UPDATES

• Attached are two reports that you might find interesting to read in order to understand the housing crisis here in Canada and BC. One is written by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing and the other one is a report by the BC Auditor General.

• Featuring articles you want to read. David Harvey "The right to the city" and Jamie Peck "Creativity is the new black."

BACKGROUND FACTS

• Canada's homeless population is somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000

• 1.7 million residents struggle with housing affordability issues

• Roughly half of all Canadians live in fear of poverty, and 49 per cent polled believe they might be poverty stricken if they missed one or two paycheques

• Calgary's homeless population grew 740 per cent between 1994 and 2006

• Government numbers show a cost of up to $6 billion a year to service a "core" homeless population of 150,000. That cost includes health care, criminal justice, social services and emergency shelter costs

• The former national affordable housing strategy, discontinued in 1993, created 650,000 units providing housing for more than two million Canadians

• 200,000-300,000 Canadians suffer from homelessness annually

• 1.7 million residents struggle with housing affordability issues

• Government numbers show a cost of up to $6 billion a year to service a "core" homeless population of 150,000. That cost includes health care, criminal justice, social services and emergency shelter costs

• The former national affordable housing strategy, discontinued in 1993, created 650,000 units providing housing for more than two million Canadians

• There are somewhere between 10,500 and 15,000 homeless people in BC

• A homeless person dies every 12 days in BC

• The 2008 homelessness count identified 2,660 people who were homeless in the Metro Vancouver region

• 32% of the homeless population is aboriginal when they comprise only 2% of the region’s population

• 73% of homeless aboriginal people are street homeless in Metro Vancouver

• 45% of homeless women in Metro Vancouver are aboriginal

• Homelessness has more than doubled since the Olympics were awarded to Vancouver

RESOURCES

• noplacelikehomevancouver.org

• megaphonemagazine.com

• homelessnation.org

• 2010homelesschampions.ca

• Canada Homeless Resources by Province

• Pivot Legal Society

• Impact on Communities Coalition

• Carnegie Community Action Project

• Citywide Housing Coalition

• Wellesley Institute

• Toronto Disaster Relief Committee

• Center on Housing Rights and Evictions

For Video Archive

youtube.com/beckygavigan