Re: Affordable Housing

im in full agreement on that one im trying to look for a place here in van and i dont want to live in a god damb hotel on the strip and every building or room i can get into is on hastings or around that area im so sick and tired of looking i dont wanna even look anymore its pretty much impossible all i want is a two bedroom basement sweet at like $800.00 just for rent and i only grt $325.00 for rent so planing on moveing in with a few frinds but thats not allowed and the fact that im on welfare just makes the landlord say no we do not take people like you street skumm or junkie so im in full agreement of some contracter/arcatecht building some houseing

I agree. Except for why should we still consider housing homeless people in less comfortable housing than the rest of the population.
If welfare rates were equivilant to the cost of a bach or one bed apt then landlords wouldn't be scared off from renting to welfare recipients. There is no possible way in a city like Vancouver that anyone should be expected to survive on 500.00 a month
325$ for rent and 175$ for expenses
43.75$ a week for survival

If we could just give people enough money to have groceries in there fridge lights and heat and enough to pay rent with ease. It would make it much easier for them to be able to be healthy and have enough energy and will to move on with their journey.

It's hard enough for someone that does have enough $ to pay rent to find a place to live in Vancouver. how they expect to give someone enough $ to pay less than half of the average rental cost and have no trouble finding or keeping a place to live. I just don't get it?
Ridiculous

Thanx for the comments, good luck to you Smoke...guess I could of explained it better: I'm absolutely not saying that we should put people in "less comfortable housing", I simply feel no-frills solid buildings are less susceptible to wear & tear, something bound to be a factor as there'd likely be a slightly higher turnover of occupancy once the single folk find employment; it's logical that a person with more money often moves on from bachelor suites or little two-roomers. Obviously folks should be free to paint, decorate, panel etc. their respective suites, I can't imagine anyone wanting their abode resembling a prison cell...and obviously the only two moral solutions to the crisis is boost welfare cheques to match ballooning rental rates or build affordable housing. As neither is happening at a compassionate enough pace to match the situation on the ground, the gubberments are not properly serving we the people.

That's a beautiful picture...I kept having to go back to the beginning of your post to start re-reading it a number of times, because I kept looking over at it...(granted I've smoked a doobie, but it's still an amazing picture)...did you do it? I was looking for a signature but didn't see one.
your humble servant,
Ancient Clown

It doesn't do any good to keep boosting welfare...then they just triple the price of everything again.(I guess, not alot of people notice that cigarettes and alcohol go up too...only alot faster and alot higher and alot more often than welfare increases...so they can just steal it right back...only now that everything is EVEN more expensive, it's EVEN harder to survive.
Ya gotta understand that welfare is as low as it is, not because they're broke...it's because they want you broke. If you don't have a slave class, you don't have undesirable people, doing the undesirable jobs and then how would they get done?
In seeing through their B.S. and lies, you can then defend and attack on the proper fronts with strength. ADDING "poverty and homelessness" to the "Human Rights Act" is something they will NOT even consider, even though there are poor people of every RACE, RELIGION, SEX, AGE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, and every other catagory they DO have, so why wouldn't THAT be there? It would offer a blanket of protection from their cold hearts. (No more bathroom refusals, camping bylaws, busking permits/thefts, tresspassings, POLICE harassment, being kidnapped & murdered, etc...see how much power & dignity we'd get back)
Same with REMOVING "cannabis" from the criminal code altogether. Don't legalize it or decriminalize it...recognize it was made by GOD and remove it from the books completely...then let everyone OUT of jail,(for their WEED charges). But they won't do that eihter...because then we wouldn't have a lumber industry, an oil industry, a cotton industry, a tobacco industry, or a pharmasudical industry. Besides, then anyone could grow it and have it and eat it and make clothes, building materials, medicines, the brightest lamp oils & live free.
Who do you think puts the governments in power to keep the power away from the rest of us?
I've been around folks.
I've seen things.
I'm in the bizarro world of living statistics that haven't been counted.
I'm a surviver of their death squad tactics.
I'm a surviver of their attempts, threats, destructions of all kinds.
I'm a surviver & WITNESS to their TRUE purpose.
STILL, I STAND.
As GOD as MY witness,
your humble servant,
Ancient Clown

Hi all. I am a single mother with 5 children, living in subsidized housing. This housing is set up to help families such as mine. I have a son who has nerological ( not spelt right, sorry) problems and it is hard for me to find work because when I go to work he acts out even worse and Im constantly getting calls about him. But to get to my story about affordable housing.

My home is full of mold, my floors were falling apart. So after three years of having a bathroom floor that was rotting away, my landlord FINALLY fixed it. However, when the unexperieced contracter fixed the floor, he destroyed my bathtub. In turn he poured floor glue down my tub drain causing a massive blockage. I could actually bath all my children in the tub and never once put in a plug. The tub became worse, you couldn't clean it because it wouldn't drain. Finally I took the landlord to court to get a new tub, it had been over a year and a half and still they refused to fix the tub. However, in August both toilets in my home had overflowed causing me to call the landlord who inturn called a plumber. This same plumber had been to my home numerous times and was very very rude. After he was done he told me he had found a doll in one toilet and he didnt know what was wrong with the other toilet. I asked to see the doll, but he said he didn't know where it went. After he left I went to the bathroom and found a little lego man on the floor, so I figured that must be the door. The day I attended court to get my tub fixed, my landlord served me with eviction papers in regards to the clogged toilets and every other maintenance problem they had fixed in my home over the last 3 years. I attend court on this and was evicted because of the clogged toilet. How is this possible? How can housing that is meant to help the homeless rate evict a family over a clogged toilet? This is whacked. This lanlord has harrased me for two years now and I can't take no more of it. Their killing me. So soon my 5 children and myself will be homeless all because someone may have clogged a toilet? So why bother with affordable housing when a simple thing as a clogged toilet can get you evicted?

