Homelessness

Danny Westneat | Homeless: new growth industry

Posted by Jeff from Seattle Times

Something is ragged in the Emerald City. We've had our frenzies, like the dot-coms and real estate. Now it feels like there's an anti-boom, an echo of the others. A week ago Friday wasn't especially cold or windy or any of the other things that drive street people inside. But at Operation Nightwatch, a ministry for the homeless, it was a night for the record books anyway. Near midnight, after finding spots to sleep for 175 people, workers gave bus tickets and blankets to 42 more. Then sent them wandering off down the street.

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Doctors to visit poorest Vancouver residents to free up hospital beds

Posted by Shemuses from CBC

In a bid to reduce the number of hospital beds being taken up by the homeless and drug addicts in Vancouver, doctors will soon be making house-calls to those who live in single room occupancy (SRO) hotels in the Downtown Eastside. Many residents of the Downtown Eastside are seriously ill, often the result of drug use and hard living on the streets, said Lorna House, the director of mental health for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. By the time they get to a hospital, she said, they often need long-term care.

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Operators go to court to protect injection site

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

With just two months to go before its doors may be closed by the Conservative government, operators of North America's only supervised injection site for users of illegal drugs have gone to court to stay open. The facility saves lives, reduces harm to drug addicts and increases their motivation to seek treatment, lawyers argued in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday. As a result, they said, federal drug laws against possession of heroin and cocaine should not apply there. "The criminal approach leads to death. Harm reduction leads to life," said John Conroy, representing the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

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Safe-injection site mounts constitutional challenge

Posted by Shemuses from CBC

The operators of Canada's only supervised safe-injection site are launching a constitutional challenge they hope will bolster their ability to continue operating the controversial facility in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and the Portland Hotel Society, which operate the site, are scheduled to appear in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday morning.

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Local Retired carpenter offers hot soup, warm smile to homeless on Seattle's Capitol Hill

Posted by Jeff from Seattle Times

Bill Pond parks his pickup twice a week on Broadway Avenue East near a boarded-up Jack in the Box. There, he offers chicken soup, egg-salad sandwiches and juice to the homeless. The retired carpenter pays for it out of his own pocket, collecting and recycling aluminum cans to help offset some of the cost.

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'This Is Me, Take It or Leave It'

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

In photos and words, citizens of a gritty community create a vibrant self-portrait.

Paul Levesque has spent 40 years in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and he sees the neighbourhood as a sole reminder of the way this city used to be. "It's the last of an era, of Vancouver built in the 1950s, '60s, '70s," he says, standing in the pouring rain at Hastings and Dunlevy. "It's unique. It's not fictional; it's reality. The east end community is not like any other community, because it's not plastic. It's not like keeping up with the Joneses, because we can't afford to keep up with the Joneses. It's a poverty-stricken area. It's painful. But it's also reality."

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Domestic abuse increases chance of trouble finding homes, study says - Examiner.com

Posted by wolftrust from Gallatin News Examiner

Disclosing victim status could mean being denied that housing is even available. Women strong enough to flee their homes and their abusive situations were more likely to be denied housing outright, something that did not happen to people not disclosing. In the study, 65 percent of domestic violence victims were subjected to at least one form of discriminatory treatment.

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