The park is currently packed with more than 100 tents occupied by homeless people, and organizers had no interest in displacing anyone to make way for the event. “We lived in that neighbourhood and we were displaced,” festival executive director Emiko Morita says, referencing the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. “To contribute to the displacement of marginalized people isn’t something we would want to be a part of.
This debate is continuing among city councillors and business leaders, who all agree something needs to be done, but not about the best way forward. This spring, Councillor Jean Swanson asked council to buy a hotel to house the people or, failing that, bring in toilets, a warming tent and other amenities to improve conditions in the camp. Council deemed a hotel too expensive but did put up porta-potties and agree to a warming shelter when winter rolls around again.
And when I asked Celine Mauboules, Vancouver’s homelessness director, what the city’s plan is going forward, she spoke mostly about efforts to co-ordinate services that help people from becoming homeless in the first place. There are 175 permanent shelter-rate units coming on stream between now and 2020. To build more would require a major infusion of cash from all levels of government, she added.
need a culture of individual responsibility
We have 112 million for Toyota, 12 million for Loblaws, 4.5 billion for pipe lines and millions for Bombardier and we still have this? Shame!