Preliminary numbers from the City of Vancouver’s homeless count show that the number of people sleeping outside at night is declining.

This year’s count, which took place over a 24 hour period on March 13, 2013 found 273 people sleeping outside in Vancouver, which is:

• a decrease of 11% from 2012, which saw 306 street homeless; and
• a 66% decrease since 2008, which saw 811 street homeless, and was the first year of low-barrier shelters.

“The drop in people sleeping outside in Vancouver shows that we’re on the right path when it comes to ending street homelessness by 2015,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Our efforts are working, but there is no question there is more work to do. This is within our grasp.

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Vancouver City Council has unanimously approved a grant of up to $490,000 to the Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISS) to help assist with the construction of an innovative transitional supportive housing project providing short and medium term accommodation for refugees.

Located at 2610 Victoria Drive, the ISS ‘Welcome House Centre’ will provide short term and transitional housing with supports for recently arrived refugees. The project will include 98 flexible, lockable rooms which can be combined in a variety of configurations, down to 26 “self-contained units” allowing ISS to flexibly house larger or smaller families as well as singles, as need arises.

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Help spread the word: The recent report card on the City’s Housing and Homelessness strategy shows Vancouver is currently exceeding all of its short-term targets for protecting and expanding affordable rental housing, building new supportive housing, and ending street homelessness.

Many highlights are included in the infographic below —  click here to read the full story

Construction is underway on the 12th new supportive housing development in Vancouver, a 99-unit development for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Once complete, the building at 2465 Fraser St. will offer 69 apartments for adults who are homeless and at risk of homelessness and 30 apartments for youth that will be operated by the Vancouver Native Housing Society. It will also include a new youth resource centre run by Pacific Community Resources Society who, together with partner agencies, will provide support services for both resident youth as well as at-risk youth in the surrounding neighbourhood. This new youth centre will replace the Broadway Youth Resource Centre, which has served the community for the past 14 years.

“There is a crucial need for new supportive housing in Vancouver, and this project is a strong example of the kind of partnerships we need to solve homelessness,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “ The 99 new supportive housing units at 2465 Fraser St. will provide a safe place to live and access to life-changing services for Vancouver’s most vulnerable residents, especially homeless and at-risk youth.”

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The Province and the City of Vancouver have secured the former Howard Johnson Hotel at 395 Kingsway to provide 100 interim housing spaces for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness while more supportive housing is completed.

“These 100 spaces of interim transition housing will give people a safe, warm place to sleep at night and enable them to prepare for moving into new supportive housing developments,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “This is a crucial part of our housing and homelessness strategy as it bridges the gap between emergency shelters and long-term housing.”

The City of Vancouver will undertake $1.1 million in capital upgrades to the property, and the Province will provide operational funding for the newly leased building. BC Housing will issue a Request for Proposals early in 2013 for an operator to manage and provide support services for tenants. It is expected that the building will be available for occupancy in the spring upon completion of the capital upgrades.

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Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced the members of the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability today, having assembled a diverse team of industry and community leaders with expertise ranging from non-market housing and sustainable urban planning to finance and real-estate development.

“The members of the Housing Affordability Task Force bring a broad and diverse array of experience, leadership, and vision to our work on the pressing challenge of affordability,” says Mayor Robertson. “Vancouver must be a city where our children can afford to live and raise their families. This is not a simple challenge but it is one that we have to address – and I believe this Task Force has the ideas and expertise to provide new affordability solutions for Vancouver.”

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