DeeAnn Marie

Coun. Kerry Jang, a University of B.C. professor of psychiatry who specializes in mental health issues and is the city’s representative on housing and homeless issues, was nearly moved to tears by the donors’ largesse. He said he and city staff, including Judy Graves, the coordinator specializing in dealing with the homeless, have sometimes despaired at trying to solve the complex, interwoven issues of homelessness, addiction and mental health.

“It is a bit of an emotional moment for me, simply because for many years Judy and I and many of our staff have been out there and we see the suffering every single day. And every day I feel hopeless because what can we do? We put [people] into hospital for a while and they are let back out on the street again with no hope. It is just a revolving door, a revolving door, a revolving door,” he said.

“Taylor Manor is fundamentally different. Taylor Manor provides that hope, that place of belonging, that place of care. It is like when you come home from a long trip and you come in through the front door and sit down on the couch and breathe ‘I’m home.’ This is the vision of our donors and one that I am so glad to help bring forward.”

It’s stories like this that give me hope that people do care about the homeless.

Edit: I found this article through someone on facebook who wrote:

the numbers are stupid. 30 mill for 50 some people?

And I wrote:

The article says, “$14 million renovation and expansion plan for the 1915 Tudor Revival-style heritage mansion” so that’s to get it started and the annual operating budget is $900,000.
Sounds like the rest of the money is being put in an account where the interest will continue to pay for operations. Restoring buildings is crazy expensive and housing in general in Vancouver is very costly. This insures that after renovations, that the place will continued to be used for its intended purpose to help the homeless, and not be bought by some developer when times get tough.

Besides being a really long winded answer to somebody complaining on their own facebook (I’m waiting to be mocked), I forgot to mention, government funding is very fickle stuff. While the current municipal gov’t in Vancouver is striving to end homelessness, the provincial gov’t hasn’t been as gung-ho about putting homeless people in new units.

If funding is freely given by one gov’t, when a different one is elected that funding can just as easily stop. Which makes operating a non-profit very precarious - cozy up to close to one gov’t and the next pulls your funding, don’t cozy up enough to the one you have and they’ll forget the great work you are doing. It’s best not to have to rely on gov’t funding at all, but that requires donors and often very generous donors, so that groups can adapt to the needs of their community and the lean times can be weathered.

Moore is down to her last $6. It’s nearing 10 o’clock and it’s been hours since the two have had a meal.

Mall security has been circling. Moore knows they can’t spend the night parked here, but the 49-year-old single mother, born and raised in South King County, has no clue where to go.

“I’m mentally exhausted,” she says.

While overall homelessness in King County has steadied, it appears to be rising among families, a trend playing out across the nation.

Parents with children are the fastest-growing yet least-visible segment of the homeless population, far more likely to be doubled up in the homes of friends or living in their cars than to be at a busy intersection asking for help.

At its core, homelessness is driven by poverty and lack of affordable housing, and many believe the true breadth of the problem may not yet be evident as families who lost their homes in this recession still hang on with relatives.

So many great articles and videos to watch at the link about families experiencing homelessness in the Seattle Area. As a family it is really hard to stay together in the shelter system. 

With more and more families experiencing homelessness, no wonder they choose to sleep in their vehicles, or abandoned buildings. Homelessness and the supports to emergency house families often seems designed to take away the supports and community people already have in place.