Homelessness Arleta Beckett, Manager, Community Services & - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Arleta Beckett, Manager, Community Services & Community Development David Hawkins, Manager, Community Planning & Sustainability

Cross-Jurisdictional Action on Homelessness

July 20, 2020

Purpose – Responding to Motion

• Update on North Shore homeless situation
• Homelessness within West Vancouver’s existing housing

stock and initiatives

• Staff resource implications and opportunity costs of

supporting and participating on a tri-municipal homelessness initiative

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

Understanding Homelessness

Homelessness – Background & History

• North Shore Homelessness Task Force (1998)
• Safe houses, transition houses, North Shore Housing

Centre, local shower program, other housing and support services delivered by NPOs

• Triennial Canada-wide point-in-time homeless counts
• Addressing Housing in Metro Vancouver (2017)
• TogetherBC: BC’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (2019)
• COVID-19
• July 6, 2020 resolution

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

Homelessness – What We Know Today

• COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted need for safe

housing for vulnerable people

• North Shore Emergency Management’s Social and

Community Impact Team have provided some support to address pandemic-related barriers and challenges

• Systemic weaknesses and failures
• Need for low-barrier, supported housing with harm-

reduction services and ideally a single point of entry

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

Homelessness – What We Are Currently Doing

• North Shore Poverty Reduction Strategy (2020-2021)
• Analysis of 2020 triennial point-in-time homeless count

and secondary count

• West Vancouver shower program continuing into the fall
• Monitoring for a potential second wave of COVID-19 and

re-start of NSEM Social and Community Impact team

• Responding to North Shore organizations’ call for help

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

West Van’s Housing Context

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

Housing – Existing Stock

Impacts of Housing Costs and Supply

• 2006-16 household incomes decreased by 0.8%, cost of
• wnership increased by 130%
• 96% of 1900 purpose-built rental units built in the 1960-

70s, vulnerable to redevelopment, and only 1.2% vacant

• Rents ($2,000/month) “exceed” renter incomes

($48,000/year)

• 58% of renters spend >30% of their income on shelter,

and 14% of all households are spending >50%

• 2,200 households are in “core housing need” (defined

as condition, crowding, or affordability)

• 1,000 subsidized units, only ~50 for non-seniors; waitlist

for social housing is increasing (96 to 132 from 2016-18)

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

Resourcing and Action on Housing

• Report outlines roles / capacity; a new objective would

impact deliverables, implementation, and future work

• Council is taking action on housing:
• 1.1 Approvals, including rental and accessible units
• 1.2 Targets and incentives for 'missing middle‘ housing
• 1.3 Cypress Village planning
• 1.4 NCWG and single family zoning
• 2.2 Horseshoe Bay Local Area Plan
• One output that could inform action on homelessness is

the Housing Needs Report (targeted for end 2020)

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

Financial Implications

• Challenges to estimating costs: requires tri-municipal

involvement, an agreed terms of reference (duties, work plan, resourcing)

• Steering Committee and Working Group would likely

identify and direct further work, studies and actions

• WV’s working groups typically take two years, 0.5 to 1.0

FTE, plus budgets of between $50,000 and $250,000

• Steering Committee / Working Group outcomes could

have potentially substantial ongoing or one-time costs (e.g. additional support services, provision of housing)

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS - JULY 2020

THAT

• 1. the report dated July 14, 2020 titled “Cross-Jurisdictional Action on

Homelessness” from Arleta Beckett and David Hawkins be received for information;

• 2. staff be directed to discuss establishing a framework for a North Shore Cross-

Jurisdictional Action on Homelessness Steering Committee and Working Group with the appropriate colleagues from North Shore Homelessness Task Force, City and District of North Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health, and report back to Council on the results of these discussions, including required specific District resources;

• 3. staff report back to Council on the findings of the Housing Needs Report upon

its completion; and

• 4. staff be directed to brief any eventual Steering Committee and Working Group
• n the findings of the Housing Needs Report upon its completion to inform

and shape the framework along with similar data from other jurisdictions.

Conclusion: Staff Recommendation