logo

Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay


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.

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

 

For Video Archive

youtube.com/beckygavigan

 
 

The 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Trekkers take red tents (www.redtent.org) to Ottawa to send a message of support for a national housing strategy!

The "2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay" began December 29th, 2009 in Vancouver and it has been gaining momentum ever since. We celebrate the one year anniversary and the fact that we have had more than 70 participants who have raised awareness.

We are calling for the re-establishment of a National Housing Program based on the One Percent Solution in Canada.

Each week volunteers have taken on the Wooden Spoon and participated in a week long fast for 7 days. This Sunday June 6, 2010 supporters from across the country will board the train to Ottawa, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the "On to Ottawa Trek" to demand the government to support affordable housing, a living wage and accessable social programs.

Kamloops "On to Ottawa Treck"

As a delegation from the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike makes a commemorative trek
to Ottawa in June 2010, we are trying to raise funds to subsidize some of the participants in this year's trek and also raise money for a commemorative plaque which will be placed on the Main Street overpass.

 

This Weeks Hunger Strike Profile

Meet the people who are participating in the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay!

The Reason Behind Passing Along the Wooden Spoon

The solutions are one percent away to ending Homelessness in Canada.

2010 Homelessness Petition

2010 Homelessness Issues Blog

Theme Song

Another Theme Song (Nina Simone)