Mr. Speaker, the issue of housing is incredibly serious. My riding adjoins the riding of Vancouver East so we are neighbours in that regard. Our housing issues are different but similar at the same time. There are a lot of specific single room occupancy issues in Vancouver East that are not an issue in a more suburban riding like Burnaby—Douglas, although there are housing issues in my riding.
We would never have considered doing a homelessness count years ago in Burnaby—Douglas. Now every year people from my community go out to find homeless people living in Burnaby and every year there are more than the year before. People are living under overpasses and in our parks. It is easy to live full time in parks in the Vancouver area. The vegetation is pretty dense in the rain forest and homeless people are not easily found in those settings. Homeless people in Burnaby--Douglas are living in terrible conditions in public parks.
Homelessness or single occupancy buildings are not the only issues. In Burnaby—Douglas the issue is also housing co-ops. Just a couple of weeks ago NDP members from the lower mainland gathered at the Norman Bethune Co-op in my riding, which is one of the buildings affected by the leaky building crisis in British Columbia. Building envelopes have failed and the water has gone through the walls and caused all kinds of structural and health issues. Mould is growing on the walls of some of these buildings.
This co-op has tried for years to receive some assistance from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation with no success. The former Liberal minister of housing visited that co-op. In fact, hours before he visited it, a rotting beam collapsed. He saw the damage that it caused and yet nothing came forward to help the co-op. It is now facing foreclosure on its mortgage. It has been paying an exorbitant mortgage rate.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is more about being a bank these days than being a housing development organization offering any real assistance to people. This is good housing. In Burnaby we cannot afford to lose one unit of affordable housing given the high housing crisis in British Columbia and the lower mainland let alone the 24 units that are available at the Norman Bethune Housing Co-op.
Housing is a serious issue in all of our communities and I do not see anything in this budget that will help.