Our AGM is on December 3. This is the perfect time to renew your membership (a bargain at $5), and to elect our board for the coming year. And of course, we normally do a little festive noshing as well.
And an article you may find of interest:
Most BCers Support Social Housing
A significant majority of British Columbians would welcome housing for people with mental illnesses and addictions in their neighbourhood, a new poll done for 24 hours suggests.
More than 83 per cent of people surveyed by 24 hours pollster Strategic Communications said they would say yes to supportive housing in their community. Just over 11 per cent of respondents said they would be opposed.
The results would appear to suggest that the very vocal opposition that inevitably emerges when new proposals for supportive housing are pitched could be in the minority.
Mark Smith, executive director of RainCity Housing, says the experience of trying to convince local residents of the need for a 30-unit facility on Vancouver’s Fraser Street was “awful.”
“At the public information session, they were lined up and down the two aisles to yell at us,” Smith said in an interview. “I was threatened. It was wild. In my 30 years in this field I’d never experienced anything like that.” But Smith said he was pleased to see the apparently positive results of the poll. “There’s always such a vocal minority of people that speak up that it feels like the community is just overwhelmingly against it,” he said. “But I know that there were a lot of people that did support our project.”
Turning Point Recovery Society, another housing provider, wasn’t so lucky. The group withdrew its application to open a 32-bed recovery house in Richmond after facing intense criticism of the project from residents.
“We’re up against a very strong opposition,” said executive director Brenda Plant, who decries what she calls some residents’ ‘NIMBYism’ – Not in my backyard.
“They think property values will decline, children won’t be safe, there will be increased drug activity and drug dealers. These things just simply aren’t true,” Plant said.
In Vancouver, supportive housing projects for mental illness and addictions are overwhelmingly skewed to the east. Excluding the downtown, there are only three small facilities west of Main Street.
Ultimately, supportive housing projects have become concentrated in the Downtown Eastside, even if residents come from all parts of the city. “Richmond is by no means exempt from addictions and mental health challenges,” said Turning Point’s Plant, noting there are no similar facilities in Richmond for addicted women.
Either way, RainCity’s Smith said he was still cautious about the poll results.
“It’s easy to respond to a poll when it’s not actually happening,” he said. “How many of them are thinking I’d welcome [supportive housing] in my neighbourhood – but not next door?”
The poll surveyed 609 British Columbians and is considered representative of the general population within +/- four per cent, 19 times out of 20.
from 24 Hours, Vancouver Mon. 21 July 08
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South End Community Association 