mr.x
Jan 25, 2008, 3:43 AM
Protesters disrupt governor-general's tour of Downtown Eastside
Christina Montgomery, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean got an up-close look at the many faces of the housing crisis in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside yesterday: the touching, the determined and the outraged.
Jean's afternoon tour of a women's residence and the neighbourhood surrounding it were part of her daylong participation in a series of housing events sponsored by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The governor-general, a Haitian immigrant who has spoken publicly of her difficult childhood, traded life stories with women in the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre for about two hours.
Jean was clearly moved as she left the building. But she appeared oblivious to the taunts and heckling of protesters who dogged her stroll to the nearby Sun Yat Sen Gardens with loud and frequently profane insults for Jean and NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball.
"We're walking right by hotels you helped close, Elizabeth," one protester screamed. "Have you no shame?"
Earlier in the day, the mayors of Canada's biggest cities called on Ottawa to renew a range of short-term housing agreements that expire next year - and draw up a national housing strategy to make them permanent.
They argued that, without a fresh commitment of programs and money, affordable housing in Canada faces the perfect storm.
Funding for all federal social housing expires in March 2009. Ongoing federal subsidies for existing social housing have begun to expire, and over the next decade annual spending on assisted housing will drop by $500 million and trigger a similar drop in related provincial spending, the mayors say.
A report they presented yesterday as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities met in Vancouver to launch a plan of attack says:
- Without renewing present programs, 20,000 citizens will remain chronically homeless;
- An equal number will rotate in and out of shelters;
- A lack of affordable rentals will continue to press rents up;
- A lack of supportive housing will back up into expensive hospital and long-term-care beds;
- Low-income neighbourhoods will deteriorate further;
- Even middle-income families will continue to be unable to buy a home.
The report appeared timed to press federal and provincial housing ministers, who meet in Vancouver on Feb. 26, to promise to renew present programs.
Anne-Marie DeCicco-Best, mayor of London, Ont., said the group's focus was ensuring that the $2 billion now committed is renewed and that as much as $1.35 billion in new money from all levels is found.
-n While 700 units of single-room-occupancy housing have already been converted to other uses in the Downtown Eastside, another 650 are under threat, said Am Johal, founder of the Impact on Communities Coalition.
"We are probably going to see an increase in the homelessness count when it's done in early March," said Johal. "During the Olympics itself, we're still expecting hundreds of evictions and it's likely to be worse than in previous years, particularly in the next two years."
Downtown Eastside warms to Jean
Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
In the bitter cold one night this week, Bernie Williams took photographs of 59 homeless people she found sleeping along three blocks of Hastings Street.
On Wednesday, she gave those pictures to Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean, who listened to women tell stories about their own poverty at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre.
"She was very sympathetic. A very compassionate woman. She gave a brief background of her refugee status when she came into this country. It was quite profound for the women to hear that because she is very grassroots," Williams, a community activist, said after Jean's 45-minute visit to the centre.
Williams is skeptical about whether Jean can jump-start any change, but was encouraged when the Haitian-born governor-general promised to share the pictures at a meeting later the same day with Canada's so-called big-city mayors.
Eradicating homelessness was also the theme at the mayors' Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting, where there was a demand for municipal, provincial and federal governments to spend $3.35 billion a year on social housing programs.
Although Jean's role is non-political, she may have delivered a message to the mayors about homelessness merely by speaking with Downtown Eastside women before attending the FCM meeting in Vancouver.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan was initially supposed to escort Jean to the women's centre, but protesters organized a rally to keep him away. Signs posted on the centre door said, "Sam Sullivan: You are not welcome here."
"The mayor is personally responsible for the bulldozer plan for the Downtown Eastside," protest organizer Wendy Pedersen yelled as the crowd cheered. "There's a plan to vacuum people out of this neighbourhood.":haha: :tup: :notacrook:
One complaint appears to be that poor people are being dispersed from the Downtown Eastside -- with nowhere else to go -- to make way for developments for the 2010 Olympics.
Protesters chanted "homes, not Games!"
They also heckled Jean and Sullivan's NPA colleague, Coun. Elizabeth Ball, as they walked along several blocks to Chinatown.
