Three years after Gregor Robertson promised to end street homelessness in Vancouver, the mayor says the issue is still high on his agenda, but critics say it's not high enough.
At a campaign announcement Wednesday -- exactly a month until voters go to the polls in the civic election -- Robertson said the city is "ahead of schedule" on his goal of getting people off the street by 2015.
"We've seen an 82-per-cent drop in street homelessness in three years. We've got 18 per cent to go -- 145 people that were still outside as of last spring," he told reporters.
In partnership with the province and federal government, the city has opened up four new social housing projects out of a total 14 planned. Robertson says that his Vision Vancouver party wants to focus on low and middle-income housing across the city if he is reelected.
The mayor's rival in this fall's municipal election, NPA candidate Suzanne Anton, agrees that more homeless people are off the street, but says that doesn't necessarily mean they have homes.
"He's talking about putting people in shelters. A shelter is a pallet on the floor. A shelter is not a home," she told CTV News.
Some activists and Downtown Eastside residents are also skeptical about how much Robertson has done to end homelessness.
Ivan Drury of the Carnegie Community Action Project says the impoverished neighbourhood is "hemorrhaging" low-income housing.
At a protest against the possible closure of the York Rooms hotel on Powell Street, Drury said the single room occupancy building is being lost to a landlord who he believes will fix up the place and market it to a richer clientele.
"The city does not count the losses of these rooms to student and young-worker conversions. They still count them as affordable housing," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger
