More on the Little Mountain agreement, from the perspective of tenants and advocates.

This out about an hour ago and my story here.

BCHOUSING LITTLE MOUNTAIN

For those interested, this is the invitation going around locally:

So glad there are all these energetic young reporters covering night meetings, so we can learn this.

Knock me over with a feather.

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

2012PREM0131-001630

Oct. 23, 2012 Office of the Premier

Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Minister Responsible for Housing

City of Vancouver

Four New Temporary Cold-weather Shelters in Vancouver

VANCOUVER – The B.C. government and the City of Vancouver will open four additional temporary winter shelters in Vancouver to meet the needs of those living on the streets during the cold and wet weather season.

“This agreement with the City represents our mutual commitment to help end street homelessness in our cities,” said Premier Christy Clark. “These accommodations will go a long way towards getting people off the streets and into more permanent housing. This will allow us to connect people with the support services they need so they can begin making positive changes in their lives.”

These shelters will provide over 160 spaces for the homeless between the end of November 2012 and May 2013. Raincity Housing and Support Society will operate and provide supports at the shelters and link people to housing and community based support services.

“Shelter is the single most urgent need for citizens who are homeless during the cold and wet months of winter, especially for those who live with disabilities, addiction or mental health challenges,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “This initiative will help more people in need connect with crucial support services and begin a journey out of homelessness. These new shelter spaces reflect our firm conviction that no one should ever be forced to sleep on the street and our commitment to ending street homelessness by 2015.”

The Province will provide up to $1.6 million in funding to operate the shelter spaces and the City will identify and provide the sites.

The B.C. government has also agreed to make funding available for 100 transition housing spaces in Vancouver that will operate for approximately 18 months while the balance of the 14 new supportive housing developments are completed. Seven of the developments are currently open. The remainder are under construction or in development. The City will provide the sites for the transition spaces.

There are 638 permanent, year-round shelter beds and approximately 200 temporary year-round HEAT shelter beds in Vancouver.

For the last three years, the government of B.C. has opened approximately 160 additional 24/7 shelter spaces in the city for the cold winter months in addition to Extreme Weather Response spaces that are available when an extreme weather alert is activated by the community. The B.C. government spends close to $24 million annually to fund services for Vancouver’s homeless. This includes permanent and temporary shelters as well as homeless outreach.

Quick Facts:

* Since launching the provincial housing strategy, Housing Matters BC, in 2006 more than 12,000 people have been helped to move off the streets and into permanent housing.

* Last fiscal year, approximately $80 million was provided to ensure that emergency shelters are available in communities throughout B.C. This includes permanent, year-round shelter beds as well as extreme weather and temporary shelter spaces.

* There are now more than 1,600 permanent year-round shelter beds in 33 communities – almost double the approximately 880 that existed in 2001.

* Funding increases since 2007 mean that most shelters are now open 24/7 – people no longer have to line up at night – they can remain safe and stable while being connected to community services including more permanent forms of housing. Ninety-five per cent of shelters also provide three meals a day.

* During the cold winter months, the B.C. government funds additional shelter spaces to ensure everyone has access to a safe, warm place at night. This past winter, more than 1,300 spaces were identified in 35 communities across British Columbia through our Extreme Weather Response program. The extreme weather shelter spaces are activated when an Extreme Weather Alert is issued the community.

Answered to the fullest of my current time and ability on City Plumber, over there.

With mayors uncertain yesterday whether to delay any decision about cancelling a two-year property-tax increase for TransLink or to go through with cancelling it instantly, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson swooped in with what’s being called a compromise motion.

The motion, which got enough votes to pass thanks to co-operation from Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, warns the province that if its officials don’t sit down with TransLink and work out a long-term deal by Feb. 28, 2012, the mayors will cancel the property tax.

But the motion also says they’re going to cancel it no matter what. So I’m not sure exactly how this puts Transportation Minister Mary Polak’s feet to the fire, except to keep the issue at a full boil until just weeks before the election. But since NDP Leader Adrian Dix has declined, despite much prodding, to say what the NDP’s plan for TransLink funding is, hard to see how this is much of a wedge issue.

