Vancouver aims to "end homelessness by 2015". Officials have been working over the years to reduce the city’s homelessness, and in July passed an ambitious plan that targets eliminating street homelessness by 2015 and creating nearly 40,000 new units of social, rental, and condo housing by 2021.
The plan is aimed at building multiple types of housing to address shortages, but the first three years focus mainly on supportive and social housing. It calls for 3,650 units of such housing, 1,700 of which are already funded and in either the planning or construction phase. According to city councilor Kerry Jang, the need for this type of supportive housing has skyrocketed in recent years.
posted by modernnomad
on Oct 24, 2011 -
96 comments
The Complaints Choir phenomenon, started by the Finnish artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, has
spread all over the world since
last we paid it any attention, from
Birmingham to
Helsinki,
Hamburg,
St. Petersburg,
Poikkilaakso,
Bodø,
Penn State,
Canada,
Juneau,
Gabriola Island,
Sointula,
Jerusalem,
Melbourne,
Budapest,
Malmö,
Chicago,
Florence,
Copenhagen,
Vancouver (
2),
Philadelphia,
Sundbyberg,
Milano,
Åland,
Hong Kong,
Tokyo,
Rotterdam,
Basel,
Umeå,
Ljubljana,
Gdansk,
Arizona State University,
Washington, DC,
Horace Mann School,
Durham-Chapel Hill,
Auckland,
Toronto theatre students,
Kortrijk,
Cairo (
2),
St. Pölten,
Maribor,
Port Coquitlam,
Ústí nad Labem,
Columbus &
Kauhajoki (
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8). For more information, including a
9 step guide to forming your own complaints choir, go to the
Complaints Choir website. Finally, here's the
Singapore Complaints Choir, whose performance was banned by the Singapore government.
posted by Kattullus
on Nov 19, 2010 -
40 comments
This morning in Vancouver, volunteers handed out hundreds of disposable cameras, available free to any low-income resident of the city's Downtown Eastside (
DTES) neighbourhood. Pictures in the returned cameras will be entered in this year's "
Hope in Shadows" competition, with winners getting prizes and one of 12 spots in next year's calendar. (It will be sold by specially-trained low-income folks, who keep half their profits.) Run by
Pivot, a local legal activism group, "Hope in Shadows" is a
succesful and "
innovative empowerment through art" project and a chance for the residents of the DTES to define their community -- one most often defined by its
poverty,
addictions,
violence and
disease.
Previous winners: 2004, 2005 [1] [2], 2006
posted by docgonzo
on Jun 9, 2007 -
13 comments
Despite our predominantly post-modern society in Canada, there are still pockets of ignorance and intolerance. The
City of Surrey a
very suburban suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, is pretty much the capital of Canada when it comes to this.
A high school (ages 13-18) was rehearsing to perform
"The Laramie Project" - a play about the murder of an American student Matthew Shephard (who was gay) and tolerance when the
Surrey School Board pulled the plug on it. The play had recently been performed in a high school in a smaller, but less rednecky suburb, Mission.
This is the same school board that
tried to ban two excellent books teaching children tolerance for their friends that may have two dads or two mums. The ban was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Perhaps a play of this nature is appropriate for high school students? Whaddya think?
posted by SSinVan
on Sep 22, 2005 -
65 comments
Dear Sex Addict, Is Osama Hot or Not? (Sunday Magazine, Vancouver) I think OBL is totally hot, but my friends think I’ve lost my sense of judgement. What do you think? Do you think Osama is hot or not? Some people find Osama sexy. He is tall and aristocratic looking. Personally, I could do without the beard. I imagine people find him sexy because he is an outlaw. Some people say they find Osama sexy just to be outrageous. I think he looked much sexier when he was younger (don’t we all?); lately he looks tired, old, not vibrant. One thing you can be certain of, though, is that Osama doesn’t find you sexy.
posted by hoder
on Mar 22, 2005 -
24 comments
This metafilter
thread about the Golden Bridge suicide documentary stayed in my mind for weeks after I read it. It was haunting.
Yesterday the
Langara Journalism review from Vancouver published a
very interesting article about responsible coverage of suicide in the media, notably after a mediatic chaos ensuing the suicidal attempts of two persons wanting to jump off one of Vancouver's bridges last fall.
An excellent read for anyone tired of sensationalist horror stories, the consequences they can trigger, and the lack of taste they are treated with.
posted by Sijeka
on Mar 4, 2005 -
17 comments
"Vancouver has opened North America's first legal shooting gallery for drug addicts." -for all you poor saps where guns are a part of your everyday vocabulary, NO that's not a place where drug addicts shoot guns.- this is a pilot program supported by all levels of government in BC and in Canada, where addicts can inject drugs in a supervised, clean environment. The purpose of which ultimately I think is to bridge the huge gap between "them" and "us" and possibly shrink the distance addicts have to reach through for help. Does my heart bleed for "them"? Absolutely not. You choose your weapon, you suffer the consequences. But what this could lead to is less addicts and therefore less reason for addicts to commit crimes to support their addictions...
posted by giantkicks
on Sep 16, 2003 -
71 comments
Life is Simple I'm not even going to pretend to understand this.
On the other hand, I really like the styling, beyond the images.
posted by Su
on Jul 3, 2002 -
12 comments
