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Discarded needles. Before the official safe injection site
opened in 2003 Pivot provided legal support for the unofficial
"safer injection site." Photo: Pivot Legal Society.
Addiction achievements continued...
Safe injection site
Before Insite, the official government-funded
safe injection site opened in 2003, Pivot provided legal support
for the unofficial "safer injection site" which
operated in the Downtown Eastside for eight months up to the
official opening. Pivot, along with nurse Megan Oleson, received
the Award for Excellence in Human Rights and HIV/AIDS for
its advocacy around the "safer injection site."
[ go
to the Addiction page for more about this issue ]
Housing achievements:
In 2002 Pivot provided legal support to the
more than 200 homeless people camped around the vacant Woodward's
building. Pivot provided representation up to the British
Columbia Court of Appeal arguing the award of their costs
for 50 people who were arrested for squatting inside the building.
Affordable housing in Vancouver
Through a rigorous analysis of the City of Vancouver's
2005 Low Income Housing Survey Pivot Legal Society has persuaded
the City of Vancouver to acknowledge that low-income housing
in Vancouver is not being preserved, and is being lost at
a rate of one room every other day.
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With homelessness
at record levels in the city, this acknowledgement by the
City of Vancouver underlines the urgency of Vancouver's housing
situation.
Pivot's analysis also caused the City to examine
closely the issue of affordability in "low-income housing"
and conversion of housing for the poorest residents of Vancouver's
core to housing for international students.
[ Pivot's
2005 low-income housing survey PDF 207 KB ]
Police searches of residential hotels
Thanks to a brave resident of the Pender Hotel,
Pivot was able to raise the issue of illegal police searches
of residential hotels, resulting in increased training for
Vancouver Police Officers on when they can search residential
hotel rooms. Pivot has requested a public hearing on this
issue.
Housing affidavits
Pivot continues to work with marginalized persons
to identify and document systemic issues around housing and
homelessness by taking affidavits and providing one-on-one
access to resources to address housing issues.
These affidavits were compiled into Pivot's
report on housing, Cracks in the Foundation, published in September 2006.
The report analyses the impacts of a lack
of healthy, affordable accommodation, and sets out legal options
for systemic change.
[ go to
the Housing page for more about this issue ]
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