2 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MONTH XX, 2015 EDITOR FIRST NAMELAST NAME By JOCELYN ASPA treet vendors around East Hast- ings are desperate to continue selling because it’s the only solu- tion they have to make ends meet with a lack of affordable housing in an area being rapidly gentrified, ac- cording to advocates. The city’s decision to force the sell- ers to move to the new sites and im- pose restrictions on how often they can sell is devastating, says Maria Walls- tam from the Carnegie Community Ac- tion Plan Project. “IT think part of the reason street vending has increased in the last few years is because housing has wors- ened,” said Wallstam. “No one should be displaced for trying to survive, and that’s essentially what’s happening,” Many vendors spend the day looking for goods, and the new locations don’t generate a lot of foot traffic or have re- stricted hours, she said. Some of them live in the private ho- tels and rooming houses, where rents have been rising, leaving them with al- most no money left from the $610 a month they get from welfare. B.C.’s welfare rates are $610 a month and have been since 2007. Even those who live in social housing, where the rents for welfare recipients are limited to $375, find themselves struggling to feed themselves. “Welfare wages are low, so they sup- plement their income through street vending,” Wallstam said. “This is not something anyone wants to do, to sit on the streets in the rain and sell goods.” Ann Livingston, with the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood council, said many street vendors are homeless and not getting welfare at all, so they vend as a way to survive. According to a report from the DTES Street Market Society, done between July and November of this year, 24 per cent of vendors were homeless, and 89 : A. isplaced vendors are losi Welfare rates alone are not enough to support street merchants on the DTES per cent reported relying on both gov- ernment assistance and money that they made on the streets to survive. The report stated an average street vendor could make $76 per day. “Every possible unfairness is heaped on people who have no way to fight back,” said Livingston. “They don’t have any resources.” The block on East Hastings Street, where vendors have illegally set up shop for years, is now off limits to ven- dors. Instead, the city has instituted three other vending locations to which they are restricted. The city states its objective is “to assist and facilitate the movement of street vendors from East Hastings Street and surrounding ar- eas.” The vending locations, which are all only open to 6 p.m., include 62 E. Hast- ings St. Monday to Friday, 501 Powell St. on Saturdays, and Sundays at Pi- geon Park on Carrall Street. The East Hastings site is across the street from ng business 66 where most of the vending has taken place over the years and is consider- ably smaller. Wallstam said the problem with the official vending sites is they close early. “These sites are not open during the night when a lot of people need them,” she said. Wallstam added people are going to continue vending until the city does something to improve social housing because they have no other choice. “If measures were taken, I think you'd see a big difference,” she said. Landon Hoyt, executive director with the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, said the empty business spaces where street vending has occurred have been hard to fill when the whole sidewalk is blocked. “There is a lack of affordable hous- ing and job opportunities in the neigh- bourhood,” he said. Part of the rea- son Street vending has in- creased in the last few years is because housing has wors- ened MARIA WALLSTAM CARNEGIE COM- MUNITY ACTION PLAN PROJECT Shelters crammed as frost nears Homeless are already be- ing turned away from shel- ters in Vancouver By KEVIN UNDERHILL ncouver homeless shelters are Vfareccs turning people away and the coldest weather is yet to ar- rive. With arctic temperatures forecasted to hit the province’s south coast this week, Vancouver shelters can expect to see an influx of people in need. Margaret Pinto, a lead advocate at the Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel in Vancouver said they are at capacity ev- ery night. “We are always full, and more are waiting to get in,” she said. Pinto said they open their doors for additional people in extreme weather situations but have to wait until BC Housing gives them the go-ahead to do So. “BC Housing tells us on the day of and we can open our doors for 20 more people but that’s still not enough,” Pin- to said. The Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel is listed as the largest shelter in the city, with 102 beds, and Pinto expects that every shelter is facing the same situation. Vancouver's director of housing poli- cy and projects, Abigail Bond, said that the city is working closely with the B.C. government to best prepare but admit- ted this is an ongoing issue. “We have extreme weather shelters for people in need,” Bond said. “But on some of the coldest nights last year, there were still over 400 people on the street.” Skylar Osborne, a case planner at the Yukon House in Vancouver said their 71 beds are full and they have a waitlist of people trying to get in. “People call all day, people wait all day and it’s first come, first serve.” Os- borne said. Osborne sensed a new priority will be placed on the refugees that will r4 4 be arriving in Van- couver. “We're having We are al 1,200 refugees WAYS full, come to our Surrey and more shelter next week,” . Osborne said. “The are watt- city has said with- ; out saying, like an ing to 9g et unwritten rule, Uf. that they will be the priority.” MARGARET PINTO Bond hopes the federal government will step up with the assistance of refugees because she knows the situation is already tight. “There are concerns about the high rent and low vacancy. Especially be- cause there are so many people in need locally,” Bond said. SHELTER for extreme weather Salvation Army Belkin House 555 Homer St. ME Evelyne Saller Centre 320 Alexander St. St. Mark's Extreme Weather Shelter 1805 Larch St. HE The Gathering Place Community Centre 609 Helmcken St. HM First Baptist Church 969 Burrard Street Source: behousing.org Compass stress Seniors have trouble accessing online Compass Card information By SCOTT DRAKE savvy will find information about Compass Cards hard to come by, according to seniors’ advocates. TransLink is set to replace monthly passes with the Compass Card entirely, come January. The switch to the re- loadable fare care has been rolled out over the course of the last two years, making the paper monthly passes ob- solete. For seniors, finding information about the impending change can be tricky. Barbara Jun, communications intern at the South Granville Senior Centre, recently organized a meeting with TransLink after several seniors approached her for more information. See COMPASS CARD SENIORS, page 7 Ss: who are not technology-