Housing and
Homeless Network of B.C.

by John Argue, Program Director, Working Group on Poverty

On May 28, 1999 the Working Group on Poverty (WGOP) organized a housing forum at Progressive Intercultural Community Services in Surrey in cooperation with other anti-poverty, immigrant/refugee-serving organizations, and housing-oriented groups. Over 70 people took part in the meeting from 9 municipalities in the Lower Mainland, and also from Kelowna, and all agreed to establish the Housing and Homeless Network of B.C. to advocate for federal government assistance to build social housing.

Linda Mix from the Tenants’ Rights Action Coalition and John Argue from the Working Group on Poverty agreed to be the contacts for the network. The network’s primary goal is to encourage the federal government to invest in housing once again, since that level of government decided as of 1993 to leave social housing to the provinces.

However, only B.C. and Quebec are funding new units of social housing. It is clear that the provinces do not have sufficient financial resources, nor in some cases, the political will, to take responsibility for building social housing without federal money.

The Surrey housing forum’s political panel featured Libby Davies, M.P. from the NDP and Gilles Bernier, M.P. from the Progressive Conservatives. No Reform M.P. was able to attend, and Claudette Bradshaw, M.P., the Liberal Minister of Labour and recently given federal responsibility for the issue of homelessness, had to cancel her trip to B.C.

Nevertheless, both M.P.s at the meeting agreed that homelessness is an issue that requires the financial commitment by the federal government. They each informed the meeting that people have told them across the country that the federal government needs to be involved again in social housing. The network’s challenge is to convince other politicians and governments to listen to what people are saying about housing in every province across Canada.

The WGOP has been able to explain that immigrants and refugees who live on low income have additional hurdles in finding affordable housing while at the same time learning about the customs of their new country. It is vital that affordable housing be available for them in order that they settle and integrate in their new country.

The WGOP’s participation has been useful as well to highlight the particular needs of immigrants and refugees. The likelihood that immigrants and refugee families will need larger units since they are more likely to have more children, and that different generations are more likely to share housing, means that government and private sector planning for the usual social housing units must be aware of these different factors. The WGOP has also advocated for information about housing to be made available in different languages, that information be available upon arrival in Canada, and also that application processes for subsidized housing be simplified.

Housing and homelessness are issues that must be resolved by governments and communities working together. As ever, we must affirm that the needs of people on low income, and of immigrants and refugees, be heeded when making social housing available.