Jean, who did not speak to the media Wednesday, chatted with Ball but also glanced around at those who were heckling the pair as they headed to another meeting with representatives of the Chinese community.
"She was less concerned about [the heckling], rather than that she was listening to the women earlier about their messages," Ball said in an interview later. "She spoke about the need across the country in terms of housing and houselessness, the same issue that all big cities are dealing with."
Sullivan's spokesman, David Hurford, denied the mayor was banned from the women's centre, but said he "respected" the centre's wishes and stayed away.
Inside the centre, Deborah Mannette told her story to Jean, detailing how she became homeless and has struggled for more than six years.
"I've been trapped down here in social housing and can't get out," Mannette later told reporters. "She is stating to us she is seeing a vast problem right across Canada."
Gladys Radek, an advocate for missing women, added: "We told her the No. 1 thing that we need down here in Vancouver is affordable housing because we have so many women and children that are without homes. And some of our women are going out on the streets, so they can provide food and stuff for their children... It really appalled her that this was happening."
Jennifer Humthitt said women spoke to Jean about living in poverty, but wasn't sure it would make a difference.
"I've heard it all. I've been living and working in the Downtown Eastside for the last 10 years now, and I haven't seen anything change. Maybe this is something that is going to make a difference, I hope," Humthitt said.
Cynthia Low, coordinator of the women's centre, accused Sullivan of ignoring the plight of homeless women and of only accepting an invitation to the centre because he was accompanying Jean.
"It is our hope [Jean] will be able to take those words beyond the walls of the centre to... government," Low said.
After meeting with the mayors later Wednesday afternoon, Jean planned to visit B.C. recipients of the Order of Canada.
Today, Jean and husband Jean-Daniel Lafond are scheduled to meet with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, as well as visit a francophone community centre and an urban arts forum.
She leaves B.C. on Friday, after visiting the Goh Ballet Academy.
lculbert@png.canwest.com
Have these people ever figured out that screaming and yelling gets nothing done??? The Anti-Poverty Committee, according to 24 Hrs, was also involved.
I don't know why so many don't like Jean, she's quite respectable and comes from a unique background. For her to make it all the way to the top is truly amazing.
And she'll be back in Vancouver in two years to declare open the Olympics at the Opening Ceremony.
Christina Montgomery, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean got an up-close look at the many faces of the housing crisis in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside yesterday: the touching, the determined and the outraged.
Jean's afternoon tour of a women's residence and the neighbourhood surrounding it were part of her daylong participation in a series of housing events sponsored by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The governor-general, a Haitian immigrant who has spoken publicly of her difficult childhood, traded life stories with women in the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre for about two hours.
Jean was clearly moved as she left the building. But she appeared oblivious to the taunts and heckling of protesters who dogged her stroll to the nearby Sun Yat Sen Gardens with loud and frequently profane insults for Jean and NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball.
"We're walking right by hotels you helped close, Elizabeth," one protester screamed. "Have you no shame?"
Earlier in the day, the mayors of Canada's biggest cities called on Ottawa to renew a range of short-term housing agreements that expire next year - and draw up a national housing strategy to make them permanent.
They argued that, without a fresh commitment of programs and money, affordable housing in Canada faces the perfect storm.
Funding for all federal social housing expires in March 2009. Ongoing federal subsidies for existing social housing have begun to expire, and over the next decade annual spending on assisted housing will drop by $500 million and trigger a similar drop in related provincial spending, the mayors say.
A report they presented yesterday as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities met in Vancouver to launch a plan of attack says:
- Without renewing present programs, 20,000 citizens will remain chronically homeless;
- An equal number will rotate in and out of shelters;
- A lack of affordable rentals will continue to press rents up;
- A lack of supportive housing will back up into expensive hospital and long-term-care beds;
- Low-income neighbourhoods will deteriorate further;
- Even middle-income families will continue to be unable to buy a home.
The report appeared timed to press federal and provincial housing ministers, who meet in Vancouver on Feb. 26, to promise to renew present programs.
Anne-Marie DeCicco-Best, mayor of London, Ont., said the group's focus was ensuring that the $2 billion now committed is renewed and that as much as $1.35 billion in new money from all levels is found.
-n While 700 units of single-room-occupancy housing have already been converted to other uses in the Downtown Eastside, another 650 are under threat, said Am Johal, founder of the Impact on Communities Coalition.
