The Bosman Hotel has, for the last three years, essentially provided a mini-Riverview ward for those who need it in the middle of the downtown. It worked so well that even downtown business groups are worried about what will happen if it is simply shut down with no reasonable alternative for the most troubled of [...]

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Like Surrey, Prince George and Toronto, Vancouver is about to start a small rent bank, kicking in $150,000 of the total cost, with $350,000 coming from Streetohome, the private-sector group working on homelessness, and others. The bank is aimed at helping prevent homelessness by providing small loans to people to help them get or retain [...]

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Quick links to news today. – The lenders for Millennium Development’s Evelyn Drive project have gone to court to start foreclosure proceedings, according to the CBC. A real blow for Millennium, even more than the village receivership in a way. It came the morning after Bob Rennie praised them for all the work they’d done [...]

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The city had its day in the media sun Tuesday, with a homeless count that seemed to be proving that having more shelters is keeping people off the street. The housing minister got his day today, with his Colemanesque gentle ultimatum that, if Vancouver wants to open more shelters than the province currently funds, it [...]

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The city had its own homeless count, a first, yesterday, which everyone covered. Here’s my version. Interesting to note that the city’s numbers will be out in a couple of weeks — just before the five community emergency shelters are set to close April 30. I await developments on this front.

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For years before the Olympics arrived, we routinely saw commentators warning that when the media arrived here and saw the scene on the Downtown Eastside and the homelessness situation, there would be a firestorm of negative coverage. That never happened. There was the odd piece here and there in the bigger newspapers, but it never [...]

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This just out from city hall, where apparently some poor wretch is still employed to put out news releases while everyone else is on holiday. Howe Street shelter closes two days early The Howe Street shelter has closed two days ahead of schedule thanks to the availability and acceptance of alternate housing by shelter residents, [...]

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The residents around the two homeless shelters under the Granville Bridge started complaining a month ago about the activities in the shelters and their uncertain future. At first, they didn’t get a lot of attention, but the story exploded in the last couple of weeks and has turned into one of city hall’s major unchecked [...]

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I got a copy of a letter last week from the Fraser Valley Regional Library board that expressed an anxiety felt by many out there. It began: Over the past few weeks the Board of Fraser Valley Regional Library, along with other libraries across the province were concerned to hear rumors over possible significant reductions [...]

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A big report on the city’s homelessness efforts is on the agenda for next week. Most of it states a lot of what we’ve heard throughout the last few months in terms of the state of affairs here in Vancouver re homelessness and where the city would like to go. A new squib that was [...]

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