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Tenants facing eviction in Vancouver because they can't pay the rent will soon have a lifeline with the establishment of the city's first rent bank.

The bank will provide interest-free loans in the $500-to -$800 range to applicants facing imminent eviction, said Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang, adding that this will be an important measure to prevent homelessness.

An undisclosed amount of seed funding is being provided by Fiore Financial Corp. president and CEO Frank Giustra, and Jang said he expects this will cover the bulk of the bank's operating costs. Details are still being finalized and it's too early to say whether the city will provide any funding, Jang added.

There is already a rent bank operating in Surrey and Jang said data from jurisdictions throughout North America suggest the loan repayment rate is 75 per cent or better.

"Most of the people who use the rent bank are people who are working, but have to make the choice between feeding the kids, paying the rent or paying the hydro," Jang explained.

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Vancouver could soon have the city's first ever “rent bank,” where people facing eviction would be able to apply for a small loan to help pay their rent .

Research conducted at rent banks in Surrey, B.C., and Toronto suggests as many as 800 people a year in Vancouver could receive small loans to pay their rent and keep them off the street, said Dick Vollet, of the Streetohome Foundation, the group behind the Vancouver initiative.

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PHYLICIA TORREVILLAS

03 October 2011 05:55

Mayor Gregor Robertson has begun rallying the troops for the Nov. 19 civic election at his Vision Vancouver campaign office on Yukon Street.

Mayor Gregor Robertson and the Vision Vancouver team are ready to paint the town blue and green.

Robertson is kicking off his re-election campaign as he gets ready to go head-to-head against Coun. Suzanne Anton of the Non-Partisan Association.

He said he wants to drum up enough volunteers to surpass the 1,500 people who helped out during his 2008 campaign. He also promised there will be no negative advertising coming from the Vision camp.

It's now been one year since the City of Vancouver launched their expanded food cart program.

Vision Vancouver City councillor Heather Deal says 97 carts are now open for business across the city, with 15 more to be added annually over the next three years.

"We set out to expand the kinds of food and the places you can get it around the city. You can now get Korean tacos... and macaroni and cheese... and pulled pork sandwiches... and all kinds of food around the streets of downtown Vancouver and in-fact, it's expanding into some of the neighbourhoods as well... it's an extremely popular program."

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“It’s great news to see a decrease in the number of homeless people in Vancouver and it validates the City’s focus on our most challenging problem,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson of the 2011 Homeless Count report.

“Hopefully that’s the trend that continues, we want people accessing shelters and getting off the street. That’s the first step,” said Robertson. But [the province] has a lot of buildings coming on stream with the city, so we will see people moving from shelters into housing in the next few years. Hopefully we will see the overall numbers coming down.”

Results show the City of Vancouver experienced an 82 per cent reduction in street homeless since the last count in 2008 and a further six per cent reduction - 110 people - in overall homelessness since 2010.

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