Anyway, there is probably some deep political strategy here that I’m totally missing. In the meantime, Robertson’s full motion is attached below here.

[Read more →]

My story in this week’s Globe isn’t really focused on the point in my headline, but it is the change of most interest to those watching the plans for the airport mall. (Locals already know about the airport-mall plans from stories by me and others around Vancouver. This version was recast to explain it all to non-Vancouver audiences.)

I did also talk an official with MacArthur Glen in London to find out more about why the company chose Vancouver for its first-ever airport mall. His answer might provide some small comfort to those worried about the city turning into a resort community, because, as it turns out, being a resort community has its small upside. One of the company founders has a second or third or tenth home here and he noticed the ad from the Vancouver Airport Authority asking for development pitches for the land.

If only all our other visitors could bring us some business now.

As my Globe story today says, the project at public hearing tonight from Wall Financial represents the city’s new solution to creating social housing.

Wall Financial is proposing a building at 955 East Hastings that consists of two floors of industrial space in the old Alex Gair building, and 352 condos, of which 70 will be turned over to the city.

Vancouver used to demand that developers reserve 20 per cent of their land for social housing in mega-projects, with the idea that money from provincial and federal housing budgets would provide the construction dollars for whatever building eventually went up. That money has disappeared. The feds ended their funding of basic social housing in 1994. The province is now concentrating only on social housing for people with the most serious disabilities. It has put money into Downtown Eastside residential hotels and 14 new buildings around the city. There’s no more for low-cost housing for just regular people who happen to not earn very much money.

The city is now focused on trying to extract units from developers as the benefit in various new projects in order to build up the pool of housing stock that can be rented out, some with a deep subsidy (so renting at welfare rates), a shallow subsidy (for working people who don’t have very high incomes) and at market rates. That’s the model that used to be used for social housing in all buildings, until the recent focus on only the poorest of the poor by the province.

That means less money available for other things the city used to use its cut of developer profits for. But the Vision council has decided this is the priority for the moment.

As I write, it’s 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 16 and the hearing on this project hasn’t started yet. There’s a raft of speakers set to speak, but I can’t imagine we’ll see council get through many of them tonight. So decision to come much later.

I’ve been wondering if anyone cared about the plans to raze the corner of 16th and Arbutus, home for decades to the Ridge Theatre and theVarsity Ridge Bowling Centre.

It got sold to Cressey Developments in June 2011 for $15,584,701, in a move that surprised some, since it seemed as though the theatre and bowling alley were safe when Meinhardt’s grocery store signed a 25-year lease a few years before. But Meinhardt’s shut down under strange circumstances, and owner Sondra Green (who had bought the property in 1971, as far as I can tell) sold it shortly after to Cressey, which promptly announced plans for condos.

It’s been hard to get anyone at council interested in this issue. I’ve asked about it a couple of times and always been told there’s “nothing we can do.” Given the lack of apparent community concern, it seemed as though there were only a few nostalgia cranks who took an interest in this.

I guess I and others were wrong on this, to judge from the letter below that I received yesterday.

Dear Mayor Robertson and Councillors:

On the evening of October 9 I attended the meeting of the Development Permit Board at City Hall from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on behalf of the Kitsilano Arbutus Residents Association (KARA) where I sit on the Steering Committee for the Arbutus Ridge development.  Along with many others I was registered to speak to the Arbutus Ridge Cressey Developments application on behalf of KARA, to raise my concerns about the impact of the project on our neighbourhood, both in terms of the flaws of the building and the process by which it arrived at the Development Permit Board for approval on October 9.

In doing so I received the extraordinary gift of an education I would like to share with you.

As the Vancouver Sun, CTV, Global Television and other media outlets reported, about 50 bowlers from age 10 to people in their 80s walked from the bowling alley at 15th and Arbutus several kilometres to City Hall.  There they were joined by about 30 others who could not walk that distance, including several in wheelchairs, who had come by bus or were driven by others.  The audience included the legally blind accompanied by guide dog, and others who were developmentally and physically challenged.  A 93 year old bowler was sitting in front of me.  Some were so physically challenged they had to almost crawl up City Hall steps, but were determined to be there.

[Read more →]