I live in Vancouver right now. This is not by choice it’s by necessity, there’s nowhere else for me to go, so here I am. I am wondering if I have the right to comment on what is happening in Vancouver, because I haven’t lived here long enough to earn my stripes, and yet nonetheless I have some thoughts.
Vancouver has one of the highest houseless populations in the world, and that’s specifically because the rents here are untenable.
For a studio apartment, you could be paying more than $4000, for a one-bedroom the price almost doubles, and there is absolutely no rent regulation happening in the world, literally nowhere that I know of, is a place that isn’t living with a houseless and poverty problem.
The world is filled with people who have a lot, and people who have a little, and then there are the ones in the middle who want to have a lot and are doing everything they can, to ensure those with very little, get nothing extra.
Step out of line? No funding, says ABC Vancouver city counselor Peter Meiszner, which is one of the many reasons I left the non-profit sector. Everything is about appearances, and rarely do you actually get to the process of reaching in deep to help people, until they. are already in crisis.
If you don’t want to be criticized, then stay the fuck out of politics. It’s really quite that simple. People who work in non-profits know precisely what you are doing, you’re leveraging your power to let people know you’ll pull their funding if you don’t like what they have to say and that’s neither legal nor right.
I can say this because I don’t work in a non-profit, it’s Blackmail, capital B.
There are rumors that the Mayor’s councils have an agreement not to – deliberately so – build low-income housing anywhere that brings in a lot of traffic. This means you won’t be seeing any new low-income housing for a while, and my only question is this:
What good is building a city that tourists want to come to visit when no one can afford to live there? You’re going to price all the people that built this province out and then you’re going to have empty cities, is that what you want?
There are only so many rich people to go around and eventually they’re going to stop laughing about coming to Vancouver and start reminding people that this is where you go when you want to die. I’ve heard that line so many times it makes me sick and yet I look around at my new neighborhood and that’s exactly what it feels like.
Yes, Vancouver is a hodge podge of communities, and yes we are a melting pot, but we have to make sure that we’re cooking evenly or we’re going to end up burning the entire city to the ground and since I just got here, I’d really hate to see that.
I understand that no one wants to be criticized or seen as being the bad guy, but when you make statements like the ones listed in the article above, you make a point of being the bad guy you swear you’d never be.
You aren’t there to make friends, you are there in the office to make policy that helps change the lives of the people that live here, and that includes ALL people regardless of race, creed, nationality, size, orientation, gender, sex, or economic status. That is the job you signed up for so quit your fucking bitching and do it.
Non-profit organizations deserve to be funded based on merit, not based on whether or not the people that work there are willing to kiss your ass.
Do better.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
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