Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's proposed halt on new supportive housing units unless other municipalities contribute could have unintended consequences, according to housing experts. Critics argue the move contradicts the city's own strategy and risks concentrating the most vulnerable individuals in the Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim 's abrupt declaration that his city would put a pause on adding more supportive housing units unless other municipalities step up could backfire, say housing providers. Disorders and addictions have been struggling to maintain support for the model amid a rising tide of voter fatigue over the crises. Next week at council, the mayor is expected to move his motion to halt the creation of more supportive housing units.
Two members of his own party – councillors Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato – have objected and are bringing forward a motion to have a representative of the provincial government come to council to answer questions about the potential negative consequences of that move. In their motion, which will be discussed Feb. 26, the councillors noted that the mayor’s move goes against the city’s own recently approved strategy to improve the Downtown Eastside, which included a push for more supportive housing. The proposed freeze, they wrote, “appears to contradict those goals and suspend net new supportive housing construction” indefinitely.Housing experts say the long-term consequences of the mayor’s proposed moratorium could mean that, as the province builds new supportive housing units in other municipalities, increasingly militant local opposition will push B.C.’s housing agency into selecting tenants with the least amount of need. “They will cherry-pick the tenants who pay on time, who have the fewest number of guests. They know they can’t risk it being problematic,” said Janice Abbott, the former CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society, an organization that takes on some of the groups experiencing the worst hardships, like people coming straight from homeless encampments. “So that means the folks who have the most problems end up in the Downtown Eastside,” said Ms. Abbott, who now works as a housing consultant for several Indigenous groups. Supportive housing is a kind of subsidized housing intended for people who typically end up homeless and have become increasingly visible in places from Vancouver to Kelowna to Fort St. John in the past 20 years. In addition to staff working on site, supportive-housing complexes receive visits from health specialists and employment support workers. Last month, Mr. Sim received applause at a Save Our Streets conference of residents, businesses and organizations concerned about deteriorating public disorder when he announced his proposed moratorium, apparently without consulting the rest of his caucus. “This poverty-industrial complex has not only blocked local businesses from thriving but has also created conditions that degrade the health and well-being of our most vulnerable community members. Meanwhile, it has attracted predatory criminals, further compounding this neighbourhood’s challenges,” he told the crowd. The mayor’s proposal excludes projects already in the works. There are at least six projects with supportive-housing units under construction currently in the Downtown Eastside, along with two others elsewhere downtown. There are also 330 units in five projects awaiting development or building permits and the city has indicated they will go ahead. According to what the mayor has said, under his proposal, projects that are replacing current temporary housing – and therefore aren’t “net new” – wouldn’t be affected. Even before Mr. Sim’s declaration, the province had moved to fund or acquire many projects outside the Downtown Eastside or outside of Vancouver altogether. A recent news release said the NDP government has completed or started construction on more than 9,700 supportive homes throughout B.C. Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of housing, announced last week that his government will pursue a 90-unit project for Richmond, where there had been such a flare-up of community opposition before the provincial election last October that it was put on pause. The project is still generating opposition, with some protestors calling it a future “drug den” and a magnet for increased crime. As well, Richmond council withdrew its approval for the site this week, saying the ministry hadn’t been open enough about other sites it had considered and rejected. This, says councillor Dominato, is an example of why she doesn’t believe the mayor’s motion “is going to compel other municipalities to do more.” Ms. Abbott and others say the units, if they are eventually built, will likely house the most compliant and rule-abiding tenants that BC Housing can find. As well, it is likely to have more sufficient staffing than many supportive-housing projects have had in the past. Ms. Abbott noted that a new supportive-housing building that BC Housing is currently putting into operation – Chalmers Lodge, well outside downtown and in a comfortable neighbourhood near Vancouver General Hospital – has one of the highest levels of staffing she has seen in her decades-long time in non-profit housing. Until the early 1990s, the term “supportive housing” was little used in B.C
Supportive Housing Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim Housing Crisis Downtown Eastside BC Housing Municipal Politics
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