Call for Submissions: Pivot Launches Housing Solutions Contest

Vancouver - Pivot Legal Society announced today it will award $2,000 for the winning essay in a contest to find the best and most practical solutions to the housing crisis in Vancouver .

The top six papers, judged by a panel of professional developers, government planners, and academics, will be published by Pivot in a Special Report on Housing Solutions for the Downtown Eastside. The report will be presented at a public meeting to discuss solutions to the housing crisis in Vancouver in the Fall of 2007.

Winning 4,000-word research essays focusing on progressive international best practices on issues facing the Downtown Eastside, and policy proposals based on that research, will receive an Award for Policy Innovation.

"Homelessness is one of the most challenging issues facing today's Vancouver ," says SFU Professor, Nick Blomley, one of the panel judges. "These essays will hopefully allow us to think outside the box a little, and offer practical as well as innovative ideas and solutions."

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside provides low-income housing and a network of social services to more than 5,000 of the Vancouver’s poorest residents. However, the neighbourhood is facing rapid erosion of that housing as a result of development and gentrification pressures.

The housing solutions contest is looking specifically for policy proposals that:
- have been implemented and are successful in other jurisdictions;
- involve partnerships between government and developers; and,
- respect the needs of the existing low-income community in the area and do not displace, either directly or indirectly, that community.

The essay contest deadline is Monday April 30, 2007. For more information about the contest, visit http://www.pivotlegal.org/pdfs/PolicyInnovationAward.pdf

For more information call Pivot Legal Society on (604) 255-9700 or e-mail policy@pivotlegal.org.