ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: April 27, 1999
Author/Local: Jill Davidson/7670
RTS No.694
CC File No. 2001

Council: May 18, 1999

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	Director of Housing Centre, in consultation with the Director of Community Services, Social Planning
SUBJECT:	Housing and Homelessness Grant to FCM

RECOMMENDATION

THAT a grant of $15,420 be provided to the Big City Mayors’ Caucus, FCM, for the Initiative on Homelessness and Housing, the source of funds being Contingency Reserve.

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing.

COUNCIL POLICY

Approval of a grant requires eight affirmative votes from Council.

On January 5, 1999 City Council joined other Canadian municipalities in declaring homelessness a national disaster and passed a number of motions calling for action by the Federal government and by FCM to assist in achieving Federal action.

BACKGROUND

The City of Vancouver has a fifty year history of involvement in the provision of affordable housing. Although housing is a responsibility of senior governments, the City has played a supportive role through land leases and grants.
City Council has consistently called on the federal government to become re-involved with funding new social housing since its withdrawal in 1993. Earlier this year the City joined other municipalities in a national effort spearheaded by the City of Toronto to focus attentionon housing and homelessness. Appendix A contains the motions passed by Council on January 5, 1999.

DISCUSSION

This report supports a grant request to FCM as indicated in the letter contained in Appendix B.

The objective of the initiatives endorsed by Council earlier this year is to place housing and homelessness back on the national agenda. Some progress has been made.

FCM has put the issue on the agenda of its annual meeting June 4-7 in Halifax. A national Homelessness Issue web site has been developed at the City of Toronto. A National Housing Symposium was held in March, sponsored by FCM and the City of Toronto, attended by municipal politicians and staff as well as community groups from across Canada. About a dozen people from Vancouver participated, and some of the community organizations continue to meet to discuss the issue and generate public support for national action on housing and homelessness. In response to the FCM initiatives, the federal government appointed Claudette Bradshaw as Minister responsible for Homelessness.

A draft National Housing Policy Options paper has been prepared by municipal staff across the country, including the City’s Housing Centre. A draft has been circulated to Council and has been available to housing providers and interested groups. The draft will be reviewed at the Big City Mayors Caucus in Saskatchewan at the end of April. It recommends action in five areas:

1. Capital for New Affordable Rental Supply
2. Housing Rehabilitation Assistance
3. Block Grants for Combined Housing with other Interventions
4. Tax and other Policies to Encourage Private Housing Responses
5. Cost-sharing of Ongoing Subsidies.

A grant request from the City of Toronto on behalf of FCM and the Big City Mayors Caucus has been made to fund three main activities:

1. Finalizing the preparation of a report from the draft National Housing Policy Options paper to present to the FCM AGM. This includes:

· data collection on the extent and nature of homelessness and affordable housing;
· solid estimates of the magnitude of response needed from the Federal government;
· revisions to the Policy recommendations from input from the Big City Mayors meeting in Saskatoon and FCM staff;
· editing to make the message crystal clear;
· translating and printing at least 2500 copies for Halifax;

2. Retaining Ottawa-based expertise to work with FCM staff to arrange full briefings of all senior Federal officials, Cabinet ministers, and Opposition leaders and critics, and to organize a delegation of Mayors to lobby Cabinet and Opposition leaders;

3. Organizing the creation of a national coalition of organizations to support the Big City Mayors’ Caucus of FCM leading to pre-Federal Budget discussions with the Federal Minister of Finance.

The grant request is for $.03/capita which is $15,420, based on the 1996 Census Vancouver population of 514,008. A similar request has been made to the other cities which are members of the Big City Mayors Caucus. To date, the cities of Toronto and Calgary have agreed to contribute. The grant would be administered by FCM.

The Directors of the Housing Centre and Community Services recommend approval of this grant. It is hoped that this funding will result in the federal government providing substantial resources for housing and homelessness. It is important that Vancouver participate in this process to ensure that potential programs suit the Vancouver situation. The efforts are part of a national strategy which is broadly based to achieve both municipal and community support. The source of funds is the Downtown Eastside Community Revitalization Fund as national housing/homelessness programs would assist all areas of Vancouver, but particularly the Downtown Eastside.

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REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING - JANUARY 5, 1999 APPENDIX A
P2

2. Prevention of Homelessness

December 17, 1998 File: 4659

MOVED by Cllr. Puil,

THAT Council join other Canadian cities in endorsing the following resolution on housing and homelessness as proposed by the City of Toronto:

“We urge all levels of government to declare homelessness a national disaster now, as a first step in implementing a National Homelessness Relief and Prevention Strategy, both short-and-long term”.
AND that Council take the following actions proposed by Toronto as part of a nation-wide effort to address housing and homelessness:

1. Call for immediate Federal action on this front, including action on the creation of a senior Federal Cabinet committee with a clear mandate, and the necessary resources to take action.
2. Endorse the FCM request for a meeting with the Federal Cabinet Committee dealing with housing and homelessness (once it has been determined, and it is in place) to discuss the options document and an Action Plan.
3. Seek to meet with the appropriate senior Ministers in the Vancouver area.
4. Endorse a national Homelessness Issue web site be developed, as part of the FCM web site, with links to good local sites across the country, and including information on local solutions and best practices for housing.
5. Designate a senior policy person from the Housing Centre for input into a “National Housing Policy Options” Team, who will develop within 3 months, a document of real options for national circulation.
6. Ask the FCM to put the critical issue of housing and homelessness on the agenda of a full FCM Plenary Session, at the 62nd Annual Meeting of FCM (June 4-7, 1999), in Halifax.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

MOVED by Cllr. Herbert,

THAT the Administrative Report dated December 17, 1998 and Council’s action, be forwarded to the Cities of New Westminster and North Vancouver, plus other Municipalities in the Region, and to the UBCM.

- CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver