We all have places we need to go; and with people struggling with homelessness it’s the very basics: access to shelter, food services or critical financial or health care appointments. Shelter providers will tell you that during extreme weather, transit access can be a critical health issue; it’s an essential support service to solving homelessness. And for people who live in extreme poverty often there is an inability to pay transit fares.

81% homeless people rely on transit to get to health & housing related
appointments; 79% for financial appointments, 70% employment related

41% were unable to get to shelter because of no access to transit over 1 yr

66% rely on public transit heavily, making 15 or more trips per month

26% received $173 fine for fare non-payment  (TWG 2013 Survey)

Many sectors of our society have special public transit needs including people with disabilities, students, seniors etc. The Ministry of Social Development subsidizes seniors and the disabled with low-cost annual passes. Students receive discounts. BC Housing provides shelters some funds to purchase fares for the homeless in shelters; but shelters must pay full price.

2,777 homeless counted on Metro Vancouver during the evening of March 11, 2014 and the day of March 12, 2014 (MetroVancouver 2014 Homeless Count)

5,948 is the annual Prevalence of Homelessness estimate  (MetroVancouver 2014 Homeless Count)

62,355 in 2011 were in risk of homelessness: in core housing need and spending at least half household income on shelter (MetroVancouver Housing Data Book)

Public transit is essential in supporting people to move out of homelessness and into housing and the TWG believes through the development of a Homeless Transit Plan there are ways the transit system can be made more accessible – many without a cost factor to TransLink and the general public. We want to work with TransLink to determine the most effective and economic plan to meet the transit needs of the homeless. We know that it is cheaper to provide housing than to leave people homeless and public transit access is essential in re-housing.

TransLink is a massive social service providing 350 million plus trips a year; the transportation needs of the homeless are a wrinkle to be ironed out. The Transit Working Group views TransLink as the service provider for a Homeless Transit Plan not the funder; inter-ministerial support and co-ordinated work amongst the Ministries of Health, Social Development and BC Housing will be essential as it is with other aspects of homeless prevention.

Look out the details of our current campaign.