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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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’s four emergency winter shelters remain at full capacity, and have had to consistently turn people away due to lack of available space – a reminder of the urgent need for more investment in affordable housing, says Mayor Gregor Robertson.

New numbers from the Extreme Weather Response Program show that since the Province and City of Vancouver opened four temporary winter shelters at the beginning of December, an average of 24 homeless individuals each night have been turned away from these facilities due to a lack of available space.  Each shelter provides space for 40 people, for a total of 160 shelter beds.

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Mayor Gregor Robertson today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with S.U.C.C.E.S.S. establishing a long-term partnership to create affordable and supportive housing for seniors, families and youth in the City of Vancouver.

“The City of Vancouver and S.U.C.C.E.S.S. share a common goal to develop more affordable housing and support services,” said Mayor Robertson. “S.U.C.C.E.S.S. is a natural partner for the City because of their strong track record of delivering culturally-appropriate, community-based supportive housing.”

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. has been providing health-related housing and  support services for seniors in Chinatown since 2001.  And since 2008 it has been operating and managing social housing units in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Over the past 38 years, it has provided over 6 million client services to Metro Vancouver.