City of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced today the creation of a Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT). The Team will be responsible for providing immediate actions that the City can take to help people off the street and into a safe environment over the next 90 days.
"The Homeless Emergency Action Team will seek out, coordinate, and provide immediate actions that the City can do to get people off the street and indoors," said Mayor Robertson. "Homelessness is the top priority for this council, and we intend to take action on it right away."
HEAT will be chaired by Mayor Robertson, and is composed of representatives from the City and housing stakeholders. The members of HEAT are:
- Mayor Gregor Robertson (Chair)
- Janice Abbott – Executive Director, Atira Women’s Resource Society
- Jim Chu – Chief, Vancouver Police Department
- Dr. Patricia Daly - Chief Medical Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
- David Eby – Executive Director, BC Civil Liberties Association
- Michael Flanigan – Director of Real Estate Services, City of Vancouver
- Judy Graves – Outreach Coordinator, Housing Department, City of Vancouver
- Cameron Gray, Managing Director, Department of Social Development, City of Vancouver
- Kerry Jang, City Councillor (Council Liaison)
- Raymond Louie, City Councillor
- John MacKay – Strand Development Corporation, Board member of Street To Home Foundation
- Shayne Ramsay, CEO, BC Housing
- Patrick Stewart, Chair, Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee
The Team will report to Council every 30 days, for the next three months, with priority action items to get homeless people off the street and into shelters and temporary housing.
"The HEAT reflects the need to have different sectors working together to help solve homelessness," said Robertson. "We've got a great mix of professionals on board, and I am grateful that they are putting their efforts towards getting people off the street."
"This Team will be identifying locations for immediate shelters, working to fast-track developments, and coordinating across different sectors - and I believe that this will help us take serious steps in getting people quickly off the street so that they have a roof over their head this winter."
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BACKGROUNDER
Purpose
The Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) is an
action-oriented group that has two prime objectives:
To open safe and secure buildings so as to shelter
people immediately; and
To work with all
available partners and use all available mechanisms to achieve the above.
The
HEAT will start work immediately and will exist for the next 90 days. The Team
will meet once a week as convened by the Mayor’s Office. It will report back to
Mayor and Council every 30 days to provide updates on progress.
Members
Mayor
Gregor Robertson (Chair)
Janice Abbott –
Executive Director, Atira Women’s Resource Society
Jim Chu – Chief, Vancouver Police Department
Dr. Patricia Daly - Chief Medical Officer,
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
David
Eby – Housing Advocate
Michael Flanigan –
Director of Real Estate Services, City of Vancouver
Judy Graves – Outreach Coordinator, Housing Department, City
of Vancouver,
Cameron Gray, Managing
Director, Department of Social Development, City of Vancouver
Kerry Jang, City Councillor (Council Liaison)
Raymond Louie, City Councillor
John MacKay – Strand Development Corporation, Board member
of Street To Home Foundation
Shayne Ramsay,
CEO, BC Housing
Patrick Stewart, Chair,
Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee
Plan of Action
The immediate steps that the HEAT will
take are to:
1) Prioritize and mobilize City resources and staff to
identify city building sites that may be used for immediate shelter facilities;
2)
Immediately direct city staff to begin aggressively implementing the Standards
of Maintenance by-law to restore and maintain occupied units, and to explore
opportunities to restore vacant units;
3)
Facilitate an emergency meeting of faith groups and community leaders with
facilities that may be mobilized to increase short term shelter capacity; and
4)
Identify opportunities for enhancing outreach services to the Homeless.
For more information, please
contact:
Kevin Quinlan,
Executive Assistant to the Mayor
