Articles by Jean Swanson
Why we have homelessness
You have to be old to remember this: we didn’t always have a lot of homelessness in Canada. (…)
with Ivan Drury
In the two decades after World War 2, Canada and the United States, alongside Britain and other Western European countries, drew in enormous wealth from the profits and power from winning that war. (…)
A boisterous crew was standing outside the Ross Hotel in Vancouver on New Years Day. (…)
The BC government says it’s the “largest single-year housing investment by any province in Canada,” $500 million for about 2,900 housing units across BC. (…)
with Maria Wallstam
“The manager bullied me and said “sign or you leave,” Humberto Macias-Carracas told people at a news conference in front of the Ross House on Alexander St. on New Year’s day. (…)
So here’s the situation: Almost 1,000 homeless people have been counted in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver. (…)
The plot thickens at Vancouver’s notorious Regent Hotel. (…)
ARGH! Vancouver has the highest ever homeless count and no one with power seems to think it’s a problem! It’s a problem that people who “don’t have a million” can’t afford to buy a house in Vancouver. But people who are homeless? (…)
How can governments maintain the scarcity of housing, keep renters in crisis, and subsidize people who don’t need subsidies with one simple program? The answer? Spend $750 million on rent supplements over the last 7 years. (…)
Imagine you’re a person with disabilities living on the BC welfare rate of $610 a month, paying $500 for rent. You get a part time job, earn $200, and declare it. This is completely legal, but then your welfare cheque stops for no reason. (…)
A lot of people had high hopes for housing in the federal budget that was delivered on March 22. The City of Vancouver asked for half a billion dollars to build housing on 20 city-owned lots. What did we get? (…)
A new report from the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) says Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) could become an area full of condos and market rental apartments with homeless people blanketing the streets unless all three levels of government take immediate action. (…)
A National Housing Crisis day, tent cities across the country, and identifying and working to get specific sites for social housing were all suggested as things we can do together to try to force the three levels of government to stop increasing homelessness. (…)
Mohammad Valayati doesn’t want the same thing to happen to the residents of the Lion Hotel that happened at the Clifton. (…)
Indigenous women want Federal Inquiry to consult with feminist groups as well as families
Indigenous women who have been organizing to end violence for decades want the federal inquiry into missing and murdered women to consult with feminist groups that work with Indigenous women as well as families of the missing and murdered women. (…)
with Maria Wallstam
Homelessness in Vancouver could increase by hundreds next year unless all levels of government act now. (…)
Did Vancouver City Council make changes to its SRO hotel room bylaw that will help stop renovictions? Or did the July changes actually take away powers that the city could have used to prevent renovictions and rent increases? (…)
One costs $20 to get in. The other is free. One is backed by the rich. The other is revered by low-income Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents. (…)
Bureaucratic language hides what is really happening from ordinary people and often makes situations look way better than they are. (…)
“I feel incredible. I’m very happy.” That’s what Mohammad Valayati told people at a news conference on June 19. (…)
Housing First or Housing Farce?
The federal government’s idea of Housing First is to subsidize landlords, not build housing for homeless people. (…)
Interview with Tracey Morrison
The Volcano interviewed Tracey Morrison, President of Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. WAHRS is a group of current and former illicit drug and/or alcohol users. (…)
with Harold Lavender
The BC Government is selling about 350 parcels of land and 9 public housing buildings that it owns and operates. (…)
with DJ Larkin
Vancouver’s Single Room Accommodation (SRA) Bylaw has been in place for over 11 years and has proven ineffective at protecting affordable housing. (…)
I’m imagining a discussion happening in the BC government between Premier Christy Clark and Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell: (…)
The homeless count for this year was the highest it’s ever been: 1803 homeless people in Vancouver, and 2,777 in the Metro Vancouver area. (…)
with Harold Lavender
Vancouver has approved the DTES Local Area Plan. What will be its positive and negative effects? Was it worth the three-year effort put in by low-income reps to work with the City? (…)
with Harold Lavender and Andrea Craddock
We need 10,000 units of social housing a year and this spring Rich Coleman, the guy in charge of BC’s social housing, says, “We don’t build ‘social housing’ any more.” (…)
On March 12th we need to go to city council and fight for a definition of social housing. (…)
Many members of the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Committee are calling for the City and Vancouver Coastal Health to build an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), and to do it quickly. (…)
Condos flood into Oppenheimer area while City stalls on planning process
While the City stalls on the Local Area Planning Process (LAPP), the heart of the DTES community is being taken over by condo and market housing developments. (…)
with Harold Lavender
The fight over the future of the DTES is heating up. A DTES Local Area Plan that could last up to thirty years will be presented to City Council for a vote, probably in March. (…)
All over the world, low income areas are being gentrified and low income and vulnerable people pushed out of their neighbourhoods. (…)
Three hundred people packed into a large room at the main Vancouver Public Library and another 1200 watched on Facebook. (…)
with Tamara Herman
850 homeless people. Four thousand living in crummy SROs. Over 400 rooms lost last year to rent increases at $425 or more. (…)
Over 125 Downtown Eastside residents packed into the Carnegie Theatre on May 26th for a celebration and feast in honour of (formerly) Homeless Dave’s hunger strike. (…)
City council is happy with a new deal to give $22 million worth of land to a non-profit developer to build about 350 units of rental housing on four sites in South Vancouver. (…)
ATIRA women’s resource society will be the new manager of the Asia Hotel on Pender St. owned by the Mah Society. (…)
A historical plaque that was supposed to have been put on a light pole near the Patricia Hotel at Dunlevy and Hastings is MISSING. (…)
with Diane Wood
Myth: Diners will learn more about the DTES by dining in fancy restaurants that the locals can’t afford. (…)
The City and Province are trying to create the impression that lots of housing for low-income people is being built in the Downtown Eastside. (…)
In 2005, before Woodward’s was developed into 536 condo and 125 social housing units for singles, there were 8 hotels with 404 rooms within a block of Woodward’s. (…)
Question: Why are you protecting drug users/ misery? Answer: Drug users are human beings with dignity. They deserve to have their health issues addressed in effective ways. A fancy restaurant won’t help drug users. (…)