KPLU Local News
(2010-01-29)
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One of the red tents that advocates plan to hand out to the homeless during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.
Pivot Legal Society
"We really want to create a visual impact on visitors to Vancouver in an aesthetically-pleasing way but in a very visible way," says John Richardson, "that homelessness is a problem and that there's a need for action."
Richardson heads the Pivot Legal Society, a non-profit social justice law firm in Vancouver. He says handing out the red tents to the homeless does two things: it give some kind of shelter to people who have none. And it raises the visibility of a problem that the public would often rather overlook.
"Bringing the problem out of the dark and making it highly visible is a very important part, I think of getting to a solution."
The red tents were first used in 2006 in Paris, when hundreds were set up near some of the city's most popular tourist spots. The demonstration embarrassed the French government into increasing funds for housing. The Red Tent campaign hopes to do the same in Vancouver.
Understandably, city officials aren't thrilled with the plan. Kerry Jang is a city councillor. And he says Vancouver doesn't need to be prodded.
"We're already studying it, we're already looking at it, we're already working to open up more shelter spaces, we're already working on a number of housing initiatives."
The solution, Jang says, is to get the Canadian government to put money into creating housing for low-income people. In the early 1990s, the federal government ended most housing programs, leaving the provinces and cities to pick up the slack.
For Laura Stannard - with the Citywide Housing Coalition - the red tent stunt is driven by desperation.
"We've marched, we've written letters, we've held demonstrations, we've lobbied till our teeth fell out," she says, "and nothing has worked,"
If crashing the Olympic party and embarrassing the government is what it takes to get Canada to take action, she says, it's worth it.
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