Does anyone feel like we are doing our best to not solve homelessness while appearing to solve it? Or taking a very stupid approach to solving it by throwing money at it? I feel like someone must be getting a cut because it does not cost this much to solve the problem.
An example is this development:
http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/co-he...rive-vancouver
https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/...7037-94239.png
This is a 26 unit affordable rental housing project along Commercial Drive in East Van. 18 studio Units are for homeless or those at risk for homelessness and 8 (4-1 bed 4-2 bed) for low-moderate income. It will be managed by the not-for-profit Salsbury Community Society.
The land valued at $2.68 million was donated. $4.8 million was donated from private fundraising, $3.5 million from fed & provincial, $500,000 from City of Van, and $520,000 from another foundation. In total donations are $12 million working out to $461,538 a unit. There are about 3605 homeless in Vancouver
https://www.vancourier.com/news/vanc...ver-1.14843070 so at this price to solve homelessness it will cost $1.664 billion to solve homelessness assuming every unit is used for homelessness.
To me paying $461,538 a person to solve homelessness is taking a very large hammer to a much smaller problem and forcing it in. Solving homelessness by buying every homeless person a home does not take a highschool education. Assuming we had used this money to house homeless people in a $1000/month studio, we could have housed every homeless in Vancouver for 3.3 months.
Also this stinks to high heaven to me as it should not cost a non-profit $461,538 to build cheap rental condos for homeless people in East Van. A 1 bed sells around Joyce for $348,000
https://www.rew.ca/properties/R22926...wse&sort=price
Maybe I'm coming to conclusions too fast but to me this means we're providing homeless with more expensive housing than those who paid for their homes!