1. The mean streets of Arcadia.
- Subjects
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HOMELESSNESS , *HOMELESS persons , *POVERTY , *PUBLIC welfare , *SOCIAL services , *HOMELESS persons with mental illness , *POOR people , *ECONOMICS - Abstract
The article focuses on the growth of homelessness in Vancouver, British Columbia. Most Vancouverites love it when, as frequently happens, their city gets rated as one of the nicest places in the world in which to live. But to its poorer residents such seals of approval can seem like a sick joke. The Downtown Eastside, a scene of battered and boarded-up buildings, is the most concentrated pocket of poverty and crime in Canada. Vancouver's homelessness rate, though lower per person than in some of British Columbia's other cities, has doubled in the past three years: in summer up to 1,800 people are sleeping rough or in shelters, according to a plan presented by the city council's homelessness coordinator. Most critics blame British Columbia's Liberal government for social-service cuts in its three-year drive to eliminate its deficit.
- Published
- 2004