City News

Hey Vancouver, remember the Olympics? The FIFA World Cup is currently underway in South Africa and it is the planet's biggest sporting event. From TheTyee.ca:
World Cup's First Losers: South Africa's Homeless People feared it would happen in the run up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, but it's happening today in cities across South Africa. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup looming, reports have surfaced that homeless people are being rounded up and forcibly removed before the eyes of the world turn to look upon South Africa. Though the international media has picked up on the story with some vigour, from what I've observed working in Johannesburg's inner city these street sweeps seem to be nothing out of the ordinary. Last August, as part of a campaign to tackle homelessness, the city's human development department took to the streets on a mission to stop people from giving money, food, clothes or blankets to the 3,000 or so homeless people living in Johannesburg's inner city. "Their presence violates the city bylaws and we arrest them," Edna Mamonyane, spokeswoman for the Johannesburg Metro Police, said at the time. "This is a normal police exercise, but we have intensified our efforts because of the World Cup.
Read the rest of the article here.

News release For Immediate Release April 7, 2010 Society for Poor, Marginalized, Homeless Chickens (SPMHC) to speak at City Council Thursday Cluck. A representative of the Society for Poor, Marginalized, Homeless Chickens will crow at City Council on Thursday. SPMHC rep Robert Bonner will ask Council to expand the five freedoms for chickens to include poor, marginalized, homeless humans also. A report to Council says that chickens should have five freedoms, including freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition, freedom from discomfort, and freedom to express normal behavior. The report also calls on Council to spend $20,000 on a shelter for homeless chickens. The SPMHC rep will express solidarity with homeless humans and suggest that more shelters and homes be built for humans quickly. Cluck. Time: Council meeting starts at 2 pm, Thursday April 8th Place: Vancouver City Hall, 453 12th --30— Contact: Robert Bonner, 604 724 6547 Aiysha Faruk, 604 676 0280

By Monte Paulsen and Geoff Dembicki thetyee.ca What's Driving Olympics Homeless Protesters Bruce Laking has lived on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside for 56 years, off and on. Early Monday afternoon, he gestured to a bright red tent on the sidewalk. "Hey, how d'you like my new home?" Laking shouted to a friend. Hundreds gathered today at Pigeon Park, a triangular slice of concrete in the city's most troubled neighbourhood. They rallied for solutions to homelessness and erected an "Olympics tent city" just down the road. "We're not here for any violence -- we're here for love and peace," the Power of Women's Elaine Durocher told reporters, activists, homeless residents and city councillors. "We're here for the poor and poverty-stricken." Native elders led a short march throughout the neighbourhood, beating solemnly on handheld drums. Someone pushed a stroller with the crowd. The baby calmly munched handfuls of popcorn from a small plastic bag. Yellow-jacketed police rode bikes alongside, joking with each other. The walk ended at an empty, fence-fringed lot between Abbott and Carrall streets. Tents sprouted like mushrooms from the red clay and concrete amongst old sneakers and syringes. Many of the shelters were bright red, the result of a Pivot Legal Society campaign to house Vancouver's homeless and draw attention to the issue. In coming weeks, organizers will distribute up to 500 tents. Canadian suppliers of hand grown, open-pollinated, non-GMO seed. "There's not enough shelters and there's not enough hotels," Laking said. "The hotels that are here are dirty and they're full of bedbugs. I believe the tents will be popular." Nobody's sure how long the tent city will last. Or where new ones will grow. For now, police keep a watchful eye. As the Tyee's Monte Paulsen explains below, today's protest is merely the latest incarnation of a decades-old problem. READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT THETYEE.CA

Does It Work? By Matthew Power Posted Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010, at 10:05 AM ETOne study of Vancouver's injection-drug users has taken harm reduction to a level even beyond Insite. In 2003, the same year that the supervised-injection site opened its doors, an epidemiologist named Martin Schecter began planning a trial that had never been conducted in North America: heroin maintenance. Read the entire artcle at: http://www.slate.com/id/2242828/?GT1=38001

Hello guys, October just stated and its official: summer is over. But don't be too sad because it also means that the Homelessness Action Week is just around the corner. The fourth edition will take place this year between the 11th and the 17th of October . there will be lots of events organized all around BC and Yukon. www.stophomelessness.ca Check this website to see all the different events going on. Just click on “community calendar”, located on the top bar and you will be able to search for events.

Vancouver loses more social housing

The pace of gentrification, high numbers of homeless and loss of social housing in Vancouver has been staggering and continues to move forward as we get closer and closer to the 2010 Olympics, despite promises made by the city to create more social housing.

Home For The Games

Welcome to Home For The Games

Homeowners and visitors coming together for home stays, celebration and a good cause.

Are you looking for affordable accommodation during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games? Or are you a homeowner with a room or suite to rent to visitors? We can help. Home For The Games facilitates home stays and rentals while raising funds to help Vancouver's most vulnerable citizens.

