Mar 08, 07
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This might come across as negative but I highly doubt that in three years it will be any better... The problem is is that Vancouver is a fairly small city compared to other cities. We have a small downtown and then the burbs. So everyone focuses on the downtown and that's where the crime and drugs get pushed to because no one wants them knocking on their front door. Now no one wants them downtown because we need to make this city look pretty to the world... so what do you do with a group a people that no one wants? 
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Mar 08, 07
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it's sad to hear that no one wants these people, and there are a lot of ideas and a lot of money spent on coming up with the ideas, but no action is being done.
I don't know how to help these people, I can't donate my money as I don't have any. I would donate my time but like was said earlier in the thread... at christmas handing out sandwiches with Winston.. they just weren't happy with what we had done for them, they just wanted money or better food...
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Mar 08, 07
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We need Rudy Guliani to be the mayor for when the Olympics are about to take place... he took care of the homeless issue in NYC.... i's exactly what this city needs
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Mar 08, 07
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Mar 08, 07
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Mar 08, 07
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I'm not going to argue with you, it's not worth it, but I do have family members that are write offs now and its from talking to them and some random addicts on the street that I've formed my opinions
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Mar 08, 07
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people will destroy themselves no matter how many homeless shelters, low income housing and social services we have.
that social housing going up in woodwards is non-market, people cannot buy them, they are assigned to those in need by the government
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Mar 08, 07
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In my humble opinion, homelessness like a lot of Vancouver's other problems aren't truly viewed as problems in the mind of the city until its ordinary middle class citizens start complaining about how it affects them.
A lot of problems continue to exist and worsen in this city because people from all levels of government are too busy arguing about how it's some other level of govt's responsibility to actually start to work on a plan. If a plan is developed it is stalled due to some lack of cooperation or funding from some level of government. Nothing will ever eliminate things such as poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental illness and lack of support, etc. but there are ways to alleviate and support these issues. I find that people who live in the downtown core or in an area where they see these things frequently are more apathetic than anything. People who don't live in areas where they frequently have to see this are unsympathetic. People need to understand that although their live has been privileged (and by no means am I trying to say you have experienced or come over nothing) it doesn't mean that everybody has the same opportunites, support and way of dealing with things as they do. A lot of people don't realize that at one point in their lives, homeless people, drug addicts and prostitutes were probably enjoying a fairly normal life.
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Mar 08, 07
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Mar 08, 07
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Oh just wait and see when the olympics come closer and closer.... The city/province/fed's are going to do mass arrests on the east side and probably bus them to a temporary facility of some sorts well out of town so the city looks nice and clean to the visitors
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Mar 08, 07
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That's fine with me. I think that should be the permanent solution anyway. Bus em out of the city... put them in rehab centers 50KMs from the downtown core... kill the ones who don't comply. (that last part was sarcasim by the way)
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Mar 08, 07
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Employement Stats for December 2006:
Jobs Created: 9,000 People Entering the Workforce: 18,400 Unemployment Rate: 5.6% Essentailly that means that twice as many people entered the workforce (either by being laid off, quitting, becoming legal age to work, immigrating, etc) as there were jobs created. This puts BC's unemployement rate at the 4th lowest in the country below Alberta (3.3%) and Manitoba & Saskatchwan (which totally don't count, nobody MOVES there). While I think the lack of care for the mentally and physically handicapped is dispicable, I also think that the number of people abusing what was available was twice as dispicable. The vast majority of homeless people I see do not have physical handicaps, they do not have mental handicaps (beyond being stupid, or having drug-induced psychosis). The vast majority seem to be people who are too addicted to some dug to function normally, too lazy to work, or (more commonly) too proud to ask for help. BC has a ridiculous number of outreach programs to help those willing and capable to work. I understand how hard it maybe for some of these people to admit that they need help, I understand the human need for independance. I do NOT, however, see how we as a society can continue to be responsible for the homelessless of these people. Please note, I've previously stated I'm NOT talking about the mentally and physically challenged. Social responsability rides a dangerously fine line between helping those that need help and becoming an easy target for those that would abuse that help. I personally feel that in the past the