Robotic vigilante hits street as homemade ‘Bum Bot’ patrols in Atlanta

Greg Bluestein, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA – Cars passing O’Terrill’s pub screech to a halt at the sight of a 136 kilogram, waist-high robot marked “SECURITY” rolling through downtown long after dark.
The regulars hardly glance outside. They’ve seen bar owner Rufus Terrill’s invention on patrol before – its bright red lights and even brighter spot light blazing, infrared video camera filming and water cannon at the ready in the spinning turret on top.

“You’re trespassing. That’s private property,” Terrill scolds an older man through the robot’s loudspeaker. The man is sitting at the edge of the driveway to a child care centre down the street. “Go on.”

The man’s hands go up and he shuffles into the shadows. Almost immediately, a group of men behind him scatters too.

The Bum Bot’s reputation, it seems, has preceded it.

The electronic vigilante – on the beat since September – has enraged neighbourhood activists, who have threatened protests. Street people say it’s intimidating. And homeless advocates question the intentions of its inventor, who uses the Bum Bot as a marketing tool and a political prop.

BC’s Homeless Death Toll: 56 or More in Two Years

Darrell Mickasko burned to death in a Vancouver alley.

Tally of homeless deaths released to Tyee by chief coroner.

By Monte Paulsen and Tom Sandborn
Published: April 17, 2008

At least 56 homeless British Columbians died during 2006 and 2007, according to provincial statistics obtained by The Tyee.

B.C.’s homeless died at a rate that’s at least 19 per cent higher than the general population, according to the office of the chief coroner.

Read the Coroner’s report

The original three-page document tallying homeless deaths, done at the request of The Tyee, can be found here.

“These deaths were preventable,” said MLA David Chudnovsky, a New Democrat who serves as the opposition critic for homelessness. “These are people who would still be alive if they’d had someplace to live.”

The report tallies 31 homeless deaths in 2006 and another 25 in 2007. But housing advocates criticized the coroner for excluding the deaths of some formerly homeless people who died in hospital.

“Our governments are culpable for these preventable deaths,” said David Eby, an attorney at Pivot Legal Society. “People are literally dying in the streets.”

Overdoses, blunt injuries, hangings

The office of the chief coroner prepared this report in response to requests from The Tyee. Among its findings:

The death rates among homeless persons in 2007 was 21.3 per 10,000 people, while the rate among the general population in 2006 was 17.9 per 10,000. So using the coroner’s indirect comparison, B.C.’s homeless population is dying at a rate 19 per cent higher than the general population.

Two thirds of the homeless dead were living on the street, while the remaining third lived in a homeless shelter. Thus the (uncalculated) rate of death among street homeless is higher than 19 per cent above average.

Poisoning by drugs or alcohol was the leading cause of death, followed by blunt injuries (e.g., hit by a car), hangings and stabbings. One drowned and one died of smoke inhalation. Another nine deaths are either undetermined or still under investigation.

All of those counted were found in B.C.’s cities: 13 in Vancouver, 11 in Victoria, four in New Westminster, three each in North Vancouver and Surrey, and two each in Chilliwack, Kelowna and Nanaimo.

Young and Aboriginal

Aboriginals represented 14.3 per cent of the deaths in the coroner’s report, while comprising just 4.4 per cent of B.C.’s population.

letter to Gary Mason (journalist who ripped into the UN homeless complaint)

Dear Mr. Mason,

 

I have been a fan of your journalism since first reading your articles in the Vancouver Sun. I am a physical education highschool teacher in the lower mainland, educated at UBC, and have played, and continue to play, a variety of sports at a very high amateur level. While I whole-heartedly support sports and other physical endeavours and recreational pursuits, my position towards the 2010 Olympics has changed drastically since learning of the effects the Games have and will continue to have on my Vancouver community. I celebrated the winning of the games when I first learned they were awarded to Vancouver; now, however, I am quite adamantly opposed to the Olympics because of the tragic and inhumane effect they are having and will continue to have on the most vulnerable members of our community.