No Medals for Vancouver Council in the Free-Speech Event http://mostlywater.org/node/71590 By David Eby; July 29, 2009 - Vancouver Sun http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/medals+Vancouver+council+... While the International Olympic Committee earns a gold medal in the race to protect its sponsors and the Olympic brand, the same cannot be said of its performance in the competition for free speech and democratic rights. For example, Rule 51 of the IOC Olympic Charter prohibits any "demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." Not exactly the stuff of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but then again, nobody elected the IOC to protect democracy. In countries such as Canada, protecting our sometimes messy but always cherished freedoms is the task, in large part, of our elected representatives. Unfortunately for Vancouverites, our city council hasn't turned in a medal performance in the free-speech competition either. They've just rushed through a package of bylaws that skate over the free-speech rights of, in no particular order: small and independent businesses, artists, rock bands, protesters and Vancouver residents as a whole. Haste in passing the bylaws, last-minute amendments and council's surprise about negative public reaction show a lack of care, or concern, for the implications of the changes. Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs defends the new bylaws, suggesting the B.C. Civil Liberties Association is "going too far" in criticizing the initiatives. Apparently without appreciating the irony involved, he advises that council values free expression rights because, among other initiatives: "Security planners . . . are creating certain high-profile areas, close to the heart of the action, where protesters are sure to be heard and seen by IOC and world leaders." Beyond the alarming possibility that the majority of council believes that limiting free speech to particular areas, high profile or otherwise, somehow demonstrates a commitment to free speech, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association points out that council's new bylaws and motions: - Restrict access to more than 40 downtown residential and commercial blocks deemed Olympic "venues" or "sites," including parks, community centres and the central library, to people who consent to "security screening" and in which displaying "any [unlicensed] sign" is prohibited unless the sign is "celebratory." - Allow the city manager to make any rules she sees fit restricting access to these city blocks and public facilities, without approval from council. - Give special Olympic exemption permits across the city to signs that are "celebratory in nature" and, by extension, refuse permits to signs that are critical or, presumably, melancholic in nature. - Call on the province to authorize the city to prohibit leaflet distribution if the leaflet is offensive to authorities and might end up as litter, punishable by fines of up to $10,000 per day, ostensibly to reduce work for city trash collectors. - Conscript taxpayer-funded city workers to enforce trademark rules on behalf of the IOC, which at least makes use of the extra staff time created by eliminating those hated discarded leaflet-pickup shifts. - Eliminate the low-cost posters found on construction hoardings and utility poles that typically advertise concerts, protests, community meetings and art shows, because during the Olympics such affordable and accessible posters are a "nuisance and eyesore" when compared to the simple beauty of an unmolested construction hoarding. Given this remarkably poor performance by the majority of our elected municipal representatives in protecting free-speech rights in Vancouver for the Olympics, is it going too far to point out that there is no sure footing when ice skating in July? Council's prize of a gold medal from the IOC for passing these bylaws may be judged differently by voters who know what a democracy truly values. David Eby is executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association.

Right now as I sit here trying to know where to begin, as I have been giving my monies to homesteaders as rentals and hotels losing much money in that I received narry a return for the tender, call it larceny call it robbery, its atrocious but is anybody interested only after the concentration camps were people concerned about the millions who were exterminated, but during? you can't count on it, as the press and evil spirits have their ways of detracting attention from the news, so here I am wondering who will be stealing from me next as I go to stores, gyms, residences where I am followed, eyed like I am a criminal, harrassed by subtle dog killing and they take my information in their secret retreat for files and let the next vendor or amazon know about my whereabouts in the Communist Pig Country, to which I have no home but I must pay or I will get evicted and I am being evicted anyway why? because they say so and they're word is gold, so do let me know if you have a question or two in this subtle rustic spy country.