number of people being helped has been greatly eclipsed by those that have abused the system. As a result public opinion has been pushed away from funding the programs that may be required. I've also been hearing that there have been many closures of mental hospitals, and the demolition of the Woodwards building can't be helping the situation. So what do I think needs to be done? Jack. Shit. The only way to repair the public's opinion of funding programs to help these people is for people to be exposed to the problem. Eventually people will demand funding to help the homeless, but I don't see that actually fixing anything until the area surrounding Hastings & Main gets fixed. Vancouver is the only city in the world where such prosperity exists so close to such poverty. It continues to boggle my mind on a daily basis that land in the downtown core of our city continues to be allowed to rot. My heart goes out to the homeless in Vancouver, I see them on a daily basis (I work in gastown). I have, however, become desensitized to their plight by constantly seeing people who abuse the kindness of people and harass and hassle the tourists. When I first moved out here I was horrified at the homeless people I saw, many of whom were senior citizens forgotten by their families. A event seared into my memory was when I met a homeless man begging in front of a shoppers drugmart near 14th & Burrard. It was late November about 5 years ago and I remember it being bitterly cold. I didn't have any cash but I was headed into the shoppers drugmart. I bought a box of granola bars and gave it to him when I came out. We struck up a coversation and I learned that he'd had a wife and a son that had kicked him out for his alcoholism. I remember his hands were blue from the cold and were so numb I had to open the box of the granola bars for him. the whole event was so earth-shatteringly tragic to me that its stuck with me. Looking back on it now my first thought is to think 'y'know, he probably made up that story'. That's how jaded I've become. I'm faced everyday with professional pan-handlers and thieves trying to fence stolen goods and that has radically changed my view on the city's homeless problem and I don't think that I'm alone in that.
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Mar 08, 07
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Mar 08, 07
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Mar 08, 07
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My Brothers a Haroin addict Down Town Vancouver: I havent seen him in 2 years.
Last time I saw him I was with my baby sister (i was adopted so, shes not really related to him) He scared the shit out of her. Hes been Homeless for as long a long long time. no teeth, hands black with frost bite... We've done everything we can to "help" eventually he stopped contacting us once a year we run around down town handing out poasters talking to other homeless, and we track him down, to know he's at least alive.. every time we hear of a Unnamed homeless dying on the streets we think its my brother. Now, He grew up with tourettes syndrome and pretty bad behavioral Problems. (he was the best big brother ever tho he did everything for me.) When I was 6 they kicked my brother out for steeling (after many other problems) they bought him an appartment, and set him up with furnature and such, he sold everything and ran off to the streets... there he's been for as long as I can remember. So, when someone is mean to a homeless buddy. It brakes my heart because I think of my brother, and how he use to play tea party with me... I dont like giving out cash. but i'll buy food for people. sometimes you can do everything to help someone. and they'll still be homeless.
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Mar 09, 07
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Were it not for them, that'd be me on cam too. What's worse is my traumatic brain injury and being highly functional isn't sick enough to get free counselling, but MSP only pays $20 a month for counselling. I'd have to have undergone a psychosis, or become addicted to drugs before the Mental Health & Addictions centre lets me into their program. And to top it off, all the self testing I've done indicates that the original diagnosis of borderline personality disorder is either in remission or a misdiagnosis. So, I am not nuts enough to get help yet.
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Mar 09, 07
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Mar 09, 07
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Then the street took possession of his soul. It looks like your parents did what they thought was best. Then the human predators on the streets tempted him, and he fell for it.
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Mar 09, 07
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Rehab should not be an option; it should be mandatory.
Just tranquilizing the psychotic drug addict isn't enough.
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Mar 11, 07
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Now I feel that she intented to defraud people by pretending to be homeless. She makes the homeless look bad, just like certain media and governments do.
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Mar 11, 07
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Our rights and the rights of the homeless started eroding when they started placing SWAT teams at evictions in the Downtown Eastside. And at the moment, not all the new beds are in place for anyone evicted. So where are the newly homeless going??
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Mar 11, 07
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Mar 11, 07
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Burns Block auctioned off and Picadilly Hotel sold:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/03/02/BurnsBlock/ I used to be roomies with a guy who used to live at Picadilly Hotel. If he had any issues, it was family related. He's from Ontario. He used to live in Surrey at Quibble Green. That was a five-bedroom house with the entire yard an organic garden.
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