 

Your article, “blaming olympics for housing ills is wrong”, is, unfortunately, one of your worst pieces to date. How a reputable investigative journalist like yourself failed to report on the reality behind the government rhetoric is deplorable. “I think any link between Vancouver’s housing problems and the coming Olympics is misguided if not dead wrong“; perhaps you should interview Am Johal or David Eby and find out what’s really happening on the ground. Perhaps your opinion would be swayed if you interviewed tenants residing in the downtown eastside and learned of their illegal eviction stories. Please read David Eby’s blog http://davideby.blogspot.com/ … he has pasted hyperlinks into your article that challenge everything you convey as being ‘factual’. In a true democracy, the press has a responsibility to inform the people at large of the TRUTH, and neglecting to do so (whether to sell papers or to promote Government/business interests) is unbecoming of a journalist and jeopardizes your integrity. As a respected journalist, you have lost integrity with this article; you have the ability to win it back by writing a legitimate and informative article. Please do your research.

 

 

The situation for many residing in the downtown Eastside is very visibly dire. The complaint sent to the United Nations by UBC student Mike Powar makes a very strong case that Canada is violating fundamental human rights with regards to housing in the downtown eastside, and I hope that through ‘embarrassment’ and ‘shame’ the government will finally take affirmative action to improve the lives of our society’s most vulnerable. There’s no place like home…. In a country as prosperous as Canada, there’s no place for homelessness.

As much as I support the Tibetans and the ongoing struggle for human rights protections in China, it would be hypocritical of me to ignore the human rights violations taking place in our own back yard. The government can and should do more to ensure that adequate social housing is available to all Canadians, regardless of one’s socio-economic situation. As homelessness in our city as well as the rest of the GVRD increases, the situation is much more than embarrassing, it is tragic, and our government should feel ashamed of their inadequate ‘solutions’ to this issue.

To claim that “The Olympics may end up being the best thing that ever happened to the poor and homeless in this city” is outright outrageous. Mr. Mason: I expect better from you.

 

letters to editor!!

Please help us out by sending as many letters to different papers/media outlets as possible. Here’s some sample templates to help you out so we can send as many letters to the editors as possible and show that there is much support in our communities for this cause. See links at bottom of this post for quick access to editors. If you can, send one to your MP.

Peace and Love (and thanks!!)

D-F(ng)s

Dear editor,

The situation for many residing in the downtown Eastside is very visibly dire. The complaint sent to the United Nations makes a very strong case that Canada is violating fundamental human rights with regards to housing in the downtown eastside, and I hope that through ‘embarrassment’ and ‘shame’ the government will finally take affirmative action to improve the lives of our society’s most vulnerable, There’s no place like home…. In a country as prosperous as Canada, there’s no place for homelessness.

Dear editor,

As much as I support the Tibetans and the ongoing struggle for human right protections in China, it would be hypocritical of me to ignore the human rights violations taking place in our own back yard. The government can and should do more to ensure that adequate social housing is available to all Canadians, regardless of one’s socio-economic situation. As homelessness in our city increases, the situation is much more than embarrassing, it is tragic, and our government should feel ashamed of their inadequate ‘solutions’ to this issue.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/feedback/

The Province:

provletters@png.canwest.com or call 604-605-2029
(To permit speedy verification, and confirmation that the text received is uncorrupted, please provide your full name and full postal address including hometown, and a daytime telephone number.)

metro: vancouverletters@metronews.ca

Official Downtown Eastside United Nations complaint webpage

If you’d like to learn more about the Downtown Eastside issue, check out the link to the official web page that provides details of the ‘No Place Like Home’ complaint that will be sent to the United Nations today. You can view the actual complaint in PDF format from the website.

