since its 2009 demolition.

The Little Mountain Housing Development, built in 1954, was the first public housing project in B.C.

“In 1954, Canadians and governments at all levels had the foresight and resources to build 100 percent publicly-owned housing that provided affordable housing,” Don Davies, MP for Vancouver Kingsway, said at the CALM press conference.

“Fast-forward to 2011, it is inexcusable and it’s unacceptable that with our greater resources today, we can’t triple or quadruple the amount of units in a place like this and make it and 100 percent public and 100 percent affordable,” Davies added.

Related: Demolished site highlights social housing tensions

Little Mountain points to a problem that will not be resolved until the Federal and Provincial governments begin to invest again in social housing, said councilor Ellen Woodsworth.

“It’s not in the interest of the market to develop social housing, because the market sees social housing as a commodity, not a right,” she said.

MP Libby Davies of the neighbouring East Vancouver riding said Little Mountain is “an incredible demonstration of what is wrong with policies on housing in B.C. and indeed federally.”

She said it was “unconscionable” that federal government opted out of social housing in 1993. “The federal government completely dropped the ball,” Davies said.