In this episode of Policy Crimes, hosts Tristan Markle and Lina Moskaleva talk with longtime anti-poverty organizer and former Vancouver City Councillor Jean Swanson about how Canada went from homelessness being rare in the 1970s to the crisis we see today.

Jean explains how governments once built tens of thousands of social housing units each year, and how cuts in the 1990s to both housing and welfare standards dismantled the safety net that kept people housed. She also describes how “poor-bashing” became a political tool to justify these cuts, and why today’s “affordable” and even “social” housing often isn’t affordable to people on welfare, disability, or seniors’ pensions.

Drawing on 50 years of work in the Downtown Eastside, Jean talks about winning SRO vacancy control, how cities struggle with the costs of homelessness, and why governments could coordinate to end homelessness if they wanted to. She also shares what she thinks needs to happen next, including building 10,000 units of truly affordable housing in Vancouver.

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Guest: Jean Swanson is a longtime anti-poverty organizer in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She is a former City Councillor and former National Coordinator of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO). She is the author of Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion and continues to organize with the Carnegie Housing Project.

Articles referenced:

• An open letter to housing minister Gregor Robertson - Jean Swanson, The Georgia Straight (2025)
• Vancouver Needs Vacancy Controls - Jean Swanson, The Tyee (2023)
• Mansion tax for top one-per-cent property owners would be fairer for the rest of us - Jean Swanson, The Vancouver Sun (2022)
• Full rent control key to saving Vancouver’s last-resort housing - Jean Swanson, The Vancouver Sun (2020)
• A National Housing Strategy to Maintain Homelessness for Decades to Come - Jean Swanson & Sara Sagaii, The Tyee (2017)
• The federal government’s housing strategy is failing Vancouver’s most vulnerable - Jean Swanson, The Georgia Straight (2017)

Vancouver City Council documents referenced:

• Asking for a Change to the Vancouver Charter to Allow the City to Levy a Progressive Property Tax - Vancouver City Council Members’ Motion (2022)
• City funds allocated to Downloaded services - Memo to Vancouver City Council (2021)
• Decriminalizing Poverty and Supporting Community-led Safety Initiatives - Vancouver City Council Members’ Motion (2020)
• Slowing the loss of the last low income SROs in Vancouver - Vancouver City Council Members’ Motion (2019)

Production:

• Producers: Tristan Markle and Lina Moskaleva
• Sound and original music: Matthew Hayter, matthewhaytermusic.com
• This podcast is a project of The Publication Cooperative
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