Ressources humaines et Développement des compétences Canada 06 avr. 2009 16h00 HE Le gouvernement du Canada aide les jeunes sans-abri de North Vancouver NORTH VANCOUVER, COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE--(Marketwire - 6 avril 2009) - Le gouvernement du Canada aide les jeunes qui sont sans abri ou qui risquent de le devenir à se bâtir un avenir meilleur. Le secrétaire parlementaire du président du Conseil du Trésor et député de North Vancouver, M. Andrew Saxton, a annoncé au nom de la ministre des Ressources humaines et du Développement des compétences, l'honorable Diane Finley, que des fonds de la Stratégie des partenariats de lutte contre l'itinérance (SPLI) seront versés à la Hollyburn Family Services Society de North Vancouver, qui les investira dans un refuge d'urgence et un logement de transition. "Notre gouvernement vient en aide à de nombreux Canadiens qui ont des besoins en matière de logement et donne suite à son engagement d'appuyer ceux et celles qui cherchent à rompre le cycle de l'itinérance et de la pauvreté. Grâce à cet investissement, la Hollyburn Family Services Society pourra mettre en oeuvre des services de soutien afin d'aider les jeunes dans le besoin", a dit M. Saxton. Grâce à l'investissement de la SPLI, qui s'élève à 802 702 dollars, la North Shore Youth Safe House, qui est administrée par la Hollyburn Family Services Society, rendra accessible aux jeunes un refuge d'urgence de quatre lits ainsi qu'un logement de transition supervisé de deux lits. Les intervenants du refuge offriront aux jeunes du soutien 24 heures sur 24, 7 jours sur 7. Ils les aideront notamment à acquérir des connaissances de base et leur offriront du counselling individuel, du counselling en matière de toxicomanie et de l'accompagnement professionnel. "Le district de North Vancouver est fier de conclure avec la Hollyburn Family Services Society et le gouvernement du Canada un partenariat qui permettra d'offrir des services essentiels aux jeunes dans le besoin de la rive nord", a déclaré le maire de North Vancouver, Son Honneur M. Richard Walton. "Nous remercions le gouvernement du Canada de son soutien continu dans le cadre de ce projet. Ces fonds aideront la Hollyburn Family Services Society à donner refuge aux jeunes les plus vulnérables de la rive nord : ceux qui n'ont pas d'endroit sécuritaire où dormir", a dit le directeur administratif de la Hollyburn Family Services Society, M. Alan Kwinter. En septembre 2008, le gouvernement du Canada a annoncé un investissement de 1,9 milliard de dollars au cours des cinq prochaines années pour les programmes de logement et de lutte contre l'itinérance à l'intention des Canadiens et Canadiennes à faible revenu. Cet engagement donne au gouvernement la possibilité de collaborer avec les provinces, les territoires, les municipalités et les organismes de bienfaisance pour élaborer des moyens d'améliorer l'efficacité des dépenses fédérales dans le secteur du logement et de l'itinérance. Ce financement continu permettra au gouvernement de s'assurer que nous pourrons continuer d'aider ceux dans le besoin, y compris les sans-abri et ceux susceptibles de le devenir (les Canadiens à faible revenu, les aînés, les personnes handicapées, les nouveaux immigrants et les Canadiens d'origine autochtones). Le Plan d'action du Canada fait fond sur ces investissements en y ajoutant un investissement ponctuel de plus de 2 milliards de dollars sur deux ans aux fins de la construction de logements sociaux ou de la rénovation de ceux existants, ainsi qu'une somme pouvant atteindre 2 milliards de dollars en prêts à faibles coûts pour financer les infrastructures de ces logements sociaux. La SPLI établit que l'accès à un logement et à un emploi stables est essentiel à l'autonomie et à une pleine participation à la société canadienne. Assortie de buts bien définis, comme le renforcement des partenariats, la viabilité accrue des initiatives et l'obtention de résultats tangibles, la Stratégie donne des résultats concrets, appréciables et durables dont profitent les Canadiens dans le besoin. DOCUMENT D'INFORMATION La Stratégie des partenariats de lutte contre l'itinérance (SPLI) est un programme communautaire unique visant à prévenir et à réduire l'itinérance en offrant un soutien direct et du financement à plus de 60 collectivités dans l'ensemble du Canada. La SPLI est entrée en vigueur le 1er avril 2007 avec un budget annuel de 134,8 millions de dollars pour deux ans. La Stratégie a été prolongée pour deux années additionnelles, soit du 1er avril 2009 au 31 mars 2011. Dans le cadre de la SPLI, le gouvernement du Canada offre à l'ensemble des provinces et territoires la possibilité de travailler en partenariat pour assurer une meilleure harmonisation des investissements fédéraux, provinciaux et territoriaux, et ainsi offrir aux sans-abri une gamme de mesures de soutien intégrées. La SPLI regroupe trois initiatives principales : l'Initiative des partenariats de lutte contre l'itinérance (IPLI), le Réseau sur les responsabilités en matière d'itinérance et l'Initiative visant à mettre des biens immobiliers excédentaires fédéraux à la disposition des sans-abri. L'Initiative des partenariats de lutte contre l'itinérance (IPLI) est la pierre angulaire de la Stratégie des partenariats de lutte contre l'itinérance. Son approche, qui donne la priorité au logement, établit que l'on doit d'abord offrir aux gens un logement de transition ou un logement supervisé. L'IPLI comporte quatre volets de financement : - les collectivités désignées; - les collectivités éloignées; - les collectivités autochtones; - les projets pilotes horizontaux du gouvernement fédéral. Le Réseau sur les responsabilités en matière d'itinérance permet de gérer les programmes de façon plus responsable. Il permet également aux organismes d'acquérir des connaissances, de renforcer leurs réseaux et de mettre en commun leurs pratiques exemplaires. L'Initiative visant à mettre des biens immobiliers excédentaires fédéraux à la disposition des sans-abri permet d'offrir des propriétés et des terrains fédéraux excédentaires à des organismes communautaires, à des organismes sans but lucratif et à d'autres ordres de gouvernement pour des projets de prévention et de réduction de l'itinérance. Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements sur la Stratégie des partenariats de lutte contre l'itinérance, veuillez visiter le www.rhdcc.gc.ca/fra/sans_abri/. 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