Is there evidence of increased crime rates in communities with supported housing?
In 25 years of experience with supported housing in Vancouver, there is no evidence that there has been an increase in crime in areas around these buildings. There are 16 apartment buildings outside the Downtown Core ranging in size from 9 to 34 units that are located in apartment zoned residential neighbourhoods. A review of the complaints filed with the City’s Licenses and Inspection Department and Vancouver Police Department show few calls have been made by neighbours of supportive housing projects. In fact, the calls that have been received are often calls about activities near the address but unrelated to the tenants in the supported housing. This may be due to the presence of housing support staff, who call to report suspicious activity near the supported housing sites. There are numbers of studies that have looked at the impacts of housing on neighbourhoods in other jurisdictions. This topic was addressed in the literature review done by CARMHA (Centre for Applied Research in Me
