Take it away.
First of all, I want to say thank you.
Second of all, I want to say that the last time I spoke in front of a standing committee, I was quite a few years younger, and I didn't have to wear reading glasses. It's a lot harder; the looking up and looking down thing is a lot harder. I just needed to acknowledge that.
Mostly, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak with all of you today to talk about the federal role in reducing poverty in this country. I will take my seven minutes to highlight a little bit of the Vancouver context that we have here, the role of the Streetohome Foundation in poverty reduction, and some of the solutions that we seek in terms of the federal government's role in reduction of poverty.
My comments speak today, notwithstanding the name of my organization, to poverty and poverty reduction within the context or through a lens of homelessness, because that is really the role and the mandate of the organization that I represent. I'm going to start with a very simple metaphor. I'm going to start with a metaphor of the weather, because I think it serves as a simple but evocative metaphor for the socio-economic contrast that one sees here.
Whether you've come from the other side of the country to be here today or whether you have not, I don't think it's possible for one to hang out in Vancouver these days without being acutely aware of an impending large international event. Indeed, you will see evidence of that probably within about 30 seconds when you step off a plane at Vancouver Airport and you go to buy Olympic stuff.
About 12 blocks east of here, as all of you know, is probably the zero zone of one of the most socio-economically challenged neighbourhoods in this country. The weather this morning was dark and stormy, and it was raining. Now, for reasons that I cannot even begin to explain but will leave to the mysteries of the weather gods and goddesses, it is sunny.
I think that serves as a very useful metaphor for us in terms of, as I said, the very real socio-economic contrast that we see here, where there are signs of light and optimism but there are also very dark clouds on our horizon.
In terms of the Vancouver context, I'd like to touch on three things. The first is just some of the numbers. The second is to touch on the costs of homelessness, and the third is to briefly touch on the populations that are affected. Both Laura and Nancy have touched on these things so I'm going to make my comments very brief.
I think it's very important for us to understand--again, as both of them have reiterated--that in looking at the issue of our fight against poverty and the linkage between homelessness and poverty, our lack of a national strategy to contain the rapid growth of homelessness has been a failure, at least in part because we don't have a comprehensive strategy to address poverty in this country.
Poverty is the root cause of homelessness. It creates social exclusion by denying people safe, decent affordable housing. Because of the persistence of poverty, particularly through generations, citizens have inadequate income in order to pay for very basic needs, including housing.
Every three years in Vancouver we do the “metro Vancouver homelessness count”, which has come to represent the best-possible widely accepted community measure of homelessness in this region. The measure from 2005 to 2008 showed an increase of 20% in the number of homeless people in this region. Not only are there thousands of people who are homeless in this region, we also know, through both research and anecdotal information, that there are hundreds of people at risk of becoming homeless due to their socio-economic circumstances.
It is not with pride that I say that this province has the highest overall rate of poverty and, more compellingly, the highest childhood rate of poverty in this country. Homelessness continues to be a problem of very compelling proportions in the city of Vancouver and throughout the metro Vancouver region. And because homelessness is a compelling problem, poverty is also a compelling problem.
The costs of homelessness are almost too difficult and complicated for us to measure. What we know is that the cost of not investing in appropriate social housing is seen in the resulting costs, as Nancy said, in health care, social services, and the justice system. As all of you know, I'm sure, housing, like income, is a major determinant of health. People need adequate housing--in some cases with appropriate supports--in order to improve their health and well-being. Yet temporary housing for people who are homeless, whether it's in shelters or in jail or in the hospital, is much more costly than providing them with appropriate permanent housing with appropriate supports.
Nancy has already cited the Simon Fraser University study that was done in 2008, which is rapidly emerging as probably the best, most widely cited piece of comprehensive research that we have. As she said, it costs us approximately $20,000 a year more to provide services to a person living on the street—health care, social services, justice costs—than it would cost to put them in appropriate housing with appropriate supports.
The populations that are affected by homelessness are almost too large and diverse to imagine. Virtually all the population groups here in metropolitan Vancouver comprise our homeless population. These populations that are living in poverty are particularly vulnerable. One of the most vulnerable groups is youth—youth with mental illness or early signs of psychosis, youth that are aging out of foster care. Then, too, there are families, particularly women and children, who are fleeing abuse. Finally, there are adults who are being discharged from hospitals or from correctional facilities.
What are some of the solutions? I want to leave you with five quick points. The first is that in Vancouver, we've been fortunate to follow the lead of other Canadian cities in looking at a comprehensive community response to homelessness. Streetohome was created in 2008 as a partnership between the Vancouver Foundation, which is Canada's largest community foundation, the City of Vancouver, and the Province of British Columbia. We are a community organization working to ensure that all citizens of Vancouver have a safe, decent, affordable place to live. Our goal is to tackle the problem of homelessness here in Vancouver by bringing together community leaders from the private sector, the public sector, and the non-profit sector to find sustainable solutions. This is the first time in Vancouver's history that all sectors of the community are working together towards the common goal of finding lasting solutions to a complex problem. It is a community challenge and it is going to take all of the members of this community to solve it.
We have taken inspiration from other Canadian cities. Hamilton is one example. The Hamilton community's round table on poverty, sponsored by the Hamilton Community Foundation, has been an inspiration to many of us across the country. We, in turn, hope that we can inspire some other cities across the country to mount a similarly comprehensive, collective community response.
The second is money. The federal government needs to step back up to the plate and provide sustained federal funding to social housing in this country. The Mental Health Commission of Canada is a hopeful and progressive sign for many of us, but we need more than that. I'd like to think that at Streetohome we're showing evidence of our good faith in the work of the national mental health commission by financially supporting the work of the mental health commission here in Vancouver.
Our third point is that we need a comprehensive federal housing strategy. I think it bears reiterating that Canada is in urgent need of a comprehensive federal housing strategy to make sure that all of us have a safe, affordable, accessible place to live.
Fourth, we need a comprehensive federal strategy for poverty reduction, which I like to think is the role and mandate of this committee. We are encouraging the federal government to adopt a national poverty reduction strategy with measurable legislated targets and timelines to combat poverty and, more important, to improve and promote social inclusion and social security in this country.
There's also a unique role for the federal government to play in encouraging the provincial governments to adopt poverty reduction plans. We'd love it if you played that role. This way, our province, one of the few in this country that does not yet have a poverty reduction plan, could move to the other side of the house and have a plan in place.
My last point is a little more technical, but I'll leave you by going from the broad to the specific. We need some changes in the federal tax system that would encourage the development of affordable housing. We're long overdue in this country for some changes to the federal tax system that would increase private investment, including philanthropic investment in affordable housing.
There are five examples that I'll give you. The first would be to eliminate capital gains on real estate donations, made to registered charities, for affordable housing. The second would be to eliminate the GST on construction materials associated with the construction of affordable housing. The third would be to permit the deferral of capital gains taxes and recapture of the capital cost allowance on reinvestment in rental housing, which is in scarce supply in this part of the country. The fourth would be to increase the capital cost allowance on rental and affordable housing. And the last would be to permit small landlords to be taxed at the small business corporation rate as an incentive to increase the supply of rental housing.
There is a strong willingness in this part of the country on the part of the private sector and philanthropy to do this, but we need very strong tax measures and incentives to encourage it.
I know I've used up my time. I look forward to hearing of your findings.
Thank you for your time and attention today.