The Anti-Poverty Committee and their supporters have launched a housing campaign to force all levels of government to deal with the growing homelessness crisis in Vancouver. Over the past month, APC has set up two squats to demand that the Vancouver city council buy one empty single room occupancy hotel a year as promised in the city's Homeless Action Plan (in PDF). The first squat was set up in a empty hotel in the Downtown Eastside that has sat empty since the city shut it down in 1999. After the police evicted the squatters, APC and some supporters opened a second squat in a city-owned apartment building across from City Hall. The tenants of this building were evicted over the last year to make way for the new Canada Line Station. APC wanted to open this building as an emergency shelter for homeless women but the city sent the riot police in to evict the squatters after one night. Read an article in the Tyee about the squats and the city's reaction, "Homeless Activists Scoring Points".