passing on the pledge

Calling all BC residents,

Take the provincial budget into your own hands!

I am pledging my $100 carbon tax rebate to end homelessness in BC. I know many of you simply cannot afford to do this, but if you can and you believe in helping those living in poverty, please join me in this pledge.

Community organisers estimate that a single housing unit in Vancouver costs approximately $200,000. So if 2000 people were to pledge their $100 cheque to this cause, one person who is currently sleeping on the streets could be provided with a home. 2000 people may seem like a lot but, given that there are 4.1 million people living in BC, it’s actually a very, very small fraction of the population. And, in other parts of the province this figure would be much lower so more homes could be built.

If everyone in BC pledged their $100, over 2000 homeless people could be provided with permanent, safe shelter!

My $100 is useless without yours.
It has no power to do anything by itself but combined with others
it could make a significant difference in people’s lives.

At this stage, all I’m asking for is a pledge with your name and email address. I will only contact you and ask you to back up your pledge if we raise enough money to do something effective. It’s a win-win situation for you – either we take direct, concrete action that will decrease homelessness in BC or you get to keep your $100 after all.

Once again, the budget has disappointed me by providing little funding for the people who most need it, in a time when the provincial government is most able to do so with its massive surplus of over 4 billion dollars. Climate change may kill us in the future but there are people dying on our streets right now. If you share my moral shame about this, let’s take social spending into our own hands and redirect the budget in order to address the deep levels of poverty in BC.

Thank you for your consideration,

Trish, Vancouver (Raise the Rates Coalition)