CBC reports that the Anti-Poverty Committee (APC), a Vancouver activist group, is continuing its protests with the city and the province of British Columbia over homelessness leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, despite the Province’s promise Tuesday of $80 million for affordable housing.
The Province is providing $80 million to purchase 15 buildings, mostly single-room-occupancy hotels, which will provide nearly 1,000 units for the homeless. The project reportedly includes developing new social housing on three properties owned by the city. Officials said it is the largest single commitment to social housing in the history of British Columbia.
APC spokeswoman Anna Hunter said the $80 million promised by the Province’s Premier Gordon Campbell is not enough – that it’s simply old money for old buildings. She said the homeless need new money for new buildings and that her group believes the protests are starting to pay off and there will be more of them as the battle has not yet been won.
She said, “definitely, the APC will not let off. You know, we have seen the impacts and the positive effects of the work that we are doing and we will continue to intensify it”.
The CBC quotes activist Jean Swanson of Carnegie Community Action Project saying that the APC is on the right track. “I think the fact they (the government) have purchased these hotels shows that some of the pressure is working, but I think we have to keep it up.”
The Premier says the APC protests were not a factor in the government’s decision to commit the $80 million for affordable housing. He added the committee’s tactics don’t’ work, and in fact may work against its stated goal of helping the homeless. He said, “I don’t think the protesters have helped their cause. I think they take away from it”.
Judy Graves, the coordinator of Vancouver’s tenant assistance program, told CBC Radio Wednesday the evictions of tenants from single room occupancy hotels is not the result of the 2010 Winter Games. She said, “the problems we’re having with homelessness are not really caused by the Olympics. They are caused by increasing property values”.