On top of all this my landlord accused me of living with a man, who is also a tenant of theres and I have been fighting this since 2005. I have never lived with anyone but my children and it has already been proven. However, because there is no other place to appeal the decision they have stripped me of my subsidy. Affordable housing does not HELP people, it destroys their lifes, treats them like dirt and takes away all their dignity. And if you live in a small town, theres no one to turn for help because all of the good agencies are located in the big Cities.

Robynh500 if your story's as straightly as claimed, your experience personifies what's wrong and going wronger in this society. Keep telling the world, try informing your local media, find human rights lawyers, best of luck.

I get it hon, Oh boy do I GET it.

I am on the Tent City Rent Supplement Program. They have f*cked up my rent subsidy out of 48 months *43* TIMES! If my landlord had been an a**hole I'd have been turfed years ago. But he knows I will go fight them and get his money. It's just so exhausting. Every month I know it's another fight. Now that I'm ill, it's only a matter of time before I'm homeless again because I am just too tired to keep up the fight. Probably exactly what they're hoping for, too.

My place is far overpriced for what it is. So the landlord is jacking up the rent all the time. The maintenence is passible but only because our latest superintendent is good. Before that, it was laughable. [or more accurately, cryable].

Everyone from workers to landlord is getting paid to keep me in this situation. What the f*ck is THAT?
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SUSAN IVANOVA: If I live through this without completely losing my mind it will be a miracle of biblical proportions.

I like the idea of building some cheap housing, but don't some cities already have LOTS of low-income housing? and has the number of people on welfare or on the street been decreased in those cities? Not very much. I just recently heard (on this site actually) of a program just starting in some cities, that would provide the use of abondended buildings for free, or a tiny amount (to avoid legal issues) like 1$. I have also heard of abandoned apartment buildings being sold to orginizations (such as homelessnation,drop-ins,food/clothing centers etc) for 1$ or two as well. The leaders of those cities have stood up and decided to do something worthwhile about homelessness, and, I think all other cities in Canada should follow suit. I believe that as long as there is abadoned buildings in a city, that city should not be facing the issue of homelessness any longer.

-KierinK

Actually, They do that in HOlland already. They take abandonned buildings and rent them out to homeless people and they have to find a way to auto-finance the place. And the gov't helps them do that.

It,s called evolution I think, a word Canada doesn't know.

I really don't see how it is that Canada can be so far ahead in some aspects of our economy, and so damn far behind in others. We have many isuues, such as healthcare, buisness, etc, under control, yet others, such as homelessness, minimum wage, and most importantly our own leadership,(I personally don't think "Stevie" to be a very wise, or for that matter a safe choice to lead us) we utterly fail. I think that if Holland has the capability to start the process of "evolution", then Canada should be MORE than capable, as well as willing to do the same. My reasoning is, that if Holland can get off of their asses and make the change, then why can't we?

Holland, Sweden, Norway, Finland even France and England are ahead of us, socially speaking.

And we have more resources than all of them combined.

The answer is:

Sheer greed combined with ineffective, corporate ass-kissing politicians.

You got that right. One day, the minority of people who take on the task of thinking for the majority will actually have their ideas heard, until then, i'll just bitch to other pissed off people who join me in screaming into what seems like a sound-proof room full of corrupt politicians who only drag us further down.

The whole point of raising rent is so people will stop taking advantage of the landlords and half the time the landlord is in the right to evict them. Getting of welare and getting a productive job is the right answer. If you can' afford it move... I work in a Shelter and my experince has been there is always anyone side of the story people aren't hearing. Landlords just don't evict you because they don't like you, or rase the rent because of that reason, they are doing it because they are sick of people pulling a sob story to make them feel bad. I don't feel bad at all, because YOU can do something about being homeless.

beggars can't be choosers... a home is a home. Take it or leave, and if you can't do that then do something about it! Our shelters are better then most apartments at that are market rent. I not trying to be rude, but honestly.. I don't beleive any parts of sob stories anymore.

By assuming that shelters are better than housing, you are looking at the wrong end of the donkey.

NOBODY in a country where 5 families the size of yours can fit in a single person's house should have to live as your family does.

That simple.

Your family should not BE homeless. Period.

I can't imagine the fear you must be going through right now.

You're absolutely right. What family with children hasn't had a clogged toilet? My ex mother in law paid $3000 to have the toilet and plumbing replaced in her condo when one of the grandkids accidently flushed his bumblelion down it. It wasn't malicious--he was "giving Froudy a bath" then got distracted and his brother flushed. Down went Froudy.

On top of that--what difference is having sex with someone who is not a parent of the children and contributing significantly to the running of the household? A deduction for the portion he pays, maybe. But starving women and children--unmitigated savagery, as far as I'm concerned.

I may be off the track here, but I don't believe your anger is directed at other people as poor as yourself. I believe it needs to be rightly directed at the injustice of your living conditions.

What happened to you isn't fair, it isn't just and it certainly is NOT what any of us would want to see happen to a struggling family!
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ARTHUR: What manner of men prey on the weak and the poor? Stealing from old women? *Cowards* I think!

We finally just got more RGI housing in Woodstock after fighting for it for so long. Much needed as there is only one shelter all year round of families, but only half the year for singles...

Traci:
If you work in a shelter with that ATTITUDE and ignorance of basic economic facts--you are dangerous to the clients.

Period.

Go sell shoes or something and give your job to someone who has listening skills.

Landlords raise the rent because they CAN.