{"id":60658,"date":"2021-09-15T05:43:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T09:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=60658"},"modified":"2021-09-28T00:50:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T04:50:52","slug":"affordable-rental-crisis-creates-homelessness-says-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/affordable-rental-crisis-creates-homelessness-says-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable rental crisis responsible for homelessness, says advocate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Campbell River\u2019s recent homeless count lists 116 people, a 43 per cent increase over the 2018 tally, but is only one aspect of the Strathcona Regional District\u2019s (SRD) rental affordability crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are paying 40, 50 or 60 percent of their income for a place to live, are usually a few paycheques away from joining the 116 people that we counted,\u201d explained Sue Moen, the Salvation Army\u2019s representative in the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness.<\/p>\n

Close to 30 per cent of Campbell River\u2019s population<\/a>\u00a0live in rental accommodations and\u00a0almost half of these<\/a>\u00a0are spending a disproportionate amount of their income on rent.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Strathcona Needs Assessment<\/a> states that 22 per cent of the households on Quadra Island and 30 per cent of the households on Cortes Island are in the same situation.<\/p>\n

When people are paying too much of their income on rent, Moen said they are forced to make choices such as whether to spend money on medication or electricity, or nutrition, or dental care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes an untenable choice for people to keep a roof over their heads,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition, there is the problem of seasonal homelessness in rural tourism areas throughout the SRD.<\/p>\n

While there are no statistics, every year a significant number of Cortes Island\u2019s population moves out into tents, couch surf, or find other accommodation, while their winter homes are used as summer homes or vacation rentals.<\/p>\n

Moen knows people on Quadra Island who have to leave their homes every summer.<\/p>\n

With the arrival of Fall, RV Parks and smaller motels are once again advertising winter rates.<\/p>\n

\"For<\/a>

For Rent sign<\/a> by Erik Mclean on Unsplash<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe see this year after year, from Oyster River all the way to Sayward, Tahsis and in between,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Where do the people who occupy these units live during the summer?<\/h3>\n

While the coalition\u2019s mandate extends throughout the entire Strathcona Regional District, up until now they have only had funding to carry out surveys within the region\u2019s principal city.<\/p>\n

The \"Point in Time\" count started in Campbell River hospital, emergency shelters and with people who were incarcerated during the evening of April 8, 2021. Outreach to known encampments, and a tally of people using service providers was carried out the following day.<\/p>\n

The statistics were only recently released.<\/p>\n

Contrary to what many might expect, only 35 per cent of the people tallied were receiving income assistance. Moen said that a significant number of house challenged people are employed.<\/p>\n

She regards the numbers from \"Point in Time\" as a conversation piece, to raise public awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoverty and the pandemic have exacerbated a problem that has been getting worse for decades, ever since the federal government got\u00a0 out of non market housing,\u201d said Moen. \u201cThe gap between housing need and housing stock has only been growing for the last 40 years and now even affordable housing is out of reach for most people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bits<\/a>

Debris left at an encampment beside Quinsam Road, Campbell River - Photo from an August 2020 complaint to the SRD<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Campbell River\u2019s recent homeless count lists 116 people, a 43 per cent increase over the 2018 tally, but is only one aspect of the Strathcona Regional District\u2019s (SRD) rental affordability crisis. \u201cPeople who are paying 40, 50 or 60 percent of their income for a place to live, are usually a few paycheques away from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":60668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[1871,9403,370,9404],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60658"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=60658"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=60658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}