Report says services needed for locals who are sleeping rough Katharine Hamer ‘News Reporter khamer@nsnews.com IN the alley behind my building | - there’s a man who looks for food in the dumpsters every night. I don’t knew his name, or what he looks * Tike, but [can hear him, and I know that he’s - hungry. In a street near my office there’s a man who walks up and down all day with a shop- ping wolley full of cans and all his worldly belongings. Sometimes he rides the back of the trolley like a bored kid at the supermarket. These men are just rvo of the growing number of people on the North Shore with no real place to call their own. This is nor New York's Times Square or London's Strand sleeping in every other doorway here. But that doesn’t mean homelessness isn’t a problem -- ‘and: for those without a place of residence, there is no local emergency housing or shelter ‘available. : “ A report released last week by the North Shore Homelessness Task Force suggests that _ at least 82 people are currently sleeping cough in North and West Vancouver. ; _ That may not sound like a high number until you compare it to the total population of the North Shore: 182,000. i. And anecdotal evidence from the support agencies and: police officers who regularly encounter people looking for food or shower. facilities, or sleeping out in the park, suggest ~ the number of homeless is far higher. An introduction to the task force’s report, “Homelessness on the North Shore,”. states “that the: problem ‘is “...virtually an invisible issue. for most of our community. Because we are’ an, affluent.coriununity without an inner city, we, are largely. unaware that there are many people on the North Shore without.a home.”..: : an < Those at risk of homelessness include the unemployed, those who spend 30% or more of their. income on housing, or those who have mental or physical ‘ailments that prevent them from working... 20. ; On the North Shore, 36% of individuals are deemed to be low-income. “4 “Not everyone who comes down here is a drug addict,” savs John Day, a client counsel- lor at the Harvest Project in North Vancouver. “People get downsized, or they get sick, and they: just lose everythi.ig. A lot of people are one paycheque away from the street.” It was Day who first contacted Dr.Brian O’Connor, chief medical officer. for the North Shore Health: Region, to see what could be lone to ery and tackle the issue at a local level. “A task force was convened with representa- ‘tives. from’ government bodies, North Shore health’.and social agencies, municipal staff, hurches, and pelice forces. 7 *< Support agencies including the Harvest Project, North Shore Neighbourhood House, CoPro, and ‘the Salvation Army distributed a confidential one-page survey to some of their lients between July: 1999-May 2000. Forty- eight interviews were conducted by CoPro in West Vancouver, with the remaining 34 car- ried our by North Vancouver agencies. «- The. survey, asked respondents how. long ‘they -had’ been homeless; where they. slept; yhere ‘they. ate, and where they got: their lothing. re . They were also asked where they got their income: from work, EI, disability pensions, or anhandling.—.and whether they had any mental health or substance abuse issues. Over 40% of those polled during a nine- -month survey period said they had been living nm the North Shore for more than 10 years — fi belying the notion that homelessness is only n: endemic problem in. the, Downtown astside. . : a “This is an issue that will not go away,” says O'Connor, who chaired the task force. ‘The need for services to support the home-, less is just as vital on the North Shore as it is 2 downtown Vancouver and other communi- © nn es. : or even Vancouver's > *. Dewntown: Eastside. We don’t see people - O’Connor has been making presentations SUNDAY Focus eless amid Sunday, October 1, 2000 —- Nerth Shore News - 2 NEWS photo Cindy Goodman HARVEST Project client counsetlor John Day regularly encounters people who bed down in parks, in cars, and in dark rail- way tunneis lke this one near Lonsdale Quay. Day is a member of the fledgling North Shore Homeless Task Force. ©. - Homeless surveyed B The average duration without shelter for North Shore homeless is 52 days. @ Forty-one per cent of the homeless have been on the North Shore for more than 10 years, with 42% here for less than a year. @ Over 30% sleep in local parks, with 20% sleeping in their car and 30% staying with friends. Of the essential services most requested, 81% identified a shelter, 53% wanted hot -ers, 38% a resource centre. meals/shared kitchen facilities, 40% \ anied laundry facilities, 43% requested drop in show- & Signiticantly more people who rent rather than own their homes spend more than 30% of income on housing. > In North Vancouver City, the percentage of renters is 85%, in the District, 22% and in West ; Vancouver, 29%. : The average cost of 3 home on the North Shore is $454,000: i at local council meetings this week, trying to raise awareness of the subject and emphasize | the need for action. Meanwhile local staff and. agencies are ‘attempting, to secure a:slice of funding from Human Resources and: Development Canada for a cold/wet weather shelter on the North Shore. : : Twenty-five million dollars has been set aside by the federal government to target. homelessness in the Greater Vancouver area over the next three years. Additional funds have been designated to deal specifically with youth employment issues, shelters for family violence victims, urban aboriginal strategies, community plans, and emergency shelter conversions. John Day says the Harvest Project is trying to organize a warehouse or portable building to use as a shelter by’ December — around the time the project office moves to a new home on Marine Drive.’ oO Kitchen and laundry facilities may come later, he says: “We have to crawl before we can walk, and walk before we can run: We have to prove we can do wkat we set out to do.” Day says the homeless people he meets “don’t want anything opulent. They just want warm and dry. “L[try not to/take what I see home. But - sometimes I see people freezing cold, waiting, for coffee and something to eat.,.they’re "human beings. .' .. “IT see guys camped outside here overnight in the winter and the only thing I can do is send them downtown. A lot of them don’t want to go downtown because they're trying ‘to get away from drugs and alcohol. The only other place is Richmond, and who can afford _their proceeds back over to a shabby hotel — Source: “Homelessness on the North Shore* — to go there?” People don’t just end up on the street by accident. Everyone has a story. There are those who come to the North Shore to escape the dangers allied to the drug scene or prosti- tution they were once mired in. Day remem- bers a man who slept in a van outside the Harvest Project for two weeks, worried all the time that a bullet was going to come through the window. : Alongside women whose husbands beat them there are people who move out for their own safety after arguing «vith roommates they don’t know very well — verbally, or using - knives, fists, furniture. : , And there are those who have simply slipped so far through the safety net chat climbing back up saps all of their energies: a. - couple. who slept rough all the way through - the woman’s pregnancy, until finally she gave birth to rvins and a townhouse was found for | the family out in Surrey. Or a man who lost his job, and then his apartment, through illness. He slept in his car until he shelter in Richmond. ; Day takes‘us down to a train tunnel’ by’ Lonsdale Quay, where a. number. of people : sleep at night. It’s dark and musty and smells. - of urine. There: are pigeons fluttering over-_.: head and graffid on the walls. © . They also sleep on the Harvest Projec : porch, laying their sleeping bags on the picnic table, or squeezing . themselves “into an upturned cardboard box. Ce The can-collectors live in the park, or take: room in the Downtown Eastside... There are homeless people under bridges, os in stairwells and down by the river. Sometimes. > pite gota place ata... local police get calls about people sleeping in . doorways or in the cars. In West Vancouver, - ’ according to WVPD Col. Janis Jean, homeless . peopic often hitch up to Cypress Bowl and ha tent. Se eos “When you're in a wealthy community, it’s more hidden,” observes Barbara’ Davies of . “CoPra. | . Davies has spent 30 years as a social advo- cate in West Vancouver. CoPrd,. on Clyde... ° Avenue behind Park Roval, provides.a cloth-": ing exchange and advice for low income peo-: ple, who hear about her service through word > of. mouth. Davies says there are around 50 homeless people in the municipality. at any: given time —— many living by Capilano River or in their ‘cars. aoe res 2 ~“Most people don’t want: welfare,”’ she says. “but husbands leave, fathers get sick: ..it’s’ very difficult without the resources.” 02 26 5" Most of the respondents to the survey were men berween the ages of 15-58 who were -unable, to make monthly” renc™ payments. Tracking homeless youth specifically proved difficult, as many of them do not use the agen cies who handed: out ‘surveys. ‘In --North. Vancouver between September 1998 and. February 1999, 49. teenagers who had. left their family home approached a youth worke: because they had nowhere to sleep for ‘the night. Anecdotally, homelessness among West Vancouver youth appears to be rare. The task force report recommends a: separate’ survey « targeting homeless youths. 2008000 eg Of those who filled in the existing survey,’ over 30% sleep in local parks, with 20% sleep: ing in their car. 2) a te “We try to be sympathetic,” says Jean: “We ask them if they need anything. They say, ‘No, I'm fine.’. We say, ‘You have to’ understand, | you’re not allowed to sleep here in the park a “We do our best to offer them some assis 7 See ‘Access page 10: Coming up in Sunday Focus: NEXT week in Sunday Focus Julie ‘Welsford talks to a W. Van couple whose life was changed by’a hurri cane, -. To suggest a feature story tha: deserves to _be'-“in Focus”. write’ to: Martin” Millerchip * North: Shore . News, 1139’ Lonsdale «Ave. North Vancouver, V7M 2H4, fax 985-2104 o e-mail , © ....-!