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Lawyer David Eby taking an affidavit in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside for Pivot's new low-income housing report, Cracks in the Foundation, published September 2006.
Pivot’s objective is to increase
the quality and accessibility of housing for poor and otherwise
marginalized persons.
Housing and homelessness issues in Vancouver
are becoming increasingly urgent due to years of government
cuts to welfare and shelter organizations, climbing real estate
values, and other aggravating factors.
The facts are alarming. The 2005 homelessness
count by the Greater Vancouver Regional District showed that
homelessness in Vancouver more than doubled since 2002.
Over 126,000 people in 56,000 households in
Greater Vancouver are at risk of homelessness according to
the 2001 Canada census. Despite this, the amount of low-income
housing available to those in need has decreased over the
past two years.
The people who live in Single Room Occupancy
(SRO) buildings – the residential hotels of the downtown
core in Vancouver – are low-income singles at high risk
of homelessness.
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These SRO buildings
are being destroyed or converted to tourist use at a rate
four times higher than that expected by city council. While
some of these rooms have been scheduled to be replaced by
new construction, most of these living spaces will never be
recovered.
Pivot's achievements:
Woodward's protest
Pivot Legal Society provided legal support to
more than 200 homeless people camped around the vacant Woodward's
building in late 2002.
The encampment became a rallying call for greater
access to social housing. Pivot fought to the B.C. Court of
Appeal in seeking costs for the protestors due to abuse of
their rights around the protest.
In 2009 125 low-income single units will be
made available in the newly refurbished Woodward's building,
100 for those in core need (on social assistance).
[ Pivot's
achievements in other issue areas ]
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.
With homelessness at record levels in the city,
this acknowledgement by the City of Vancouver underlines the
urgency of Vancouver's housing situation.
Continued...
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