RSV Solutions Chairman/CEO Ron Frederiksen shares his analysis of Vancouver’s Safe Stay 3 temporary homeless shelter project
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The city of Vancouver is now under construction on the Safe Stay 3 temporary homeless shelter project on a downtown block that previously was home to the Children’s Center and New Heights Church. The site was purchased with private funds and the buildings were demolished a few years ago.
I have followed the discussion closely because I am deeply concerned about our growing homeless crisis and its many causes, consequences, and recovery pathways. I have contributed personally and professionally in many ways throughout my career to provide support to those who struggle. The property is also situated across the street from an office that served as my company’s headquarters for more than three decades.
After nearly a year of repeated requests to meet with decision-makers, City staff finally agreed to a meeting in August. I was prepared to share my professional suggestions for how the temporary project could be built less expensively and with a site plan that would be more acceptable to neighbors. City staff demonstrated virtually no interest in entertaining changes to their plan. That is their prerogative even though I was disappointed with their reluctance to receive suggestions.
Due to many requests, I am sharing a few observations about the project, with information from publicly available documents, construction industry standard practices and source documents from a forensic accountant.
Overall, it appears that the Safe Stay 3 project will cost about $4.1 million, with about $2.8 million for site management, and $1.3 million for construction, pallet shelters and related costs.
The contract for Safe Stay 3 ends December 2025. If the property opens in October 2023, then it can operate for just 27 months. With 20 separate pallet units planned, the overall cost of installing these facilities and site management exceeds $7,600 per unit per month.
Removing site management, the cost exceeds $2,400 per unit per month. This can be compared to current average apartment rents in Vancouver and Portland of about $1,750 a month.
When considering total costs, taxpayers could support five times the number of family units by simply renting apartments at market rate for those who are unsheltered. For my tax dollar, I prefer helping five times as many people who are in need.
One might question the practicality of this comparison given that our region and country are suffering from a shortage of apartment capacity. A significant chunk of the expenses for Safe Stay could incentivize the creation of more market rate housing rather than on creating and managing temporary sites.
Another alternative is to refocus Safe Stay funds to create large emergency relief centers where the homeless can receive the basic care and services they need. With about 600 unsheltered homeless in our city and county, and the numbers growing every year, I see no way we can get ahead of the crisis with the city’s intention of building just five Safe Stay projects, each limited to three years or less.
I appreciate city leaders having the courage to pursue new solutions despite the disastrous handling of the Navigation Center on Grand Avenue. So far, Safe Stays 1 and 2 appear to be on a much better path, and Safe Stay 3 probably will too. But Safe Stays are not the solution and costs are continuing to grow.
As a community we must find smarter solutions … and quickly.
Sincerely,
Ron Frederiksen
CEO, RSV Building Solutions
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A money pit !!! Take the total operating costs, divide it by the number of residents served, and see what the cost-per-head comes out to. Of all the money spent, just how many have actually transitioned off the street and into permanent housing? Betcha the cost of those few success stories is astronomical !!!
“If you build it, they will come”… Vancouver City hasn’t yet learned that you cannot spend your way out of homelessness. The more money and services provided, the more homeless there will be to gobble-up those monies and services.
Question: In years past, what served as the impetus for not living on the street? Answer: Fear of being hungry and cold come quickly to mind. Now, without having to worry about being hungry or cold, there is no reason to be responsible, get a job, and be a contributing member of society. It is far too easy to simply be a leech.
Instead of making it easier, Vancouver should be making it harder to participate in these high-cost programs. Start first by drug-testing every applicant; if you’re dirty then you get no assistance. When the druggies get cold enough and hungry enough, then they will either 1) figure it out and get clean, 2) get the snot beat out of them (or killed) in the commission of a crime, or 3) they will move on to someplace else where drug addicts are treated with open arms and with boat-loads of money… you know, like Vancouver is doing now. Either way, it’s a win-win for the honest tax-paying members of our community who have self-respect and a sense of responsibility.
As for me, I’m sick and tired of my tax money going to support drug addicts and the mentally ill via local, grass-root level programs in which the cost-per-head and cost-per-success-story is simply unsustainable. In the meantime, emergency services and road-maintenance crews and my kid’s local school all have to figure out a way to raise money because, they say, needed tax dollars are just not there.
Thanks, Ron, for your well presented article, and for your efforts toward providing Vancouver City viable options to the senseless spending on homelessness that is now in place. To hear that the City staff had deaf ears does not surprise me. We all know that Jamie Spinelli, the Vancouver City czar of homelessness (and her minions) have turned homelessness into a self-sustaining industry upon which her and her staff’s livelihoods depend. She and her staff don’t want to solve the problem. Their tax-payer funded paychecks and their tax-payer funded benefits depend on there being continued homelessness.
My only hope is that voters will remember all this when they next vote for mayor and city council positions. Obviously the current mayor and councilors are unable to rise to the task. Maybe it’s time for some “new blood” in Vancouver leadership since what is happening now is sure not working!
I concur with all of the points you presented and I would offer one more. The function of government is not to run a charitable organization at taxpayers expense, it is to collectively pay for services not financially feasible for individuals to fund ie police, fire, public health, education, infrastructure, etc. i don’t think it’s my place as a taxpayer to provide housing for anyone outside my family unless I choose to do so voluntarily not forcibly by government.
David and Susan, you are right over the target we need more individuals to speak up or the Government will fleece every dollar out of your paycheck. Society needs more productive folks not more leeches. The blight on the Community has definitely creeped across the river. Vancouver doesn’t want or need to become a mini me of Portland.