Vancouver becoming 'apartheid city' in housing crisis, says former UN rep
 

CBC interview with Miloon Kothari at 26:50 mark: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/960768579669

B-b-but we have bike lanes! :haha:

This observation/comment by the former U.N. rep could hurt Vancouver's ranking as a livable world class city.:(

Well to be a livable city, you must be able to live in it...

There's really not a lot I can do with first-time-buyers with budgets of less than 600K, doesn't sound too livable to me.

Holy shit. A guy who lives in New Delhi (which has slums on par with Rio), compares Vancouver to the racist policies of South Africa.

What an ass, and what an insult to the people who suffered under apartheid.

I thought Robertson was the one who said he could end homelessness like yesterday? Now he wants "all levels of government to work together"? Start delegating like he knows what he's is talking about after failing to fulfill a promise? Hmmm. Same thing with the issue regarding the viaducts removal: Robertson is also requesting funding from the BC government.

In reality, this UN rep is only getting over-dramatic criticizing about Vancouver's housing policies. How can someone judge to say our housing is in shambles when he is only shown illegal slums where spoilt people on welfare choose to get into such deplorable environments like living in makeshift tents and rat-infested Downtown Eastside slums? How many of these residents become what they are now because of domestic abuse or bad luck? All of them can become better but most choose not to. Even if they came from broken families, the root of the problem is cultural failure, and governments should be focusing on family counselling, and implementing work-based welfare systems, rather than providing more free housing for these people, which will never ever help with the situation.

I think the middle class consisting of hardworking people are still living well in this city. Although they are paying more for housing compared to residents of other Canadian cities, there is no comparison to the slums of places like Delhi or some other third world cities, where many can't get out of the situation even though they toil hard to seek work daily.

They're "living well" in Abbotsford and Chilliwack and driving four hours to and from work every day, essentially never seeing their family. Anyone who lives west of Langley is struggling now.

Although yes an Indian giving us shit is pretty funny.

old news, but pertinent
 

It may have been pretty "funny" but it's largely very true. Just look at all the hoopla about the dynamic emergence of downtown Surrey ... then consider Tent City.

-Only city in Canada that won't kill you in the winter because 2 degrees and rain is better than -13 with a blizzard

-All homeless people move to the place where they won't die

"Oh my god why does Vancouver have a homelessness crisis"

If this is the worst Canada has to offer then I think we are doing pretty well.

Also, what is this guy from New Delhi talking about. There a literally miles and miles of slums as far as the eye can see there and we have like a couple hundred tents lying around.

As it turns out he is not with the UN anymore. He is now the head of a non-profit based in Geneva called UPR Info, that as far as I can tell provides consulting to third world countries on what to do to score better on UN Human Rights rankings.

If he did an in-depths analysis of the local economic and housing system I might take him seriously. If he comes in from Geneva for a few days, spends a day visiting the downtown east side and giving a talk, who is going to take him seriously providing a professional view on the local housing problem and tax structure.

Sounds like you are OK with what we have on our streets. Got used to it I see?

For me, it's a real shame seeing the appalling situation on our downtown streets, and no, we are not doing well at all. In fact, the situation is getting worse. It's even more daunting when I visit supposed "developing country" cities and they are starting to have cleaner inner city streets than what we have here. It's shameful especially when you see tourists in Vancouver staring in disbelief at people shooting up in public around the corner of major tourist belts, or zombie-like people flaying their arms about yelling their heads off. Some people pretend that it's normal but it is not. It is sickening.

It's never OK to take the negative effects of illicit drug use or other forms of addictions lightly. Doing that compounds the situation, and we see the result today.
Canada is a wealthy nation. No one is forced into homelessness due to their surroundings. There is always a way to get out of it if the individual really wants to. For those who can't or choose not to, authorities should step in and make them get better, not encouraging them to further their addictions.


See all the photos here and you tell me this is "normal":

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Drug+...w=1575&bih=974

I agree all I said was if this was the worst Canada had to offer, then we are doing far better than most places on earth. I didn't say we were perfect, all I said was we're going pretty well. At the same time, it's kinda strange that every Canadian party is so eager to help refugees when we could be putting that effort into helping our own homeless people first.

We could get a lot more homeless people off the streets with we put drug addicts in asylums/rehabs than insites (but not all homeless people are homeless because of drugs but a big fraction are)

Agreed. When you say ridiculous hyperbolic things like that you lose all credibility in my book.

:yes: I don't pretend to know what's best for the junkies, but enabling a drug addiction to prevent a death from infection or overdose seems to address the symptom rather than the actual problem; I'd rather spend money on ways to cure the addiction.

There are two or three separate issues at play in this thread.

Does someone who use to be an unpaid, independent consulted to a UN agency (the definition of what a special rapporteur is) is somehow an authority on housing in Vancouver? I think not. I would have more trust in the position of someone who has spent more than a few days trying to figure this out.

The other issues is the problem with the downtown eastside. It is a problem. No one should be forced to live in those conditions. The area needs to be cleaned up. The physical environment needs to be redeveloped. At the same time something needs to be done to create housing and medical treatment opportunities for the people who live there now.

There have been a lot of people (with non-profit and government resources) who have tried to do just that over the past decades. I assume some of it has had a positive impact but we are still where we are today. I am not certain there is an easy answer as to what to do.