Homelessness is something that is still a growing problem today in many parts of the world, Vancouver included. British Columbias government currently has some housing policies to try and help the homeless people all across the province, and they are dedicated to understanding and responding better to the homelessness crisis (1).
My first question is, what are some of Vancouver’s housing policies in recent years?
The first major housing policy I’m going to talk about is a plan that started in 2022 and is finishing its initial faze end of 2025, this is called the Belonging in B.C. homelessness plan (1). This is a BC wide plan to help homelessness not by just building more houses but by giving the homeless people the support systems they need. (2) This plan is about helping the homeless belong, not only does this mean having a home and roof over there head but also being respected, valued, and cared about by the community (2). They counted how many homeless people there were in 2023 when this program was starting to kick off. There were 2,420 homeless, 605 unsheltered, 1,815 sheltered (3). This was a starting point, the goal of this program is to make these number as few as possible (3). This programme funding is 633 million for the initial 3 year period. (1). This programme has been overall effective in helping the homelessness crisis in Vancouver.
The second policy that is in place to help homeless people get of the streets or have a safe place to go is the HEART & HEARTH program, this programme is a branch of the Belonging in B.C homelessness plan (4). This program was created to help lower the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness (4). HEART stands for Homeless Encampment Action Response Team (5). HEARTH stands for Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing (5). Homeless people who don’t have regular access to shelters and other safe spaces to go often end up living in encampments, but some end up living in very unsafe environments (5). How the HEART & HEARTH program works is BC Housing and the Ministry of Housing coordinate to find the communities with the highest need for homelessness and encampment support so they can provide help (5). This program started in fall of 2023 and HEART AND HEARTH shelters and housing began in mid 2024 (5). The funding for this program is approximately $44 million, but as this is a branch from the Belonging in B.C homelessness plan this money came from the money given to that program (4).
The last policy I will be looking into is the Homeless Prevention Program, this program provides money for anyone who is at an extremely high risk of ending up homeless (7). How this program works is if you are at a high risk for ending up homeless you can reach out to this program and and they will help you by providing portable rent supplements and support services and other things that will make sure you have a stable place to rent (6). Some examples of people who are eligible for this program are young people leaving foster care, women or men in extreme poverty and people leaving correctional systems (6). The only thing is to be eligible for this program you have to be above the aged of 19 most of the time, if you are not they sometimes have exceptions (6). The funding given to you from the program cannot be used for everything, some things it can be used for is, rent, damage deposits and moving expenses (6). Somethings it cannot be used for is, expenses not related to housing and daycare expenses.
Overall, researching these three policy will help me answer my inquiry question: how can housing policies evolve in Vancouver to help homelessness. As later on I can look at the good and the bad that was produced in these programs.
Sources
2. https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/BelongingStrategy.pdf
3. https://www.bchousing.org/research-centre/housing-data/homeless-counts
5. https://www.bchousing.org/projects-partners/housing-provider-info/HEART-HEARTH
6. https://www.bchousing.org/housing-assistance/homelessness-services/homeless-prevention-program
7. Homeless Prevention Program : Archway Community Serviceshttps://archway.ca/program/homeless-prevention-program/
Hi Vashti,
Thanks for sharing your blog post! Homelessness is such an important topic, and I can tell you put a lot of thought into your research. I really liked how you organized your post because it made it easy to follow your ideas and understand your inquiry question. I also appreciated how you explained the different housing policies and their goals, and the statistics you included really helped show the scope of the issue, especially to people that may not fully understand the crisis. One thing that could make your post even stronger is including stories or perspectives from people who have actually experienced homelessness so readers can connect more personally. You could also compare Vancouver’s approach to other cities to show how different strategies work in different places. Overall, this is a really relevant topic, and I’m excited to see how your post develops!
Hi Vashti, I loved reading your blog post! Homelessness is such a good subject to know about and I think that it is very good of you to be researching it. Something I did notice in your post were some grammatical errors, in your title the “how” should be capitalized making it “How”, and in your first big paragraph you wrote “programme” which is the French way of spelling “program” (as a fellow French immersion student, I understand). I would also say to relate this topic more to yourself (if possible), by stating your experiences interacting with/seeing homeless people or even if you know someone who is or was homeless. Overall I think you did a great job with writing this blog post and I look forward to reading more.