[Viva] Fwd: FW: No More Stolen Sisters: Safe Shelters, Safe Housing, Safe Services! PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR CONTACTS

Tue Mar 22 09:27:05 PDT 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alexandra Regier <alexr at bcpwa.org>
Date: Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 9:11 AM
Subject: FW: No More Stolen Sisters: Safe Shelters, Safe Housing, Safe
Services! PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR CONTACTS
To: BCPWA Group <BCPWAGroup at bcpwa.org>

FYI

*_____________________________________________________*

*Alexandra Regier*
*Director of Operations*
*BC Persons With AIDS Society (BCPWA)*
*1107 Seymour Street*
*Vancouver, BC  V6B 5S8*
*Tel: 604-893-2292*
*Fax: 604-893-2251*
*Email: alexr at bcpwa.org*
*www.bcpwa.org*

Begin forwarded message:

*From: *"WISH Drop In Centre" <wishdropincentre at telus.net>

*Date: *March 21, 2011 2:05:41 PM PDT

*To: *<Undisclosed-Recipient:;>

*Subject: Fw: No More Stolen Sisters: Safe Shelters, Safe Housing, Safe
Services! PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR CONTACTS*

*- this action requires your support, please read below on ways to do so,
including a sample letter to email in -*

No More Stolen Sisters:

Safe Shelters, Safe Housing, Safe Services!

--------------------------------------------------

Tuesday March 22 at 1:30 pm (ongoing - join when you can!) Gather at Main
and Hastings in the DTES for March AND Women's Action

--------------------------------------------------

"Come on, shit happens, look at Rwanda, look at Libya" - Margaret McNeil, BC
Housing when asked about BC Housing's role to ensure women's safety in their
shelters after numerous reports of sexual assaults at the First United
Church were made public.

For decades women have gone missing and been murdered from the Downtown
Eastside. Recently, it has come to light that women are being sexually
assaulted in shelters in the neighbourhood, but the response from service
providers and BC Housing has largely been muted. The silence and
normalization of violence and sexual assault against women in this community
is unacceptable. Women should be free from racialized, gendered, colonial
violence. As condos overrun this neighbourhood, women should not have to
"choose" between the indignity of homelessness and being warehoused in
shelters, and the high-risk of assault associated with both.

Women have a right to physical, mental, emotional, spiritual safety – this
includes more beds for women in shelters, a 24-hours women’s drop-in, and
housing for all women and children. BC Housing must act immediately.

Beatrice Starr, an Indigenous woman who stayed at the First United Church
Shelter for over 8 months says “All of us are someone’s mother or someone’s
daughter and deserve to be treated with respect. Warehousing hundreds of
people in a shelter is unacceptable; it is like residential schools. Also,
increasing police presence in the shelters only makes the problem worse
because mistrust of the police runs deep. Instead, all Downtown Eastside
residents should have adequate housing and access to safe services.”

“BC Housing and the City of Vancouver are responsible to ensure that safe
services are equally available to women in this community. Women should not
have to choose between the indignity of homelessness and violence within
publicly funded institutions” states Alice Kendall, Coordinator of the
Downtown Eastside Womens' Centre.

Background info: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6390 and

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6496

* WAYS TO SUPPORT:

1) We are requesting all DTES residents, women and women-identified groups,
DTES organizations, and friends to join us in a march AND women's action on
Tuesday March 22. Your presence is vital! Please bring any organizational
banners.

2) We are gathering at 1:30 pm at Main and Hastings. To find out where we
are during the day and evening please call Alice 778 322 4594 or Nassim

778 848 0722 or check on Harsha's twitter here
http://twitter.com/HarshaWalia

3) On Tuesday morning we are requesting everyone to please send an email
along the lines of the below to all of the following email addresses

Shayne Ramsey, CEO of BC Housing

sramsay at bchousing.org

Minister of Housing Rich Coleman

rich.coleman.mla at leg.bc.ca

Mayor Gregor Robertson

gregor.robertson at vancouver.ca

RE: Safe Housing and Safe Services for Women in the DTES

It has come to my attention that for the past two months a coalition of
women in the Downtown Eastside and women-serving organizations has been
raising the urgent issue of women's safety in shelters in the Downtown
Eastside. This comes in response to a number of reported sexual assaults at
a shelter in the Downtown Eastside.

I have been dismayed by the lack of response by all levels of government
about the ongoing violence committed against women in the Downtown Eastside.
Sexual assaults against women in this neighbourhood in particular are
normalized and their safety is not considered of highest priority as we have
seen with the ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered women. This would
never be acceptable in any other part of town.

This community of women has been calling for a 24 hours drop-in space and
shelter for women in the Downtown Eastside, as well as housing for homeless
women and children with at least 100 units to be made available immediately.
I would like to add my voice to that call.

Sincerely,

(NAME, ADDRESS, CONTACT INFO)

*Alice Kendall*

*Centre Coordinator*

*Downtown Eastside Women's Centre*

*302 Columbia Street*

*www.dewc.ca* <http://www.dewc.ca>

*(ph)  604-681-8480 x 223*

*(fx)   604-681-8470*

------------------------------

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