(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou

Housing has emerged as the number one civic election topic in Vancouver, where renters and homebuyers face skyrocketing costs, and the numbers of homeless people keep rising. The latest count shows that 37 percent more people are now living on Vancouver's streets than in 2005.

     Of course, this issue is Canada-wide in scope. More than three million Canadians are in "core housing need", living in less than adequate housing or forced to spend over 30 percent of their income on accommodations. But British Columbia and Vancouver have the highest numbers in core housing need - about 20 percent of Canada's total. The situation is most acute for Aboriginal peoples, especially those living in Vancouver and Lower Mainland urban centres, where almost 75 percent are in need of core housing.

     The problem has become steadily worse since the 1990s, when the federal government and most provinces abandoned their role in funding social housing. When the Campbell Liberals came to power here in 2001, their first cuts included the province's social housing program, one of the last remaining in the country.

     Ground zero for the crisis is Vancouver's Downtown East Side (DTES) area, the lowest-income urban neighbourhood in Canada. The 2005 Vancouver Housing Plan for the DTES correctly warned that "Homelessness will likely increase unless existing low-income housing is preserved or replaced." The City calculates that a net increase of 800 units of social housing per year is needed to meet the demand for low-cost, supportive housing.

     Many of Vancouver's homeless people live in the DTES, but of 2,154 market housing units either built or planned in the area between 2005 and 2010, only 557 are social housing. Since the start of 2008, almost 375 single occupancy rooms have been removed from the housing stock of the DTES.

     The issue has been debated extensively by the two leading mayoralty candidates, Peter Ladner of the NPA and Vision's Gregor Robertson. Ladner has tried to appear sympathetic to those most negatively affected, but his record of opposing social housing destroys his credibility.

     The most comprehensive platform on the issue has been released by the Coalition of Progressive Electors, which is running incumbent David Cadman and former councillor Ellen Woodsworth for city council.

     "It costs about $55,000 a year to provide services to a homeless person, but it only costs $7,300 to $13,370 to provide supportive, social housing," notes Woodsworth.

     Cadman adds that "Vancouver residents are, frankly, embarrassed that homelessness is growing and affordability is disappearing. This NPA council reversed a policy of one third low income at South East False Creek and have stood by while slum landlords allow their properties to fall apart necessitating their closure. It's unacceptable that good housing stands vacant while people sleep on the sidewalk." Cadman was referring to the 200-unit Little Mountain housing project, built in the post-war years; most of the residents have been forced out of the complex in preparation for redevelopment of the area, leaving the units unoccupied.

     COPE's 10-point homelessness plan includes:

- using Little Mountain's 200 empty units for social housing.

- requiring developers to incorporate 20 percent affordable housing in new developments.

- a replacement policy for the Downtown Eastside, so that for every unit of market housing built, an equivalent unit of affordable social housing is also constructed.

- actively protect, maintain, and improve the existing low-income housing stock, through vigilant enforcement of existing regulations and bylaws.

- lobby the provincial Government to increase welfare rates and the minimum wage, and to remove barriers to accessing income assistance.

- lobby the province to create a more effective and accessible residential tenancy dispute resolution process.

- allocate funding to meet the official target of 800 units of affordable housing a year for the next four years and re-establish a Residential Tenancy Office in Vancouver.

- lobby the province to increase subsidies to low income renters.

- use the City's Property Endowment Fund to build affordable housing.

- freeze conversion of rental accommodation to strata title condos.

     If the NPA is returned with a majority on November 15, the next three years will likely see more hollow promises but very little progress from City Hall. But if Cadman and Woodsworth are elected as part of a working Vision-COPE majority, social housing advocates will have a much greater chance to press the city to use its limited powers to address the crisis, and to demand that higher levels of government come through with funding for a dramatic expansion of social and low-income housing.