COVID Signpost 100 Days: Spotlight on the West Coast

Full Panel
Transcript

Note to readers: This video session was transcribed using auto-transcribing software. Manual editing was undertaken in an effort to improve readability and clarity. Questions or concerns with the transcription can be directed to events@canurb.org with “transcription” in the subject line. 

00:19:10             Emily Wall, CUI Staff:     Today’s panel:

Allison Ashcroft – https://ca.linkedin.com/in/allisonashcroft

Sarah Blyth – https://twitter.com/sarahblyth

Leilani Farha – https://twitter.com/leilanifarha

Janine Theobald – https://twitter.com/janineannt

Karen Ward – https://twitter.com/kwardvancouver

00:19:34             Canadian Urban Institute:           Folks, please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.

00:21:37             Allison Ashcroft:              Leilani Farha is the Global Director of The Shift, an international movement to secure the right to housing. Launched in 2017 with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Cities and Local Government, The Shift works with over 40 mayors across the world to advance the right to housing, including in several municipalities in Canada. Leilani Farha is also the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing.

00:21:50             Canadian Urban Institute:           You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk

00:25:03             Canadian Urban Institute:           Keep the conversation going #covid100 @canurb

00:25:51             J. Scott: It could still be done if the Federal Government to were to release funds to Build Back Better in the recovery (water clean up on reserves, health and housing, unusual weather incident remediation just for a start!) and to reduce the huge hidden emissions of the military, if they immediately scrap the huge contributions to NATO that total $32.7 billion — and counting — as described in the 2017 defence policy p. 43: https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/mdn-dnd/D2-386-2017-eng.pdf (this will go up with supplementary estimates every year. It states that a gob smacking $553B will be spent on the military over the next 20 years but this will actually be much higher with supplementary estimates.) This expenditure seems particularly egregious given the long-standing and enormous level of long unfunded needs still to be met within Canada itself.

00:28:08             J. Scott: If we recognize housing as a fundamental human right and decide to deal with this, we’d also look at defunding the police whose budgets also defy comprehension.

00:28:16             Allison Ashcroft:              Janine Theobald is a champion for Inclusion & Collaboration with the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness in Victoria BC. Her background in Mental Health & Addictions and System Transformation with the regional health authority has crystalized her conviction that a person-centred approach is foundational to successful and sustainable change. Through her experience as a Restorative Justice Facilitator and Mentor she understands the power of listening and relationship-building. Janine has lived experience of poverty, chronic mental health and addictions issues which became compassionate insight when working in frontline and leadership positions within the sheltering system. As a Board Director with the Victoria Multifaith Society, representing the Buddhist Zen tradition, she believes we are all intrinsically connected in our varied journeys through life.

Karen Ward advises the City of Vancouver on drug policy, and now on COVID-19 response in the Downtown Eastside, where she’s lived for over 10 year

00:32:01             J. Scott: See Leilani in PUSH, the film that documents the loss of housing to the economic goals of real estate oligarchs! https://www.pushthefilm.com/

00:34:12             Allison Ashcroft:              Data around homelessness is spotty at best, but on any given night 35,000 people in Canada were reported to experience homelessness in Canada according to 2016 research reported by homelesshub.

A significant number of those folks are in BC and specifically in the greater Vancouver and victoria regions.

BC Housing’s 2018 Report on Homeless Counts in BC

 

A total of 7,655 individuals were identified as experiencing homelessness in the 2018 Report on Homeless Counts in B.C. The majority of these individuals were in the Metro Vancouver (3605), and Greater Victoria (931) areas. Of those responding to the survey:

• 63% were sheltered and 37% were unsheltered.
• 68% identified as male and 30% as female. Two percent (2%) of respondents self-identified a gender identity other than male or female
• 20% were 55+ years of age, 15% were under 25 years old
• 51% reported experiencing homelessness for the first time when they were under 25 years of age.
• 29% had been in foster care or a youth group home.

See community

00:38:03             J. Scott: Washroom access in Toronto even pre-COVID was extremely limited and last year one international humanitarian agency installed locks on its bathroom doors to keep out “undesireables.”

00:52:01             Lisa Cavicchia, CUI Staff: SROs are single room occupancy / rooming house

01:00:09             Canadian Urban Institute:           You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk

01:02:46             Kelly Roth:         We have not had a COVID death, however we have had overdoses

01:06:04             Canadian Urban Institute:           Keep the conversation going #covid100 @canurb

01:06:34             J. Scott: YES!

01:07:54             Andrea Lam:      Might it help to turn the video off so there is still audio?

01:08:17             J. Scott: Or a poverty crisis?

01:09:34             Canadian Urban Institute:           Reminding attendees to please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.

01:10:23             J. Scott: Could we do this again to mark 200 days?

01:11:03             Ryan St-Jean:     thank you

01:11:03             J. Scott: Wow! Thanks to all of you!

01:11:04             Sarah Webb:      Awesome dialogue!!

01:11:27             Emily Wall, CUI Staff:     Please help CUI improve its CityTalk programming with a short survey – https://bit.ly/2UXXsFS

01:11:41             Karen Ward:      thanks everybody for joining

01:11:53             Stephen Smith: Thank you so much for this conversation. So much more to do.

01:14:37             Ryan St-Jean:     I looked at my mobile bill

01:14:42             Ryan St-Jean:     it’s terrifying

01:14:49             Emily Wall, CUI Staff:     https://covid100.ca

01:15:20             Kelly Roth:         This is rich dialogue, we need to capture all of this dialogue and collect the themes.