http://www.noplacelikehomevancouver.org

Vancouver groups to file complaint to United Nations over housing shortage

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Tourist dollars are trumping local needs, resulting in hundreds of evictions and violating international human rights, three Vancouver community groups are alleging in a complaint being filed to the United Nations.
The three groups say the ongoing evictions from single room-occupancy hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside will only get worse as the city’s real estate market continues to explode in the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
More than 1,000 rooms have already been converted from low-income use or closed altogether since Vancouver won the bid for the Games in 2003, according to a tally being prepared by Pivot Legal Society, one of the groups filing the complaint.
“Looking at the amount of money that’s being spent on the Olympics, looking at the public relations that’s being done around the token efforts towards dealing with the homeless problem, we feel it’s time for some international scrutiny to come to British Columbia and Vancouver about the Downtown Eastside,” said David Eby, a lawyer with Pivot.
The complaint, which will officially be filed next week, alleges that the right to housing is being violated in part by a loophole that allows tenants to be evicted while landlords carry out renovations to buildings.
Since most of the people living in low-income rentals don’t have the option to move somewhere else, it kickstarts a cycle of homelessness that’s a clear violation of international protocols agreed to by Canada and dozens of other nations, said Am Johal, the founder of Impact on Communities Coalition, another one of the groups involved in the complaint.
With more than 200,000 people expected to converge on Vancouver for the Olympics in 2010, the situation is only going to get worse, he said.
“There are options for cruise ships and homestays, but this is going to place an incredible burden on the existing rental housing stock and without closing these loopholes, even for a temporary period of time, its our view that there will be thousands of evictions,” he said.
In 2006, a U.N. committee described the state of homelessness and inadequate housing in Canada as a “national emergency,” and in the fall of 2007, the U.N. special rapporteur on housing took a two-week tour of Canada and recommended a national large-scale project of social housing.
The complaint also alleges rights violations connected to the failure to provide safe housing, police protection, accountability to displaced people and the failure to involve the inner city in development plans for the neighbourhood.
The province, the city and Vancouver Olympic officials have all launched initiatives designed to mitigate the potential social impact of the 2010 Games on the city.
Olympic organizers committed to leaving a legacy of 250 beds for social housing and the city of Vancouver has bought up 17 single room-occupancy hotels, effectively placing them out of reach of private developers and promising to build social housing units on a dozen other sites.
But Eby said those 17 purchases represent only 20 per cent of the stock of homes in the community.
“We’re concerned about the remaining 80 per cent,” he said.
“That’s full of about 5,000 people who are on social assistance, who are desperately afraid they are going to end up on the streets before the Olympic games come.”
Once the complaint has been filed, it will be reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Commission and, if judged valid, Canada and the province will have to answer to international community on the concerns raised, Eby said.
The process will likely take a year and a half to resolve, coming to a head just in time for the 2010 Winter Games.

Vancouver housing activists take rights complaint to UN

Christina Montgomery , Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, April 13, 2008

VANCOUVER – The battle over social housing for Vancouver’s poorest residents is moving to a new battlefield – the United Nations, which will be asked shortly to weigh a human-rights complaint against Canada for failing to protect the low-cost rooms.
Housing activists will focus the complaint to the UN Human Rights Council on the ongoing conversions of low-cost hotel rooms in the Downtown Eastside.
The move is based on a study by University of B.C. students Gayle Stewart and Mike Powar, who took a walking tour of the poverty-stricken neighbourhood last fall as part of a class in global politics and international law.
Michael Byers, their professor, arranged the tour and challenged them to apply international issues to the grim social scene.
Powar and Stewart took up the challenge with an analysis of whether Canada is fulfilling its international commitments to ensuring adequate housing for citizens.
The complaint will be launched formally by the Pivot Legal Society, the Impact on Community Coalition and the Carnegie Community Action Project – activists who have been critical of the impact of the 2010 Olympics on the supply of low-cost housing.
Most recently, the groups have applauded efforts by the city and the province to purchase and preserve 17 low-rent hotels in the area. But they’ve taken aim at the failure to find a legal way to prevent owners from legally evicting tenants of the hotels.
Their work was spurred on by a visit in October by Miloon Kothari, a UN official who reports on adequate housing.
Kothari visited shortly after a provincial announcement of $41 million for housing initiatives, including 24-hour emergency shelters, rent supplements planning money to fast-track approvals for housing on 12 sites donated by the city.
Despite the plans, Kothari noted he had heard stories of “hundreds of people who have died as a result of Canada’s nationwide housing crisis.” His preliminary report says a recent review by the UN found Canada’s homelessness and inadequate housing were a “national emergency.”
“Downtown Eastside hotels are the homes of last resort for low-income people,” said Jean Swanson, Coordinator of the Carnegie Community Action Project. “Almost half are already closed, at risk, or charge too high a rent. If the city and the province don’t act now, the rest of the hotels could push low income people out on to the street.”
Vancouver Province

Downtown eastside information/links/blogs

Here’s a link to the blog  which covers a variety of issues in the dtes and elsewhere. It’s the one which was instrumental in the barring of homeless man and Carnegie director, William Simpson. There’s a posting on a CCAP rally on February 29th, and you may have to scroll around a bit to get other homeless posts.
http://www.downtowneastsideenquirer.blogspot.com 

