Homelessness and Poverty

Poverty in British Columbia is becoming a persistant black mark against our province. For the past six years, all years of BC Liberal governance, British Columbia has ranked as the province with the highest child poverty rates in Canada. Furthermore, in the city of Burnaby where I so happily reside, 29.2% of all children live in poverty. This is heartbreaking on so many levels and needs to be rectified immediately.
There are so many things that can be done, at local, provincial and national levels of government, and even just by regular people reaching out and lending a hand.
Local governments can pitch in by raising awareness of the issues within the city, and re-zoning buildings to be used for social housing or emergency shelters for those who need help getting back on their feet.
Provincial Government; this is the time to start building up social housing in major cities and in every other city in your provinces. We've all been given an influx of cash from the stimulus package, use this money to construct low cost housing for the most vulnerable in society instead of things that can't help allieviate a problem that the United Nations now calls a national emergency.
The Federal Government need to start putting together a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem in a systematic, uniform method that all the provinces can work with. Canada is now the only industrialized nation without a national plan, and it shows in the statistics regarding our poverty levels.
The three levels of government have to start working together to solve this problem, because its not going to solve itself, and these are lives that are being ruined in poverty instead of contributing to society.
For individuals who want to get involved, stick with non-profit organizations, there are charity groups in every city and town just desperate for more volunteers to help feed those in need. Especially since this is now getting into winter, any kind of donation to charitable organizations is welcome, or even a donation of money if you don't have non-perishable food or warm clothes to donate.
The only societies that have poverty are those that allow poverty to exist. Together as citizens and as government organizations, we can work together and defeat poverty in our lifetimes.