Local group asks why social housing isn't being built
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 | 1:36 PM PT
CBC News
A faith-based social justice group is accusing the B.C. government of failing to build hundreds of low-cost housing units in the Downtown Eastside, despite promises to do so.
Streams of Justice held a press conference Tuesday to say that the provincial government promised a year-and-a-half ago it would build subsidized housing on 12 sites. So far, however, it has yet to build any.
"I have always found it interesting that with the Olympics, when there is a deadline, then all forces are mobilized to make sure it happens," said Dave Diewert of the organization.
"But when it comes to homelessness, and when there's people out on the street, it seems like we can drag it on."
Diewert said the province has been holding $250 million in its housing fund since 2007.
"This hasn't even been started," he said of one of the sites, which remains an empty, demolished building. "Even if they start tomorrow, it won't be finished for a year-and-a-half."
In April 2007, Premier Gordon Campbell announced the province would spend $80 million to buy 11 single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotels in Vancouver and Victoria, and that it would pay for more supportive housing units in the Lower Mainland. Ten of the hotels are in Vancouver, most of them in the Downtown Eastside.
Because the province has not begun to renovate those buildings, it had to put up temporary shelters to house the homeless, something Diewert said costs the government more money in the long run than permanent low-cost housing.
