Mayor Gregor Robertson has cited Vision Vancouver’s work to reduce street homelessness by 82 percent as the “crowning achievement” of his three years at the helm so far.
Robertson made the comment today (July 27) on the eve of city council’s debating of a 10-year housing and homelessness strategy.
“We’ve seen a massive decrease of people sleeping on the streets, and gotten that number under 150 now, which is a huge shift from three years ago, when this was a top-of-mind issue,” Robertson told the Georgia Straight in a sit-down interview at City Hall. “We had 1,000 people at the homelessness debate at the St.Andrew’s-Wesley Church [in 2008]. Now, I think, people forget how tragic the circumstances were. Now the city’s feeling better.”
In May of this year, the Metro Vancouver homeless count revealed a slight dip in homelessness regionwide. However, the numbers in Vancouver were better than elsewhere, with the city counting a drop to 145 unsheltered people in 2010 from 815 in 2008—a drop of 82 percent.
“We’re on target for the 2015 goal of ending street homelessness,” Robertson claimed. “And I hope next term to be empowered to do more on affordable housing—you know, really broaden that work to the low- and middle-income spectrum. Because there’s a lot of people feeling pressure right now, and lots of people are vulnerable to homelessness. So, we had to focus on the acute crisis on the streets, where people were dying and suffering. That’s been a huge push this term. We’ve demonstrated we can turn the tide on it with a good outcome.”
At a protest at City Hall on Tuesday (July 26), West End-based activist Randy Helten, founder of the CityHallWatch website, slammed the city’s planning processes as being too slanted in favour of developers.
“I totally disagree,” Robertson said of Helten’s claim. “The city has been developing for its entire history, and our task is to weigh the merits of each project and work with neighbourhoods and figure out the best way forward to accommodate the growth of the city, and livability of our neighbourhoods. We have very different opinions on this, and we’ve worked hard in many neighbourhoods to improve the city’s consultation and planning process. They’ve helped to shape the change, but I think some of the relentless criticism is unfounded and should be fact checked.”
Robertson did, however, concede that the city is “far behind” in the affordable housing stakes.
