Blankets given to Vancouver homeless offer legal advice

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 | 1:47 PM PT

CBC News

Volunteers in Vancouver are giving the city's homeless a little warmth, and legal information, this holiday season.

Starting Tuesday afternoon, activists began handing out 500 water-proof, high-tech blankets to people in the low-income Downtown Eastside. Printed inside every blanket is an explanation of the rights and protections homeless people have under the law in Vancouver.

The blankets explain that people have a right to be in public spaces and cannot be forced out by security guards. The blankets also note that that people have the right to panhandle, but they can't do so in front of a bank machine and they can't ask a person for money more than once.

The blankets explain that if a person has no money and no shelter, they have the right under B.C. law to ask for an emergency assessment that could get them access to immediate relief. The blankets provide a list of emergency shelters and other contact information.

"We wanted to create a product that would be not only useful on the practical level for someone living on the streets, but also effective as way of informing people about their rights under the law," John Richardson, the executive director of Pivot Legal Society, said in a news release.

Pivot Legal Society, a non-profit law firm that operates in the Downtown Eastside, created the blankets in conjunction with Mountain Equipment Co-op, a retail co-operative that sells outdoor clothing and gear to its members. The blankets cost $30 to make, and have so far been covered by grants from community foundations, as well as donated materials from Mountain Equipment Co-op.

Mountain Equipment Co-op helped design the blankets, which are made of a material that is sturdy and insulating, but light enough to fold up into a small sack. They can be used as a tarp, covering people and their belongings.

The design includes pockets for people's feet, but does not fully zip up, as sleeping bags can be dangerous for a person sleeping on the streets because they can trap the person in the event of an attack, Pivot says.

'It's a reminder of the political side of homelessness'

David Eby, a lawyer with Pivot, hopes the blanket campaign will raise awareness about the homeless situation in Vancouver, where there are only 700 shelter spaces available for the estimated 2,300 people who live on the streets.

"The blankets are there to keep homeless warm and dry, but they also raise public awareness," Eby told CBCNews.ca.

"It's a reminder of the political side of homelessness and the fact that governments could solve the problem if they wanted to."

Eby said Pivot is asking for public donations so that they can distribute even more blankets.