|
Slum
landlords | The Skateboard Park
| A lively discussion of the Quint housing project can be found
on injusticebusters
blog. It began in the archived October 6, 2004. Mayor
Atchison | Chief Sabo
| Brian Dueck | 2004
stories |
Slum housing
Little progress made
helping homeless
Exact number of homeless in city remains unknown
Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix,
November 20, 2003
Three years after community
groups drafted a comprehensive plan to increase the stock of
affordable housing and tackle root causes of homelessness, demand
for food at local agencies has shot up and shelters are full.
Visible progress on the issues
of homelessness and housing has been modest, although some say
the city would have slipped back faster and further without the
plan.
"Things are probably worse
in that we have more people in these circumstances," said
Brenda Wallace, executive director of Saskatoon Housing Initiatives
Partnership.
Community groups sent an updated
plan to city council and the federal co-ordinator on homelessness,
Minister Claudette Bradshaw, earlier this month.
Half of all migrants to Saskatoon
from rural areas or reserves arrive just looking for an opportunity,
Wallace estimates.
Many don't find it, while discovering
they can't afford market-rate rent and can't stay with relatives.
Social agencies don't know
even the approximate size of Saskatoon's homeless population,
although bloated numbers coming through their doors suggest the
population is growing.
"We're full. Three years
ago, we couldn't get full," said Julie Mackenzie, assistant
manager of Capri Place, a downtown home for disadvantaged people
in a variety of circumstances.
The demand is due to a combination
of better awareness of the six-year-old agency's existence and
closure of at least one program that helped people in crisis,
she said.
"People are showing up
right off the street."
Statistics Canada reported
last year that 50 people, from all age groups, were in shelters
in Saskatoon on census day, May 15, 2001.
Twenty of those people were
under the age of 15.
The Salvation Army, Saskatoon
Food Bank and Friendship Inn all report growing demand for food.
The community plan's revised
goals for 2003 include expanding the number of rental housing
units while improving their quality and increasing housing stock
for the disabled, aboriginal people and youth. Some of these
goals, however, lack specific steps to achieve them.
"There are some (people)
in a holding pattern, waiting for housing units," Wallace
said. "That's our main problem right now."
Putting a roof over a person's
head isn't enough to improve the neighbourhood, said Pleasant
Hill homeowner Leslie Ridden.
"I'm finding there are
more and more people renting out to people and not taking care
of the house."
The city could help, she said,
by cracking down on slum landlords and encouraging home ownership
in Pleasant Hill, one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods.
The chief accomplishment of
the first three years of the plan has been improving communication
among community groups and better awareness of homelessness and
housing concerns, Wallace said.
In some cases, benefits of
greater co-ordination filters down to homeless and poorly housed
people, whom agency workers are now more equipped to refer.
There is reason for hope, despite
growing problems on the street. A 12-bed detoxification centre
is in the works to house intoxicated persons short-term, although
it's unlikely to fully meet demand.
Community groups and government
have also began a program of overhauling dilapidated apartments
on the west side.
However, the city still sorely
lacks affordable housing for students and single adults, in particular,
according to the updated plan.
The onus doesn't have to fall
entirely on government, although subsidies are often critical
to giving developers the flexibility to rent out units at below-market
rates.
Wallace said technology, enabling
builders to construct homes more cheaply and increasing energy
efficiency, also hold promise to lowering housing costs.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
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 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
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Publisher : Sheila
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Another target
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Index
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Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
- Nfld Defamation story:
- Wanda
Young
- Racism
in the Federal Civil Service
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
over last five years
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