The Homeless Initiative Community Plan

In the late 1990's, the municipalities of several Canadian cities, including Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria, declared homelessness a national disaster. This was in conjunction with numerous other organizations, including hospitals, health organizations, AIDS services and faith organizations.
In 2000, Victoria completed a three-year community development initiative that focused on the challenges brought forth by a lack of affordable, supportive and safe housing in the city. As a result of this initiative, eight key principles where formulated: community solutions, participation, commitment, openness, language, cooperation, sharing and leadership.
In late 2000, the Victoria Steering Committee on Homelessness was established in an effort to tackle this perceived national disaster. The membership of the Committee included the following organization: Downtown churches, Victoria Housing Providers, Community Center Network, Community Economic Development Corp., Downtown Service Providers, City of Victoria’s Social Planning and Housing Advisory Committee, Victoria Native Friendship Centre, United Way of Greater Victoria, Canadian Homebuilders Association and the Intercultural Association. (All levels of government where also represented.) What is interesting about the makeup of this committee is the various, diverse views that are represented. From my urban explorations so far in my new home of Victoria, I’ve noticed a large degree of church involvement, especially on an active, “grass-roots” level. Other organizations such as the Victoria Cool Aid Society, which has been “building hope, lives and community since 1968” ( http://www.coolaid.org/), and the United Way, also play a very active and involved role. Other organizations tend to view homelessness as in a different light, perhaps more negatively. For example, discussions in the media about what is “lost” due to the homeless “problem” in Victoria in terms of economics and tourism is an oft repeated claim. (http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?
id=5f61f1f1-3123-48bf-89fe-3bd06f11e2c9, for example)
The views and opinions of this diverse group of organizations are telling of how homelessness is perceived in our society in general. What people say, and how they say it, is an issue that I will begin to explore next.
(Most of the information gathered for this brief post is from the following website: http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/currentprojects_homelessness_pln.shtml)