Homelessness Action Week - October 10 – 16, 2011.

Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Unemployment is a weapon of mass destruction. – Dennis Kucinich

Starting today is a most important week of note, the week to StopHomelessness in Metro Vancouver. Hmm, maybe we can aim higher than that.

Find out more information here:

Learn more about the root causes of homelessness and about the solutions.

Volunteer at an event in your community.

In 2010, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) passed a resolution calling on the province to adopt a comprehensive poverty reduction plan. 

BC has led Canada in child poverty for 8 years in a row and the BC government is holding fast on not creating a poverty reduction plan. 

Advocates and service organizations report there's been a "dramatic" increase in the number of women and children relying on the Union Gospel Mission for their meals. "The line-up was down the alley and around the block as hundreds more people than expected turned out for Thanksgiving dinner on Vancouver's downtown eastside."

As we head into municipal elections in November 2011, we can all do our part by asking candidates and parties what they plan to do to reduce/eliminate homelessness in our communities. There has been enough talk, it's time for action.

Here are some additional links:

BC POVERTY REDUCTION COALITION

Video: What is Poverty Costing Us in BC? 


SHARE Share the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_nkCi-pVo

LEARN Read the report at http://www.policyalternatives.ca/costofpovertybc

TAKE ACTION Look up your MLA using the MLA Finder at http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm and call, email, or visit their office (report in hand) to tell them that the cost of poverty is too high. Contact them while they’re in their home constituencies over the summer and let them know we want to see a poverty reduction plan in their party’s platform ahead of the next election.

TAKE MORE ACTION Join the call for a poverty reduction plan for BC, and get even more ideas from our Take Action page.

Government holds fast against provincial anti-poverty plan
Katie Hyslop September 29, 2011, TheTyee.ca

"We don't have a plan. We have a number of programs, some of them work, some don't, but if we had a plan we wouldn't see children living in deep, intergenerational poverty," Turpel-Lafond says, referring to the call for a provincial poverty reduction plan. B.C. is one of only three provinces that has resisted implementing a poverty reduction plan.