During an introduction to a presentation at Vancouver City Hall last evening, Councillor Tim Stevenson told of a recent visit to China where he was asked how many homeless there were on the streets in Vancouver. When Councillor Stevenson responded with "about 3,000" the Chinese delegate exclaimed that as one of the richest countries in the world, how could we not simply eliminate that number overnight?And you know what, he does have a point. How is it that a country (and city) as rich as ours allow homelessness to continue?
Actually it is not difficult to find an answer - it needs to be tackled by all level of governments, made a priority for funding and for the people who elect these governments to direct their representatives to make it a priority.
It is time once again for the federal government to step in and take a more active role in housing and the provincial government to make funding a priority. Without this support, the City of Vancouver is going to fail in eliminating homelessness by 2015. And when the City fails, we, the residents of one of the richest countries also fail.
I urge you to contact your MLA, your MP, the Prime Minster of Canada and Premier of British Columbia and tell them they must make housing a priority. Believe it or not, politicians do listen if we make enough noise. So start making some noise!
List of British Columbia MLAs
Premier Gordon Campbell - premier@gov.bc.ca
List of Canadian MPs
Prime Minister Stephen Harper - pm@pm.gc.ca
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