2015 Homelessness Report Card: Housing dollars being slashed
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Heather Austin, The Nelson Daily
There continues to be a concern over funds for housing for homeless people in Nelson.
That was the message delivered this past week to 50-plus people at the Baker Street Best Western Inn in the 7th Annual Report Card on Homelessness.
“There’s a pending loss of 1.7 billion in annual federal housing dollars,” said Ann Harvey, Community Coordinator for the Nelson Committee on Homelessness (NCOH)during the media briefing.
“The operating agreements on all this social housing which has been built since the 1970’s, is coming to an end.”
Lack of housing in general was cited as a major issue for Nelson in particular.
According to a rental market survey conducted by CMHC (the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) in Fall of 2014, Nelson’s rental vacancy rate is currently the worst in B.C: at a mere 0.06%, down from 1.90% in 2013.
If a person succeeds in finding a suitable rental property, cost is another issue facing many people.
“There’s a huge gap there in terms of what people are earning and how much of their income they’re spending on housing,” said Harvey, adding food bank visits are up 13% since 2014.
“This gap was also cited as a contributing factor as to why “food security really continues to be an issue in Nelson.”
Harvey and Cheryl Dowden of Nelson Cares shared the microphone to explain to the public the nuts and bolts of the report.
Members of the committee explained the inextricable link between homelessness and women’s issues, accompanied by a panel of people who work with Nelson women in crisis situations on a daily basis.
Fleeing the violence of an intimate partner was highlighted as a dominant cause of women’s homelessness and housing issues.
“It’s beyond a housing crunch, it’s really a health issue” imparted Anna Maskerine, Coordinator for Nelson’s Aimee Beaulieu Transition House.
The report said house staff provides support and emergency shelter to abused women and children 24/7.
Last year alone they were forced to turn away 118 people: 91 women and 27 children, due to lack of resources. Government funding cuts continue to be made not only at the House, but to other services of this nature as well.
“Violence has been found to be one of the major causes of housing instability for women,” Harvey added.
Housing and homelessness issues become political, as senior governments no longer deliver programs to build and maintain affordable rental housing – private or public.
And now what subsidized housing stocks exist in our community – and across Canada – is at risk (NCOH 7th Annual Report on Homelessness).
“And it’s not a time to be cutting services, and stopping building of affordable housing,” says Maskerine.
The upcoming federal election was referred to more than once as a determining factor in the outcome of these issues.
So what can we do as individual citizens?
Dowden challenged the public to become familiar with the situation in Nelson by starting the conversation on social media and by talking with the MP about substandard housing.
She also suggested a letter-writing campaign along with grilling candidates in the upcoming federal election and demanding an affordable housing strategy.
Visit the Nelson Cares website for the complete 7th Annual Report Card on Homelessness.
“I think we’ve seen in the recent end to the claw back of child support in BC, that when we collect the stories, and insist that our government respond, it’s possible to create change,” Dowden concluded.
