VOTE
AUDREY JANE LAFERRIERE
independent
for VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL
15 NOVEMBER 2008
A vote for Audrey Jane Laferriere means a “yes” for City-owned 142 Water/Cordova Streets (old Storyeum location) to become a minimalist Shelter, a 24-hour Community Centre, and a Detox Centre for metro Vancouver. It can also be used as an emergency preparedness centre. Storyeum has been without a long-term tenant since November 2006. Each vote for Audrey Jane Laferriere will say that you want the above. With 100,000 votes, it is absolutely certain that the next elected City Council will amend its existing policy and immediately create more shelters so no one is living on the streets. All the political parties have written policies against shelters. So, your vote is important. Remember it is the voters who tell the politicians what to do.
Last year there were 36,000 turnaways from shelters within a nine-month period. Why because all of the service providers, advocates, churches, unions and aboriginal leaders in the DTES oppose more shelters. They either are unthinking or they want to believe in “housing first.” Before “housing first” can be implemented, we need affordable housing: It can’t be done with a zero vacancy rate. Unfortunately, the governments listen to this “cart before the horse” logic. This backward logic has been the status quo for as long as I can remember (20 years). Using the argument that there should be no temporary solutions is cruel and barbaric. The street homeless have to be sheltered even if it is a mat on a floor. Providing minimalist shelters should be an essential service apart from affordable/social housing. Unless 142 Water/Cordova happens, or there is an alternative, we will continue to put the most vulnerable at risk. Shelters will not solve the underlying reasons for homelessness but it will solve the problem now of people living on the streets.
It is questionable what the DTES non-profits (all 470) do but one thing for certain is that they are not looking after the street marginalized. These organizations all have narrow special interest mandates none of which includes more shelters. And when questioned about their individual responsibility to the street homeless, they hide behind/cite their job descriptions. The United Church is willing to use its premises as a drug injection sanctuary if needed but will not use its DTES underground parking as an outside shelter. VANDU does not support more shelters although most of its members are sick and homeless. Last November the Vancouver Food Bank closed its depot in the DTES without notice. The executive director of the food bank skis at Whistler, shops at Holt Renfrew and earns $150K. She recently was the author/chair of a report by the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness against shelters. Lookout is very concerned over the fact that a few of the street homeless are not from Vancouver and therefore no new shelter space should be created. Dumb logic. The aborigiinal community does not want shelters for its own people preferring to wait for Federal funding. The Aboriginal Front Door at Hastings and Main has on its door "Do not Sleep in the Doorway." The City and the non-profits are busily double gating their properties to prevent the homeless from sleeping in their doorways. The voice of the DTES is the Carnegie Centre that wrongly believes that it speaks for the DTES residents. If it were true then no one would be living on the streets. The street homeless are in survival mode and cannot fight for themselves. We assume these organizations are looking after the street homeless but they are not.
The street homeless in the DTES experiences 500X the death rate over overall neighbourhoods in the City. We as a City cannot wait until “real” housing is built while the street homeless suffer needlessly because they lack adequate nutrition, inadequate health care, emotional distress, inadequate shelter, inadequate sleep, inadequate hygiene, exposure to the elements, and inadequate personal safety. And it is costing the taxpayer $55,000 annually for welfare, health and policing per homeless person. And the new $5.4 million DTES community court has a basketball court… and the not-yet 3800 social housing units Ladner speaks of does not replace the 6400 lost SRO rooms. We need more shelters now.
We need the old Storyeum location to be a centralized minimalist shelters for metro Vancouver (skytrain stops at Waterfront) so those that are homeless or at risk of homelessness know where to go. Later they can be referred to other shelters/resources/housing. A shelter like Storyeum should be centralized for efficiencies and social housing should be scattered. We do not need a high-end furniture store from Iran/Germany, a high-end bowling alley from New West, or a high-end fitness gym and spa from North Carolina at this location.
