Homelessness is a Worldwide Problem - It's time to Act!

I will start out by saying that seeing Homelessness rise in my own area where I live (in a relatively wealthy neighbourhood) has just been the starting point in my interest about this growing phenomenon around the world.  There are some startling statistics on the growth of homeless persons and families in countries and cities around the world where one would not necessarily expect to see this problem!  I have included a link here which is a fairly recent study of this problem and covers ALL the issues related to Homelessness and why we should all be concerned.  TThe study focuses on all the main issues, but particularly on the elderly, because this is a segment of the population which is showing to be at increased risk.  The link's address is shown below:

 http://www.facsinternational.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/vIA/homelessness/$File/Wintringham_REP.pdf.
Going back to my own "Back Yard" scenario, I have recently been introduced to a number of young people through my contacts with the Housing Coordination Team in my area, who are all working, making minimum wage, who come from dysfunctional family backgruonds which means they do not receive any support from family members, who have recently become homeless during the past couple of months -- due to the fact that the "rising cost of living" has been such that they could no longer "afford" to stay in their homes even though their rents stayed the same for an extended period of time.  These are healthy people not suffering from any Mental Health Issues, or Disability Issues, on the contrary theirs is an example of simple 'Economics'.  This is a trend I've been hearing about all over Vancouver and the North Shore -- but it really hits home when one has the chance to actually sit down and speak with them one on one -- and hear their personal stories!

It is for this reason that I am amazed that the Candidates for the Mayoral Race in Vancouver, Canada have not even mentioned the need for a "National Housing Strategy" -- something that I think is way overdue!  Over the past decade, there has been lots of studies and data collected to show the measure of this problem -- yet the political will to actually solve it is STILL NOT THERE!!  Citizens Groups that protest or write letters to the MLA's and so forth are largely ignored and the problem continues to grow!  When will Vancouver finally show some leadership in this situation (it's not just Vancouver offcourse, it's a problem faced by all major Canadian cities), but leadership has to start somewhere!

Another very good study about Canada's Homelessness Crisis is from 2001, titled, "The View from the Sidewalk" (this study gives a good summary on the 'wheel of factors' influencing Poverty and Homelessness.  This study is available online (pdf format) at: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~voice/The%20View%20From%20The%20Sidewalk.pdf.

Photos are used from the www.flickr.com site - the contributor is "The Blackbird" (Vancouver, BC)