Will the supportive housing project at the former Quality Inn go ahead?
That is up to Langley Township council. But while the success or failure of one project will have a major impact in Langley, we need to look beyond to the future.
For years, we’ve suffered through a slow motion crisis in housing in British Columbia, particularly here in Metro Vancouver.
It’s a crisis of success and affluence. Employment is up. Wages have begun rising. House prices, already high, have gone shooting up into the stratosphere.
For those at the very bottom rung of the housing ladder, it’s been a catastrophe.
Thousands of housing units – mostly old, worn down, cheap, and often ugly – have been demolished. In the place of those old homes rise new townhouses and condos.
But the people who lived there before the wrecking ball, often scraping out an existence on welfare, disability cheques, or day labour, had to find new homes.
Some didn’t. Every year, a few more faces appeared in the parks and huddled on the doorsteps, trying to keep out of the rain.
The right time to fix this problem would have been about 15 years ago. A sustained social housing program then would have prevented much of the huge increase in homelessness we’ve seen.
Having missed our chance, we’re now faced with only imperfect solutions. But we have to act, because the homeless are our citizens and neighbours, and they are part of our community.
– M.C.
