Homelessness

Bad luck and a bad crowd, but she's 'not a criminal'On a clear, crisp March morning, Marianne Christine Sullivan sits on a dock at Trout Lake in east Vancouver and talks about being homeless and broke after the B.C. government took her $562,000 home under civil forfeiture legislation....Vancouver East MP Libby Davies says the sad situation Sullivan faces as a homeless person likely means it will cost society far more in the long run than what was taken with the forfeiture. "It is unbelievable this could happen to her," she says. "The fact is, she is now living on the street and suffering from an addiction. What has been solved by making her homeless?

Activists pitch tent city on Downtown Eastside lotHundreds of homeless and poverty protesters -- using the Olympic spotlight to their advantage -- flooded into a vacant lot in the 100-block of West Hastings Street on Monday and erected a tent city. Libby Davies, NDP MP for Vancouver East, said she supported the tent city as a way to raise awareness for greater government support, especially by a federal government in need of a national housing strategy to help the poor and homeless.... "This is a prime site for social housing," she said. "I'm so happy so many people are here today to draw attention to this issue. It's a vacant lot and it's very visible, a symbol of what's going on in this neighbourhood."

Davies joins hunger strikeIt will never get the attention of the official Olympic torch relay, but Sunday a generic wooden spoon changed hands near the Olympic Countdown Clock in downtown Vancouver. On the receiving end was New Democratic Party MP Libby Davies, who becomes the 55th participant in the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay, a low-key handoff that will see Davies stick to a liquid-only diet for a week in order to raise awareness of homelessness as the 2010 Winter Olympics loom large.

Group's hunger strike presses on in push for national housing planA group pushing Ottawa to establish a national housing plan to help the homeless yesterday gathered to mark a year of weekly rotating hunger strikes by dozens of supporters. Davies, a Vancouver MP, and Vancouver city councillor Ellen Woodsworth are both expected to be among those who will go without food for a week leading up to the end of the protest in June. A small group gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery to share a cake and continue their push for more affordable housing, said organizer Am Johal. “Within weeks, Parliament will be debating a private member’s bill for a national housing plan put forward by MP Libby Davies,” he said.

Former UN Special Rapporteur Calls for National Housing Program for CanadaSpeaking at UBC's Liu Institute on Thurs. Nov. 26, Miloon Kothari, a former UN Special Rapporteur, called for Canada to give greater legal recognition to housing rights and to undertake a national housing strategy. Mr. Kothari is the author of the 2007 UN Human Rights Council Report on Adequate Housing in Canada. Kothari cited the Montreal Charter as a positive example which requires the city and its partners to take appropriate housing measures. He noted that a private member's bill submitted by Vancouver MP Libby Davies calls for a national housing strategy and has currently passed second reading in the House of Commons.