This one is for the Sun article on William Simpson.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=9a0f844c-28d3-4b54-912a-130079fe3f80&p=2

I was at a little gathering today at the old Storyeum in Gastown which shut down in November ’06 and has been empty since. There are some proposals coming in from the community for a new use for the space, one of which is a fitness facility. The group today is trying to promote it’s use as a homeless shelter, community centre and support services. It’s headed by a woman and Carnegie member named Audrey Laferriere. She has a petition going with about 3000 signatures but is not well-supported, especially by CCAP, who have a different perspective. Her site is:

http://storyeum.googlepages.com/

Another activist slightly outside the mainstream (she is against the present head of DERA, and I think she may be at odds with David Eby as well), but a really nice person, well-spoken, passionate and knowledgeable about the history of the dtes. I met her today in person at the “rally”. This is her blog: www.downtowneastside.blogspot.com

Here’s a story in The Tyee about the Backpackers Inn on Hastings, which is owned by the same group of six friends who own the SRO next to me I was telling you about. Interesting background if you haven’t read it already.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/03/20/Backpackers/

Vancouver DTES Hotel Closures Picking Up

David Eby’s Blog:

http://davideby.blogspot.com/ 

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Hotel closures picking up

The Downtown Eastside is turning inside out, with record numbers of hotels and low-rent buildings kicking all of their tenants out.

Recent closures include:

– Star Beach Haven, 19 rooms at 658 Alexander Street (today evicting all tenants as precondition of sale);

– Backpacker’s Inn, 42 rooms at 7 West Hastings at Carrall (closed today by owners as precondition of sale, power and gas shut off, same owners as Star Beach Haven);

– 334 Carrall Street, 30 apartments (closed in February by owner Robert Wilson for renovations);

– Marie Gomez Place, 76 apartments at 590 Alexander Street (closed in January by the province, condemned due to mold);

– Dominion Hotel, 67 rooms at 210 Abbott Street (closed in January for renovations);

– Columbia Hotel, 69 rooms at 303 Columbia Street (Carnegie discovered it was illegally converted to tourist accommodation in December, reported to City of Vancouver, no apparent response);

– Phoenix Apartments 18 units at 514 Alexander Street (closed as precondition of sale in February); and,

– Colonial Residence, 144 units at 122 Water Street (54 rooms empty since at least March 20, unknown why management is emptying the hotel).

Total lost since December 2007 (last 4 months): 375 units in 8 buildings.

Holy crap.

Now’s your chance to help us out!

Dear all you fellow fungi,

The Fungus is doing a project on homelessness in Vancouver…. and here’s your chance to help out some good ol’ fashioned grass roots democracy! Our mission requires us to sift through some data – You Tube video clips and old media archives will help us convey the story of the Downtown Eastside – and we have a request! We would like concerned citizens to contribute stories, video footage, media archive reports/articles, and anything else, directly to us at TheFungus. Please send your material (or a link to access it) to us via a submitted comment to this post.

Thanks for your support!

Peace, The Fungus

UN criticizes Canada Twice in One Day (Oct. 22, 2007)

UN Criticizes Canada Twice in One Day

A good rep gone bad.

By Rob Annandale
Published: October 22, 2007
TheTyee.ca

Canada’s treasured self-image as a land of wealth and justice took a hit on Monday when two UN officials separately blasted the country’s recent social and human rights record.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour said Canada’s decision last month not to support a declaration on indigenous rights suggested her compatriots had an “unduly romantic” view of their country. And UN housing envoy Miloon Kothari wrapped up a two-week Canadian tour by releasing a highly critical preliminary report.

But the international organization has not soured entirely on the country that used to top its lists of the world’s best places to live. On the heels of last week’s survey suggesting the majority of Afghans approve of a continued foreign presence on their territory, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes praised Canada’s role in Afghanistan and expressed hope its troops would stay as long as necessary.

A new study puts Canada’s military budget at around $18 billion annually, its highest since World War II and more than 100 times higher than federal spending to combat homelessness. And while two out of three UN officials may disapprove, it doesn’t take a political scientist to know which of these issues – Afghanistan, aboriginal rights or homelessness – is most likely to be a major election issue next time around. No wonder Arbour aimed her barbs not at Stephen Harper, but at all Canadians.