World Homeless Day today

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Thousands of people in Metro Vancouver are living without a roof over their heads. With World Homeless Day today, governments and organizations are putting the issue in the spot light and trying to change things for the better for those in need.

News1130 spoke with one Vancouver man who is homeless and hangs around the Fairview area. Craig collects empty bottles and cashes them in to buy meals. He makes enough to pay for a single room in the Downtown Eastside but chooses not to because he doesn't like the poor and nasty conditions.

"There are drug addicts, cockroaches, bed bugs, mice...if you don't mind being eaten alive by bed bugs, okay fine live there," says Craig.

He doesn't think social housing is any better and thinks the main problem with homelessness is the rising cost of housing.

"How it all started was that stupid Olympics. I was living in the West End and the hotel that we were in just before February, everybody got evicted," explains Craig.

"The hotels and things like that the government actually has taken over downtown, well, they're just as bad as any of the other ones, so there's really no difference in it...People can't afford Vancouver, everybody is in the same boat so it's like people are getting pushed to the suburbs, go to New West, go to Burnaby, places that are a little more affordable for rent."

He says politicians talk about how they're making improvements but from his experience he doesn't think that's really the case. "They say one thing but in reality they do different things," adds Craig.

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World Homeless Day today