...Continued from "About Us"

Long-term housing added
Recognizing that emergency beds, although essential, are a band aid solution to homelessness, a long-term housing program was gradually implemented, starting in 1978. In 1981 we built our first purpose-built facility, housing both our original emergency shelter and adding new supportive long-term housing. The longer-stay housing was meant to be transitional, allowing people to stay longer to get their feet under them, and during this time, they would find permanent housing resources.

Despite the increase in beds (shelter increased from 25 to 40 beds and the new 39-long stay units) we found ourselves turning away great numbers of people in both housing programs; homelessness seemed to be on the increase. Emergency stays lengthened as resources became harder to find. Lookout no longer could afford the luxury of holding beds open until 2 am for crisis situations. We could not move people from the tenancy program to other housing: it just did not exist.

In an attempt to open up emergency beds, staff moved people into surrounding hotel rooms, knowing that such housing was inadequate for most. As a result, a high number of people began returning to Lookout within weeks or months. To address this, in November 1990, the Outreach Program was implemented, and staff hired to follow shelter residents into the community. Outreach staff provide, for a short-term period, the necessary support and services which enable residents to maintain their independent housing.

Outreach service
Case reviews found that for some individuals, long-term Outreach support was needed and Lookout developed this additional capacity to the short-term program in 1992. Our experience in the three programs offered (shelter, longer-stay & Outreach) found few of our clientele could access other housing because of their personal history. We also found people being forced to come into the area to access services as the shelter and housing offered by ourselves and other local providers were unique and supportive. Therefore, concurrent with developing Outreach, Lookout fought for shelters in areas where the homeless gathered, and to also develop permanent housing for those without housing options.

Livingroom Drop-In Activity Centre
In this, we also recognized that the seriously mentally ill were particularly unable to access housing, even when poverty was not a factor.  Paper thin walls in local roominghouses were often a factor, and the eviction rate of the mentally ill resulted in the mentally ill being at highest risk of homelessness in the area. They were also a group who utilized our shelter on a higher percentage basis than any other user profile. Frequently abused, and without many supports, Lookout became determined to create services specifically for the mentally ill in the Downtown Eastside area, the new name of Skid Row.

To prevent the evictions and to provide opportunity for the mentally ill to access psychiatric services, Lookout and two other services, Barry McArthur of St. James Community Services, and Ralph Buckley, of Strathcona Mental Health spearheaded the creation of a drop in/activity centre for the seriously mentally ill. In 1993 we celebrated the opening of the LivingRoom Drop In Centre to provide safe hang-out space for people to use, as well as get involved in activities or treatment. The service was an immediate hit, with approximately 125 people using the facilities daily.

Permanent housing
Also in 1993, after successfully arguing that people with disabilities can live independently if the appropriate community supports are in place, Lookout celebrated the opening of the Jeffrey Ross Residence, a 37 suite apartment block (not care housing) that specifically targeted the disabled. Most of the residents moved from the tenancy program providing a mini continuum of housing within Lookout, better enabling us to match the needs of the people with our most suitable housing.

Tenant selection was through volunteers from a number of neighbourhood agencies, based on our criteria of housing local people who had few, if any housing options. As a result, we were able to move people with repeated housing crises into our longer-stay housing, while people needing housing with supports could be waitlisted for the permanent housing. The Jeffrey Ross naming honours a beloved manager of Lookout – Jeffrey loved the people, the work and was dedicated to creating permanent housing. We vowed to keep up the battle to create more permanent housing options. The Ross immediately had a huge waitlist, with minimal turnover, and our shelter continued to be in high demand, with some people being turned away without housing, to sleep in the streets as there were no other sheltering options for them.

