Vancouver's homeless

[UnatcoAgent]

After living in Toronto for nearly a decade, and working close to a number of outreach and shelter programs (either pro-bono graphic design work, or working with studios involved in said initiatives) I thought I had seen some of the worst of what happens to people on the street.

I am absolutely blown away by the homeless population here in Vancouver. I had heard of gastown and how bad it was, but you walk down there and turn a corner into literally what looks like a scene from a zombie apocalypse. People shooting up on the street in broad daylight, fights on the street corner, etc etc.

I'm just venting here really, I'm normally very left-wing when it comes to those less fortunate, I recognize that no one chooses to be on the street. But fuck, there are some rude people here. We have been here 4 months and been accosted more times than we ever were in Toronto. And tonight some woman decides to lecture me on the bus about how I must feel pretty sorry for myself for getting a free coffee from mcdonalds (there's a promo right now) when she's been on the street for 3 years and has never gone without food, in some odd self-justifying speech.

/rant

 

[silverpig]

You should change the title to "Canada's homeless" cause that's what they are. Vancouver (and Victoria) are the only two cities in Canada where people can survive on the street in the winter, so we get them all. I think I read some stat that said about 30% of the people on the street here were from Quebec.

And yeah it sucks.

And yeah we blew a few billion dollars on the area and it didn't do anything.

Vancouver's homeless problem is a combination of several things. Warm climate, drug addiction, mental illness, laziness, and bad luck. It's gotten to the point where I want to buy some guy a sandwich, but don't because I'm not sure if he's going to spend the money he saved on drugs instead.

 

[Zebo]

Hey don't feel bad If I was homeless I'd kill ya or try. Seriously we need to take care of those less fortunate. It's embarrassing and shameful to have obscene wealth next misery and destitution.

 

[Printer Bandit]

There is no homeless problem in Vancouver. Otherwise, we would have seen it during the Olympic coverage on TV.

 

[Zebo]

There is no homeless problem in Vancouver. Otherwise, we would have seen it during the Olympic coverage on TV.

They ran em all out I have a video on it. Terrible.

 

[iGas]

There is no homeless problem in Vancouver. Otherwise, we would have seen it during the Olympic coverage on TV.

I'm not sure what they did in Vancouver, but here in Victoria the homeless got moved out of downtown during the games, and they beef up contributions to soup kitchen to keep them off the street.

IMHO, homeless in the west coast is a national problem because it is known that Ontario use to give homeless people a one way bus ticket to go home (any where in Canada) and 3 months of welfare. Hence the homeless people took the opportunity to move to Vancouver/Victoria because of the mild climate. I strongly believe that we can lower the number of people on the street if we increase the capability/funding of treatment hospitals like Riverview, instead of pushing group home housing as the only choice in the last 20 years. Some homeless people requires institutionalize support because they don't function well in a group home or want to live in a group home/low income housing.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

I'm not sure what they did in Vancouver, but here in Victoria the homeless got moved out of downtown during the games, and they beef up contribution to soup kitchen to keep them off the street.

IMHO, homeless in the west coast is a national problem because it is known that Ontario use to give homeless people a one way bus ticket to go home (any where in Canada) and 3 months of welfare. Hence the homeless people took the opportunity to move to Vancouver/Victoria because of the mild climate. I strongly believe that we can lower the number of people on the street if we increase the capability/funding of treatment hospitals like Riverview, instead of pushing group home housing as the only choice in the 20 years. Some homeless people requires institutionalize support because they don't function well in a group home or want to live in a group home/low income housing.

I've heard that bus ticket thing many times, always wondered if it was true or not. I totally agree with you on the funding as well, very complex problem.

 

[iGas]

They ran em all out I have a video on it. Terrible.

They wanted to show the world how great Vancouver/Victoria are by applying the same tactic as North Korea......guided tours.

 

[Newbian]

Winter usually is a great way to reduce their population so any that are left when it warms up are usually the tougher of the bunch and eventually they will breed into some sort of super homeless that will be able to zap your change directly from your pockets to their cups.

I suggest you do what they did in South Park and send them to California.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMsr0cLnQPI

 

[pyonir]

They sure do know how to ride some carts down a steep hill though.

http://www.murraysiple.com/

 

[Toonces]

They sure do know how to ride some carts down a steep hill though.

http://www.murraysiple.com/

lol, north van...

I only tackled the hills on my longboard.
Shopping cart? Ouch.

 

[God Mode]

Hey don't feel bad If I was homeless I'd kill ya or try. Seriously we need to take care of those less fortunate. It's embarrassing and shameful to have obscene wealth next misery and destitution.

