April 29, 2005

"Reinvest Funding from an Existing Facility"

"While it is anticipated that an additional 2,198 units will be created in 2005/06, changes in administrative arrangements related to the Supported Independent Living (SIL) program, as well as other program and portfolio changes have resulted in the need for a downward adjustment of approximately 1,200 units to the estimated inventory for 2005/06."
Footnote 1, page 13, BC Housing's 2005-2008 service plan

The day after Gordon Campbell and his clan dined out on a $300 a plate fundraising banquet, the results of a survey on homelessness were released which showed twice as many homeless in 2005 as in 2002. There is a major disconnect between what is happening to people in British Columbia, and what the Campbell government spins. In response to the homeless census, Campbell spokespeople claimed that BC Housing's budget has increased like never before. A reality check shows that BC Housing's service plan acknowledges a "downward adjustment of approximately 1,200 units. The Campbell government closed long term and intermediate care facilities and shifted the resources to social housing, even that is now being adjusted downward.

At the staged cabinet meeting of April 22, 2002, then Minister of State Katherine Whittred said: "facility admission is frequently triggered more by social isolation and a lack of safe, affordable housing rather than a requirement for round-the-clock nursing care or medical supervision." She went on to say: "The diagram on the screen shows you how a health authority could reinvest funding from an existing facility to create an array of innovative contemporary care options that support independence while maintaining complex care clients in residential care." Let there be no confusion; the decision by the Liberals to close thousands of residential care beds was not due to fire regulations or wheel chair accessibility; it was a policy decision to shift resources to less intensive care. Whittred's words were "reinvest funding from an existing facility"!

On that fateful day in April 2002 Whittred said: "The Premier, the Hon. George Abbott, Mr. Shayne Ramsay, who is the CEO of B.C. Housing, and I are very pleased to announce this day a new program called supportive living B.C. This program is a partnership where the Ministry of Health Services establishes the provincial framework and program criteria, and B.C. Housing provides the housing funding." In 2005 the Campbell government is defending its failure for dealing with homelessness by referring to increases in the budget for B.C. Housing, but those increases are the result of the government's broken promise on long term care and its shift of resources from residential care to social housing, "assisted living". As B.C. Housing's service plan documents, they couldn't even keep that promise.

The service plan for BC Housing calls for provincial funding to decrease by $10.56 million from 2005-06 to 2006-07. It is hard to say whether that means less "supportive living" for seniors or just less social housing for the homeless; one way or the other B.C. Housing's service plan puts the lie to the Campbell government's response to the survey on homelessness.