Homeless

One of the surprising things I am learning about Vancouver B.C. is that only one third of the city dwellers here own the home or apartment in which they live. To a large degree, this has to do with rising cost of real estate. However, many of the conversations I have had with local people have led me to believe that there is more to the story. A person who has recently moved here from the United States shared how surprised she was by the number of Canadians who have no desire to ever own a home or property. “It’s just not a goal for a lot of the people I meet,” she said. Her observation was that Canadians were more likely to spend money on experiences than on real estate. Part of the story might also be that the Vancouverites who do own property are getting more and more stressed about the rising cost of everything related to homeownership and more and more burdened with debt. A pastor who serves a congregation in a relatively wealthy neighborhood of Vancouver told me that the tension level among his parishioners seems to be rising every year, even though the economy here is stronger than most other places in Canada. That tension seems to be contagious, especially when nervous landlords keep raising the rent in just about every place I have visited. Just down the street, a small business owner from China who has leased the same retail space for more than twenty five years told me that he may have to go out of business because of rising costs. The man from Kenya who has operated a restaurant just one block further down for sixteen years told me the same thing. Among those who are less stressed about all of this are the members of an emerging church in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Vancouver. Rather than seeking to own or rent any property, the people who make up “God’s House of Many Faces” gather for worship outdoors for most of the year. In the colder months, they meet in a nearby mission that has offered them space. In their ministry with neighborhood children, they often make use of a public courtyard in one of the local housing complexes. Yes, they have a multitude of problems to contend with, but real estate is not one of them. In my walk home from a visit with their pastor, it struck me that they are the first church community I have encountered that is literally homeless- by choice. Imagine that!