Coalition Releases Plan To Address Affordable Housing
Prince George, B.C. – A coalition of more than a dozen organizations has released a plan to end chronic homelessness in the Province of B.C.
The plan calls for a partnership between all levels of government and non profit organizations. The coalition is calling for all political candidates to make solving this problem a plank in their platforms.
Kishone Roy, CEO of the BC Non Profit Housing Association and Chair of the Coalition says across the province, there are 7,000 people in need of housing now, and more than 100 thousand families who need help with rent.
While praising the Provincial government for its $400 million dollar injection into affordable housing, Roy says whoever forms government after May 9th needs to continue that commitment and bring the Federal Government on board as well.
The plan calls for the building of 7 thousand units per year in each of the next ten years at a cost of $1.8 billion per year in a shared partnership.
Specifically, for the Fraser Fort George Region, the report suggests the following is needed annually to address homelessness and affordable housing (all numbers are in millions of dollars):
| Provincial | Federal | Community Housing Sector | Total | |
| New Supply | $6.64 | $6.64 | $6.64 | $19.92 |
| Repairs to Existing Stock |
$0.88 |
$0.88 |
$0.88 |
$2.65 |
| Homelessness | $1.02 | $1.02 | $0.27 | $2.30 |
| Income Support | $3.87 | $3.87 | N/A | $7.75 |
| TOTAL | $32.61 |
The most recent homelessness count in Prince George identified 205 people who considered themselves homeless either temporarily (51) episodically (14) or chronically (139). According to the report, the average cost per year to address homelessness in Prince George was just over $2.3 million.
“Solving this is not going to be easy, we are decades behind” says Roy who says while the numbers are high “The cost of doing nothing is far greater.”
Comments
Just thinking, we have so, so many hardly used Trailers and Motorhomes standing on properties, here in Prince George and all over the province. The cost of any of these are very affordable to compare with some housing projects. I am not saying as permanent residences, but certainly as a intermediate home.
We could put quite a number of those,even on some small acreage.
If you are speaking about privately owned trailers and motorhomes, who in their right mind would let some homeless people use them? What would you do with the homeless when you wanted to go on vacation? Take them along I guess???
I am thinking more of purchasing them for temporary shelter until some affordable place would be available. Many are for sale between 10,000 and 20,000.
I guess I am thinking more of Trailer Park properties.
Who pays for this, we do through our taxes :(
The problem with just giving people houses is that a great many of the recipients will perform zero maintenance and upkeep and the houses and the lots will quickly become unlivable eyesores.
Instead of giving houses away, why don’t we cut the political rhetoric and come up with a plan that removes the barriers that are preventing these 7000 people from affording their own houses?
You are right in many ways. Many of those who are on the street should be taken, i.e. to a training camp and keep them there and train them for jobs.
Yes there are those with mental challenges, but I have seen many who look very capable to go to work, instead of living out of handouts.
What ‘jobs’, Tony? The world is working at putting itself out of work, and has been for a long time, and the pace this is happening is ever accelerating. Aside from that, look at the length of time it takes for people who actually do want to work to get trained at some trade or profession they ‘may’ be able to find employment in. Many occupations which are in demand right now may well not be in the length of time they take to be trained, assuming they can get such training in the first place. The real problem with homelessness is the way in which we’ve made owning a home more and more unaffordable. We insist on certain ‘standards’ ~ and we’re inflexible in deviating from them. That’s all to the well and good in some ways, but it puts far too many would-be home buyers in debt over their heads for a bunch of stuff they don’t really need. Gone are the days when you can frame up a modest abode and move in and finish it as you can pay for it, paycheque to paycheque. Now, most places, it has to be finished to a point that’s guaranteed to indebt you, or no Occupancy Permit. Only one of many you’ll now need, and pay for on your way to having a rood over your head. We’d be quite happy to put someone in a trailer or a camper, neither hardly fit for longer term habitation, but we won’t let them build a modest shack they could improve or remove as their finances allow.
“Many of those who are on the street should be taken, i.e. to a training camp and keep them there.”
How is that any different from putting them in prison for being homeless? The object, surely, should be to help people, not punish them. Loss of liberty is not the answer. It must also be obvious that not all homeless people are capable of responding positively to this. Many are homeless because they can’t cope with regular society and require special assistance. Prison, no matter how dressed up, is not it.
Want to end homelessness? No problem, Vancouver’s socialist Mayor Robertson vowed to ELIMINATE homelessness by 2015. Just ask him how he did it.
ht tp://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/metro-vancouver-homeless-numbers-have-jumped-30-since-2014
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