POLITICAL DONATIONS
75-12 EAST HASTINGS STREET
VANCOUVER BC V6A 1N1
http://voiceofgoneballistic.blogspot.com/
epetition: http://storyeum.googlepages.com/ Audrey Jane Laferriere
audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca (778-329-1250)
Meet me at 142 Water Street Sunday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00.
View the >5,000 signature paper shelter petition with comments like shelters saved my life...
View the 5,000 signature paper petition wanting more shelters with comments
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Verbal Discourse
The only thing certain about Ladner wanting to wait for a permanent solution to street homelessness are the deaths occurring in the DTES weekly.
In the first mayoral debate Ladner referred to Philip Mangano, the US czar of homelessness, that "housing first" was the way to go. When I spoke to Philip and when I told him that the City has a deliberate written policy not to do more shelters he was perplexed and he asked him what was the City going to do with the homeless in the meantime. I told Ladner this and at the next debate he said that the City's Housing Director, Cameron Gray, was the "expert" and Cameron said that we need permanent solutions. Of course Cameron would say that as he is an employee.
As for Robertson, he is doing the same thing as City Council has always done is listen to the wrong people and not use common sense. There is no reason for anyone to be living on the streets. Putting a mat on the floor at Storyeum is negligible in cost so why is he even considering opening additional buildings such as community centers. Such a plan is nothing more than a logistic nightmare. We do not need portable shelters all over the City. We need shelters that can stablize people and not move them each morning to the street and then to another shelter.
In the first mayoral debate Ladner referred to Philip Mangano, the US czar of homelessness, that "housing first" was the way to go. When I spoke to Philip and when I told him that the City has a deliberate written policy not to do more shelters he was perplexed and he asked him what was the City going to do with the homeless in the meantime. I told Ladner this and at the next debate he said that the City's Housing Director, Cameron Gray, was the "expert" and Cameron said that we need permanent solutions. Of course Cameron would say that as he is an employee.
As for Robertson, he is doing the same thing as City Council has always done is listen to the wrong people and not use common sense. There is no reason for anyone to be living on the streets. Putting a mat on the floor at Storyeum is negligible in cost so why is he even considering opening additional buildings such as community centers. Such a plan is nothing more than a logistic nightmare. We do not need portable shelters all over the City. We need shelters that can stablize people and not move them each morning to the street and then to another shelter.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Municipal Election 2008
audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca
http://storyeum.googlepages.com
At a community relations meeting June 25 2008 at the Carnegie Centre after asking when was the Carnegie going to do an action in support of making City-owned 142 Water (old Storyeum location) a minimalist shelter and 24-hour community center, I was told that Carnegie had other priorities and mandates and funders telling them what to do. For close to two years I have been waiting for some kind of definite action from Carnegie and now this. Carnegie is suppose to be the "voice of the DTES" and it had already sent two letters of support to City Hall. I went ballistic and knew that I had to do something: I am sure Carnegie thought I would because of lack of community support disappear. The Carnegie is of the opinion that the street residents of the DTES should stay on the street until "real" housing is built. What a terrible price for the street homeless to pay. After that meeting I decided to run as an Independant for the 2008 City Council and make 142 Water the main focus of my pending campaign. What can be more important than making sure the street homeless have a safe dry place to sleep at night.
http://storyeum.googlepages.com
At a community relations meeting June 25 2008 at the Carnegie Centre after asking when was the Carnegie going to do an action in support of making City-owned 142 Water (old Storyeum location) a minimalist shelter and 24-hour community center, I was told that Carnegie had other priorities and mandates and funders telling them what to do. For close to two years I have been waiting for some kind of definite action from Carnegie and now this. Carnegie is suppose to be the "voice of the DTES" and it had already sent two letters of support to City Hall. I went ballistic and knew that I had to do something: I am sure Carnegie thought I would because of lack of community support disappear. The Carnegie is of the opinion that the street residents of the DTES should stay on the street until "real" housing is built. What a terrible price for the street homeless to pay. After that meeting I decided to run as an Independant for the 2008 City Council and make 142 Water the main focus of my pending campaign. What can be more important than making sure the street homeless have a safe dry place to sleep at night.
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