Canada seems at times to be just eons ahead of us in progress.....
Housing activists propose private hotels for homeless
Lora Grindlay, The Province
Published: Wednesday, October 01, 2008Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project said there are about 400 empty, privately owned hotel rooms in the impoverished neighbourhood and almost as many homeless people.
"The city and the province should negotiate with the private owners of empty hotels to open them up to homeless people as shelters," Swanson said yesterday.
City councillor and mayoral candidate Peter Ladner doubted the city had the power to tell building owners to put people in the rooms.
"I don't know the difference between those spaces and spaces in your basement suite or somebody's extra bedroom," he said. "We can't just go up and knock on the door and say, 'We think you should take a homeless person.'"
Yesterday the city approved social and supported housing developments on three city-owned sites -- none in the Downtown Eastside -- at a cost of $10 million to the city. They will provide 250 rooms.
"The city would prefer to have long-term stable, sustainable housing rather than something temporary that diverts resources," Ladner said.
The group announced its temporary fix outside the Dominion Hotel yesterday, one of about 15 empty hotels it has identified.
Swanson said some of the hotels are closed and some are for sale.
"We're not saying they are good housing. We aren't even saying that they're fair housing, but it would be better than the street," she said.
"The idea would be that the province in the meantime would have to build some good housing that these people could go to on a permanent basis."
She said the group is to meet city housing officials tomorrow.
This year's Metro Vancouver Homeless Count found at least 2,600 homeless people.
lgrindlay@thepr
