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STORY about PovertyHousing posted on February 27, 2010 by isaac

Tent-in at BC Housing

by Isaac Oommen

Photo credit: Sara Kendall
Photo credit: Sara Kendall

Residents of the Olympic Tent Village in the downtown eastside and their allies on Friday, February 26 staged a tent-in at the BC Housing Offices at 2pm.

One of those involved, Tristan Markle, said, "Two days ago about 50 homeless people submitted their applications to BC housing, which did not reply right away." The action took place to force BC Housing to take notice of the plight of the homeless in the city.

"People who are homeless in Tent Village are just 1% of the homeless in Vancouver," said Markle. "For the 3000 homeless in Vancouver the province promised 3000 new units of housing and instead built around 500. And as for the housing that exists, they need to upgrade them to real homes that are not single-room occupancies with broken toilets that are infested by cockroaches."

By the end of the night 26 of the aforementioned applicants had been issued homes.

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