We were successful in gaining an allocation of housing units, and in April of 1996 we moved people in to the 67 suites of our new Jim Green Residence, the first social housing project in B.C. to particularly serve people who have a chronic history of homelessness. This apartment building also included one unit specifically designed as an emergency back up unit to the shelters in the area, particularly for the women’s shelters. The unit, a two bedroom resource, quickly became a resource for those inappropriate, as well as unable to, access other shelters. This included many individuals in varying family configurations. Immigrant and refugee families, disabled homeless, as well as men and/or women fleeing violence, sometimes accompanied by children have been housed in this unique and extremely useful apartment.

Expanded Shelter service
Shelterlessness continued to grow to crisis proportions and Lookout determined that we could assist. During the late summer of 1995 a young, seriously ill man came into our shelter acutely ill from exposure. He died of pneumonia within 6 hours. This was the final straw in Lookout’s quest for another shelter, despite the knowledge that the shelter beds were not the solution – but as critically needed as band aids are to first aid attendants. We actively initiated work towards a new shelter, co-located with secondary housing. In 1996 Lookout was able to open the first cold weather shelter in the lower mainland: thanks to the Real Estate Foundation of BC. This winter shelter opened each year while we worked collaboratively with other service providers, to create a new shelter service in Vancouver, this time outside of the Downtown Eastside.

In 2002 we were happy to open the Yukon Housing Centre, which provided 36 shelter beds, expandable to 56 (35 in 2005) by adding 20 beds during inclement weather. These shelter beds were matched by 37 transitional studio apartments. Lengths of stay in the studios are limited to 2 – 3 years, giving people with repeated housing crises a longer time to gain stability. The staff work with the residents to bridge into permanent housing that is affordable, and appropriate to meet their service needs. This development was the first shelter and housing with a flexible mandate to be established outside of the Downtown Eastside. It was immediately full and turning away people. Our waitlists continued to soar.

During the development of this new housing, we saw an influx of shelterless people coming from outside Vancouver. Many came because of the lack of flexible supportive shelter and housing elsewhere. Others still refused to come, opting to live outdoors rather than leave the community they called home. Our Outreach Team met many of these individuals, ranging from New Westminster, Burnaby, Richmond and the North Shore. We actively campaigned in these communities to establish resources locally for the homeless. We were joined in this by the partnership that had developed over the establishing of the Yukon Shelter. Later known as the regional Cold Wet Weather Strategy, the collaborative approach was successful in that both New Westminster and the North Shore asked Lookout to establish services locally.

New Westminster
In 2001 Lookout was able to purchase a 23 unit heritage roominghouse in New Westminster, and renovate the building to provide 16 transitional housing units, and 7 permanent housing units to local men and women who demonstrated an inability to successfully live elsewhere in the community and who had few if any other housing choices. We were able to add a Shelter in 2008, with the addition of the College Place.

Concurrent to this, we were successful in gaining funding for a winter-only (cold wet weather) shelter on the North Shore, where no shelter had existed previously. The North Shore, a community thought of as well-off had a number of homeless living in the streets.

North Shore
We, in partnership with the North Shore Task Force on Homelessness, achieved funding to build a shelter and transitional housing service in the City of North Vancouver. This came to be only through the significant support of the City of North Vancouver and the personal dedication of Mayor Barbara Sharp. Overcoming many obstacles, and with funding primarily from the Federal Governments Homeless Initiative (Supported Communities Partnership Initiative – SCPI) , Canada Mortgage and Housing, BC Housing as well as the City itself, 25 year round shelter beds were opened on January 7, 2005 followed by 25 studio transitional housing apartments being collocated and opened on April 6th, 2005. The generosity of local service clubs, businesses, individuals, neighbours and the Squamish Nation helped overcome a number of hiccups that still limited the full operation of the shelter at July, 2005. The North Shore Shelter now enjoys full operation. Thanks to the generous support of the North Shore Mayor’s Golf Tournament, through the North Shore Community Foundation, a training kitchen is being put into operation, with an employment program.

Despite the development of these shelter beds, Lookout remains committed to ensure that shelter beds are kept to a minimum, and always matched by longer term housing. The solution to homelessness is affordable, appropriate homes.