“social housing”

Mayor Sam Sullivan welcomed news that the provincial government has selected 10 non-profit organizations to operate the single room occupancy (SRO) hotels purchased this year by the Province, and two city-owned sites.

Ten non-profit groups were selected through an Expressions of Interest proposal call issued in August. In addition to the 10 hotels purchased by the Province this year, the proposal call also included the Drake Hotel purchased by the City of Vancouver, and a new, supportive housing development for the city-owned site at 337 West Pender St. The organizations selected for these two Vancouver-owned sites will need to receive city council approval.

“The provision of supportive housing for low-income singles is one of the ways that we’re going to reach our Project Civil City goal of reducing homelessness by at least 50 per cent by 2010,” said Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. “These respected community service providers will address a diverse range of housing needs. I’d like to thank Minister Rich Coleman for his leadership on this initiative.”

“Homeless Action Plan” SRO targets more than doubled: Sullivan

Mayor Sam Sullivan today welcomed the City of Vancouver’s purchase of the Drake Hotel to help increase access to affordable social housing in the city. Today’s announcement will help achieve Vancouver’s Project Civil City goal to reduce homelessness by a minimum of 50% by 2010.

“Delivering compassionate solutions to our social challenges is one of the goals I have established for my government,” said Mayor Sullivan. “Project Civil City is an opportunity to use the 2010 Winter Olympics & Paralympic Games as a catalyst to solve many of the housing challenges facing our most vulnerable citizens.”

Mt. Pleasant acquisition can help achieve Project Civil City objectives

Mayor Sam Sullivan & City Councillors use a custom-built shovel for a groundbreaking for new social housing at 1321 Richards St.

Mayor Sam Sullivan today welcomed a City of Vancouver purchase of land that could result in significant new social housing in Mount Pleasant. This purchase compliments Mayor Sullivan’s participation in a series of important announcements and events today, including:

• more than $14 million in traffic ticket revenue from the Province of BC to support community police services
• over $1.1 million for 2010 Legacies Now to develop an accessible tourism strategy in advance of the Olympics
• groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of Kindred Place — a new 87 unit social housing development on Richards Street

STEVE MERTL
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has quietly bought up more than a dozen fleabag hotels and other properties as part of a plan to curb rising homelessness in Canada’s most expensive real estate market.
Community activists have led a rising clamour that owners of so-called single-room-occupancy hotels want to cash in on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics by converting their buildings to house tourists.
The expected wave of evictions will exacerbate Vancouver’s already serious homelessness problem, critics say.
The Pivot Legal Society estimates hotel conversions have already led to some 700 evictions.

Source: CBC News
Vancouver city council approved in principle a homelessness strategy in which the city would donate a dozen parcels of land worth $50 million for the development of 1,500 low-cost apartments.
The report, co-authored by Ken Dobell, a top aide to Premier Gordon Campbell and a former city manager, calls on the province to spend $48 million a year to build and maintain the small housing units for low-income singles.

In February 2007, the City of Vancouver announced it invested $6.6 million for the purchase of a 36-unit rental apartment building at Kingsway and Dumfries. The City will lease the…

Source: The Globe and Mail
Byline: Mark Hume

The federal government has closed a funding gap that threatened to shut down non-profit aboriginal groups providing 15,000 shelter beds and feeding 2,000 families annually in British Columbia.

“The government has agreed to a six-month extension of existing projects, which was very nice,” Patrick Stewart, chairman of the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee, said yesterday.

“And what that means is it will give us six months of continued existing services while we work out the new terms and conditions and do proposal calls [for a new two-year contract].

“So it looks like we’ll get the seamless transition we were looking for.”