If there is one thing Ive concluded in my years of writing stories about the Downtown Eastside, its that people can never reach a consensus on housing issues in that community.
People never seem to be happy.
And so it goes: Build more single-room-occupancy hotels, renovate more hotels, knock down the hotels, those hotels arent homes, open more shelters, shelters are not homes, gentrify the Downtown Eastside, dont gentrify the Downtown Eastside, build more housing, make sure its social housing, weve got enough social housing, etc.
Which brings me to Tuesdays council meeting.
There they were again your elected officials arguing about the need for more housing in the Downtown Eastside and how best to provide it. The debate proved too much for some spectators, with one man yelling out bullshit a few times.
At issue was a proposal for a new 12-storey development at 955 East Hastings St., which is right across the street from Ray-Cam Community Centre, the hub of that neighbourhood for residents, many of whom have little money.
The 352-unit building will include 70 units for so-called social housing, with one-third rented at welfare rates. The project also includes what city staff describe as industrial flex space for production, distribution and repair businesses.
Mayor Gregor Robertson and his seven Vision Vancouver councillors voted in favour of the project while NPA councillors Elizabeth Ball and George Affleck and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr voted against.
Before I get to some reasons for and against, you should know that a committee of residents who either live or work in the Downtown Eastside have weighed in on the project being developed by Wall Financial Corporation.
Some of those committee members spoke to council at the public hearing for the project.
As minutes of the hearing show, 14 people including Joji Kumagai of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, Scott Clark of Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society and Jeffrey Boon of Eastside Cultural Crawl told council to go ahead with the project.
Another 22 people, including Michael Clague, the co-chair of the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Process, Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project and Harold Lavender of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association spoke in opposition to the project.
Supporters say the development brings more housing, detractors worry about gentrification of the neighbourhood and increases to rents. Both arguments were recognized by Carr, who wanted council to defer approval of the project until the Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan Committee reached a decision on it.
We need to get it right, we need to support grassroots democracy, Carr told council. We need to recognize [the committee] is split on this and that we heard different points of view from that committee and I believe our decision will have a negative impact on the very committee itself and I dont think we can afford to make that mistake.
Vision councillors Raymond Louie, Tim Stevenson and Kerry Jang argued that the project is creating housing where there was none before. Jang said he would not vote against housing.
We have people in our city who need housing, he said.
But Carr and even the mayor, who said the province and feds have to do more spoke to the concerns about gentrification.
I think there are some real justified concerns around the potential impact of this project and gentrification as weve seen around the Downtown Eastside, Robertson said. Certainly, there have been steps made by this council to address and proactively protect the low income housing we have.
The project still has to go before the citys development permit board.
Dont expect consensus in the gallery.
Twitter: @Howellings