You cant help the absolute unwilling. It would be a never ending cycle of enablers maintaining their lifestyle. A common issue I see is that these homeless have some lofty standards and misplaced pride and would rather keep on doing what they do than to endure some manager bitching at them at a mcjob.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Hey don't feel bad If I was homeless I'd kill ya or try. Seriously we need to take care of those less fortunate. It's embarrassing and shameful to have obscene wealth next misery and destitution.

I agree with the $0.39 Solution! :awe:

 

[Kirby]

Get a job, Grouch.

 

[chuckywang]

I thought the Olympics cured all of Vancouver's problems.

 

[ViviTheMage]

This is a problem all around the world, not just Canada.

 

[vi edit]

This is a problem all around the world, not just Canada.

I don't know. The street beggers are one of the more forward memories I have of my stay in Vancouver. In no other major city I've been to have I had a panhandler ask me to buy him a cup of starbucks. Or another on a nice mountain bike ask for money. Or another that just looked like any other college kid in brand new columbia ski jacket ask for cab fair.

You seriously couldn't walk more than a few steps in some areas without somebody hitting you up for something.

I've been through Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and a ton of other smaller cities without anything to the level Vancouver had.

I know that panhandler != homeless in all cases...but it's still part of the problem.

 

[God Mode]

Are there any statistics on whether welfare and other aid genuinely help the homeless etc get on their own feet?

 

[nick1985]

Are there any statistics on whether welfare and other aid genuinely help the homeless etc get on their own feet?

If anything it only perpetuates it.

 

[ivan2]

West coast's no stranger to beggars, not only there are many of them, who isn't shy to bug you, instead of change they will ask for 1 dollar, 5 dollar, etc. Guess what, you are not taking credit card, if you set a minimum amount of donation you aren't gonna get shit.

 

[meltdown75]

Are there any statistics on whether welfare and other aid genuinely help the homeless etc get on their own feet?

yes, they get on their feet and walk to their dealer.

 

[nick1985]

I wonder when bums will start carrying around a CC swipe machine to accept credit donations.

 

[yllus]

There is no homeless problem in Vancouver. Otherwise, we would have seen it during the Olympic coverage on TV.

It's not exactly a new tactic for cities hosting the Olympics.

Sydney's homeless to be removed for Olympics

Despite public criticism following leaked media reports of their plans, the New South Wales State Labor Government and the Sydney City Council are proceeding with measures to rid Sydney's streets of homeless people in preparation for the Olympic Games this September.

In response to a front-page report in Sydney's Sun Herald on January 16 revealing the new procedures, government spokesmen denied that the scheme had anything to do with the Olympics. But their measures bear a striking resemblance to those used in Atlanta four years ago to clear the streets of the poor.

...

In addition, the government is planning to bus homeless people up to 200 kilometres from Sydney to Wollongong, Newcastle and the Blue Mountains, and house them in disused hospitals, government buildings and caravan parks, in an attempt to triple the amount of emergency housing during the Olympics.

In Atlanta...

Denials by Sartor and Premier Bob Carr that their measures are timed for the Olympics fly in the face of the fact that the government has conducted detailed studies of all aspects of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Four years ago, 9,000 homeless people in Atlanta were arrested during the eight months leading up to the Olympic Games for begging and loitering. Homeless people were shunted up to 300 kilometres out of Atlanta for the two weeks of the games.

Beijing, of course, was the worst of the lot - 1.5 million people were temporarily or permanently "displaced" by the Olympics.

 

[dabuddha]

All I got out of your post was free coffee. Is it in Canadian mickeyDs only?

 

[rh71]

I had heard of gastown and how bad it was, but you walk down there and turn a corner into literally what looks like a scene from a zombie apocalypse. People shooting up on the street in broad daylight, fights on the street corner, etc etc.
/rant

Before we went to Vancouver, I had a thread here and people said to stay away from East Hastings. Little did we know we walked right into it... we literally turned that corner and all of a sudden we're walking behind a "hippie-looking" dude who was just sorta talking to himself but we looked behind us and there was some hippie-chick a bit behind us. They just multiplied... the alley-ways looked completely different than the one before it... trash all over the place... a cop car with both doors still open and nobody in it - apparently they were tending to some occurrence in a store. We were almost 2 blocks in and said holy-sh!t this has to be the wrong part of town... we turned around so fast it was almost comical. But not really... it was downright scary... that was a really long block and we had to wait for a green light to walk back too... halfway expecting to get jumped.