"We are probably going to see an increase in the homelessness count when it's done in early March," said Johal. "During the Olympics itself, we're still expecting hundreds of evictions and it's likely to be worse than in previous years, particularly in the next two years."
Downtown Eastside warms to Jean
Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
In the bitter cold one night this week, Bernie Williams took photographs of 59 homeless people she found sleeping along three blocks of Hastings Street.
On Wednesday, she gave those pictures to Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean, who listened to women tell stories about their own poverty at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre.
"She was very sympathetic. A very compassionate woman. She gave a brief background of her refugee status when she came into this country. It was quite profound for the women to hear that because she is very grassroots," Williams, a community activist, said after Jean's 45-minute visit to the centre.
Williams is skeptical about whether Jean can jump-start any change, but was encouraged when the Haitian-born governor-general promised to share the pictures at a meeting later the same day with Canada's so-called big-city mayors.
Eradicating homelessness was also the theme at the mayors' Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting, where there was a demand for municipal, provincial and federal governments to spend $3.35 billion a year on social housing programs.
Although Jean's role is non-political, she may have delivered a message to the mayors about homelessness merely by speaking with Downtown Eastside women before attending the FCM meeting in Vancouver.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan was initially supposed to escort Jean to the women's centre, but protesters organized a rally to keep him away. Signs posted on the centre door said, "Sam Sullivan: You are not welcome here."
"The mayor is personally responsible for the bulldozer plan for the Downtown Eastside," protest organizer Wendy Pedersen yelled as the crowd cheered. "There's a plan to vacuum people out of this neighbourhood.":haha: :tup: :notacrook:
One complaint appears to be that poor people are being dispersed from the Downtown Eastside -- with nowhere else to go -- to make way for developments for the 2010 Olympics.
Protesters chanted "homes, not Games!"
They also heckled Jean and Sullivan's NPA colleague, Coun. Elizabeth Ball, as they walked along several blocks to Chinatown.
Jean, who did not speak to the media Wednesday, chatted with Ball but also glanced around at those who were heckling the pair as they headed to another meeting with representatives of the Chinese community.
"She was less concerned about [the heckling], rather than that she was listening to the women earlier about their messages," Ball said in an interview later. "She spoke about the need across the country in terms of housing and houselessness, the same issue that all big cities are dealing with."
Sullivan's spokesman, David Hurford, denied the mayor was banned from the women's centre, but said he "respected" the centre's wishes and stayed away.
Inside the centre, Deborah Mannette told her story to Jean, detailing how she became homeless and has struggled for more than six years.
"I've been trapped down here in social housing and can't get out," Mannette later told reporters. "She is stating to us she is seeing a vast problem right across Canada."
Gladys Radek, an advocate for missing women, added: "We told her the No. 1 thing that we need down here in Vancouver is affordable housing because we have so many women and children that are without homes. And some of our women are going out on the streets, so they can provide food and stuff for their children... It really appalled her that this was happening."
Jennifer Humthitt said women spoke to Jean about living in poverty, but wasn't sure it would make a difference.
"I've heard it all. I've been living and working in the Downtown Eastside for the last 10 years now, and I haven't seen anything change. Maybe this is something that is going to make a difference, I hope," Humthitt said.
Cynthia Low, coordinator of the women's centre, accused Sullivan of ignoring the plight of homeless women and of only accepting an invitation to the centre because he was accompanying Jean.
"It is our hope [Jean] will be able to take those words beyond the walls of the centre to... government," Low said.
After meeting with the mayors later Wednesday afternoon, Jean planned to visit B.C. recipients of the Order of Canada.
Today, Jean and husband Jean-Daniel Lafond are scheduled to meet with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, as well as visit a francophone community centre and an urban arts forum.
She leaves B.C. on Friday, after visiting the Goh Ballet Academy.
lculbert@png.canwest.com
Have these people ever figured out that screaming and yelling gets nothing done??? The Anti-Poverty Committee, according to 24 Hrs, was also involved.
I don't know why so many don't like Jean, she's quite respectable and comes from a unique background. For her to make it all the way to the top is truly amazing.
And she'll be back in Vancouver in two years to declare open the Olympics at the Opening Ceremony.