The City has a housing plan for the Downtown Eastside

But who is it good for?

City Council passed its gentrification plan on Tuesday, December 16, but that doesn’t mean they’ve won.

During the three days of this public hearing, we heard from over 300 incredible speakers — ALL OF THEM OPPOSED to the City’s plan!

And we will continue to fight until liberation.

What people are saying

Watch the beautiful and powerful comments from the community and allies

Public Hearing Day 1: Councillor questions start at 37 minutes and speakers start at 1:47

Public Hearing Day 2

Public Hearing Day 3

Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan wrote a letter to City Council to oppose their rezoning and gentrification plan and shared it on Facebook

CBC Radio’s On The Coast interviewed Carnegie Housing Project about alternatives to the plan

Other media covered our December 9 press conference and rally

The Tyee published an article by CHP volunteer Gilles Cyrene that describes the connections between housing and income inequality

Quick facts

City staff proposed a plan that would reduce these protections to:

  • Let developers build up to 32-storey rental towers in the DEOD and Thornton Park

  • Only 20% would need to be social housing in these areas

  • Only 20% of the social housing would need to rent to people on social assistance across the DTES

  • That means, in a new building, only 4% of the total units would actually need to be affordable for people on social assistance, when there are 6500 SROs that need replaced and 3500 residents with no-fixed-address.

The DTES Oppenheimer District (DEOD) currently has zoning protections that:

  • Keep out speculative condos

  • Require new rental buildings to be at least 60% social housing

  • Require social housing to rent 33% of units to people on social assistance across the DTES

They brought the proposal to the neighbourhood in May, and people weren’t happy.

Since then, staff made minor changes, including giving private developers massive subsidy and ownership rights as an incentive to build the social housing required. Here’s the referral report.

STAFF DID NOTHING TO ACTUALLY ADDRESS HOMELESSNESS.

What DTES residents actually want

The City’s consultation on their housing plan didn’t ask people what they actually think would improve the Downtown Eastside.

But you can’t propose to change the neighbourhood if there isn’t an understanding of what it’s currently like to live here.

So we went to community groups like Aboriginal Front Door Society and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, and many others, to ask them “What do you think would actually improve the DTES?”

Here’s what they said.

Plan with community leadership and residents before decision-making.

“Nothing about us without us.”

    • Prioritize deeply affordable, safe, secure, and dignified purpose-built housing — including independent shelter-rate, supportive, senior, culturally appropriate, and family housing.

    • Build housing without pushing people out of their community.

    • Speed up new housing on the Balmoral lot, the Regent, the Gore and Hastings Temple, and the Keefer Rooms before redeveloping occupied SROs. 

    • Enforce standards of maintenance in SROs and fund building repairs and pest control to make them livable in the decades that people will have to wait for new housing.

    • Provide air conditioned, universally accessible units that are at least 350 square feet and include a washroom and kitchen.

    • Include community spaces in housing like rec rooms, community kitchens, and gardens.

    • Improve public space with trees, shade, benches, waste bins, washrooms, and recreation.

    • Limit police involvement in the neighbourhood and support peer-to-peer restorative safety programs. 

    • Make safe spaces for drug use, a regulated supply, and detox and treatment on-demand. 

    • Increase work opportunities, education, and social assistance rates to at least $3,000 a month.

    • Legalize street vending for people, like seniors, who can’t access these currently.

    • Increase mental health support and peer outreach.

    • Maintain government and service provider transparency and accountability.

We need a plan that will:

  • House the approximately 3,500 people who are unhoused in Vancouver

  • Replace or repair 6,500 SRO units

  • Give people access to mental health care and drug user programs that are evidence-based

  • Improve public spaces like parks, sidewalks, and rec centres for community use

  • Create more education and jobs programs for people with barriers to employment

These crises aren’t unique to Vancouver, but it is an opportunity for Vancouver to lead meaningful solutions.

We’ve done it before.

Other ways to help

It’s going to take a city-wide effort to put pressure on council, so we’ll need a diversity of tactics. We’ll keep y’all up-to-date on what other groups are organizing, and new things that we’re working on. Here’s what we suggest now:

  1. Support other community struggles like campaigns by SaveChinatownYVR, who are also fighting against gentrification!

  2. Email your MLAs and MPs to push for senior government funding announcements for Vancouver non-market housing.

  3. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook or sign up for our newsletter!

  4. Reach out to us if your group wants to collaborate with us!

  5. Support the Carnegie Housing Project by donating or signing up as a volunteer

You are essential for this to work

Resources