No. Not Beijing. Vancouver.

At the rate developers are snapping up land, in 2010, there will be one homeless person in B.C. for every media person that goes to the Olympic Games. There will be 10 thousand media people covering the games.

That’s the conclusion of a three-month investigation by The Tyee, which found that unless Mayor Sullivan and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell radically reshape their response to North America’s fastest-growing homelessness crisis, the number of Greater Vancouver homeless will easily exceed the 5,000 athletes and officials expected to participate in the 2010 games.

And it could get worse. If affordable housing continues to erode throughout the region at the rate it has during Vancouver’s recent SRO buying binge, there could be twice that many. Should that happen, there would be one homeless person for each of the 10,000 members of the international press corps expected to encamp at the new $800 million Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Tyee is starting a series on Vancouver’s homeless population.

15 years ago there was enough shelter.

This should break your heart.
This should make you angry.
Where are the churches?
If government can’t do this, where are we? Christ-followers? If every church in B.C. committed to helping one, or two…really committed. Housing. Time. Sweat. Tears. Prayer. Connecting to services. Helping one or two.
Why is that too difficult?