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Vancouver's homeless population is growing at such a fearsome rate that it could triple to 3,000 people by the time visitors arrive for the 2010 Olympic Games, says a report released by an advocacy group Thursday.
"Without immediate action, the estimated 2.3 million visitors who come to our city to see the Olympics will find a Vancouver in the midst of an urban epidemic of poverty," said Pivot Legal Society spokesman David Eby as he released the report.
The burgeoning homeless population would be "clear evidence of a broken commitment to address the impact of the 2010 Olympics," Eby said.
When Vancouver bid for the 2010 games, federal, provincial and municipal governments pledged to protect the city's rental housing and ensure no one would be left homeless because of the Games.
The city estimates that about 1,200 people currently sleep outside without shelter on a nightly basis.
"We have three years left," Eby said. "Now is the time to grab those opportunities."
Pivot, a non-profit group that develops advocacy campaigns for marginalized people, said the crisis can be averted if existing low-income housing is preserved or replaced. Between June of 2005 and June this year, the city lost more than 400 low-income rooms due to closings of hotels, conversions or rent increases.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan didn't argue with the advocacy group's findings.
"It's a civic, and provincial and national shame," Sullivan told CTV News. "We need to do better and I am working on some initiatives to work with the federal and provincial governments and even to bring in private sector funding.
"I'm committed to that," Sullivan said.
Pivot says the city needs 800 new units every year to keep up with the demand, and is calling on the province and city to provide a three-part solution:
provide money for more low-cost housing
raise welfare rates and
force building owners to repair and improve their low-income units by enforcing existing city bylaws
A room in the Burns Block of Vancouver's downtown east side was home to Veronica Crow Eagle for eight years. It wasn't a home she was proud of. People urinated on the floor of her shared bathroom and garbage, including used hypodermic needles, piled up in the public spaces.
But the 61-year-old, who suffers from arthritis and a painful intestinal inflammation called Crohn's disease, was hard pressed to find replacement lodging when the building failed a fire safety inspection. She and the other tenants were forced onto the street.
Crow Eagle, who has found a new place to live, considers herself lucky.
"Most of the rents run $400 to $465," she said.
Not everyone can afford those rates. The standard shelter allowance for welfare recipients is $325 dollars a month. The rate hasn't increased in 12 years.
"There's hardly anyone who'll give you a rent for $325," said Crow Eagle.
Garvin Snider, who has lived and worked in Vancouver's downtown east side for four years, said he's watched the number of homeless grow without a matching increase in social housing.
"Transit costs, food costs, every cost has gone up," but not welfare rates, he said. "People are struggling to meet basic needs of everything here -- everything."
Salvation Army shelters turn away as many as one out of every four people every night because there aren't enough beds.
"We wish that we could work with everybody and provide shelter spaces for everybody," said said Salvation Army Capt. John Murray. "But the reality is that the economics and practicalities ... make it very difficult."
During peak season in winter, the network of Salvation Army shelters provides beds for 500 people.
"That's an extraordinary amount," Murray said, "when you consider we're one organization trying to reach out and respond to the needs of people coming to our doors."
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