VANCOUVER – It was meant to be a discussion on how to solve homelessness in Vancouver. Instead, it turned into a shouting match as the Occupy Vancouver protesters heckled and interrupted the debate between mayor Gregor Robertson and mayoral opponent, the NPA’s Suzanne Anton.
It was clear from the get-go that the Occupy Vancouver protesters would not take any of the rehearsed answers from the candidates.
Before the debate event started, over a hundred protesters blocked the entrance to the St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church on Burrard and Nelson.
Through the debate, candidates were jeered and interrupted by Occupy Vancouver protesters who demanded real action. Debate moderators had to intervene on numerous occasions, asking the audience to let the candidates finish their arguments.
Brandishing signs that read “This debate is a scam” and “Empathy, not apathy,” the protesters demanded affordable housing, saying it is a right they we will fight for.
Occupy Vancouver had a visible presence in a church chockfull of attendees, including other candidates, media representatives, and local residents.
Some of the protesters called the debate format undemocratic and demanded to hear real answers.
“You talk too much, but you are not actually saying anything,” shouted one protester.
Meanwhile, VPD officers kept a watchful eye on the congregation both inside and outside the cathedral.
Despite the constant interruptions, the candidates did attempt to address the debate topic of homelessness.
When Anton and Robertson emerged, both were greeted by a mix of cheers and boos.
Anton started with reiterating her position on temporary shelters.
“Shelters are fine, but a person living in a shelter is a person without a home. It is not a solution. A shelter is not a home.” said Anton.
“For Gregor Roberson shelters are mission accomplished, for me it is not. For the NPA, it is not.”
She called Robertson out on making homelessness a Vancouver issue, saying it can’t be solved by the city’s taxpayers alone. Instead, Anton argued there is a need for a regional approach that would involve both provincial and federal government.
Robertson rebutted saying federal support is paramount, but they can’t just let people in immediate need stay on the streets.
“Desperate times require desperate measures,” said the mayor.
While B.C. government won’t be funding as many emergency shelters in Vancouver this winter, Robertson said he holds out hope the province will buckle under pressure again and provide emergency funding when cold weather strikes.
Anton said there would not be a need to beg the province for funding every year in the first place had all 14 social housing sites promised by Robertson’s team been built.
The mayor said progress has been made in the last three years, but it was not enough time to solve an issue as big as homelessness.
He reiterated the need for tenant protection, rental banks and accessibility to rental housing.
Robertson said relying on market to up the numbers of affordable housing units just does not do the trick.
“We need more creative solutions. We need to leverage the opportunities we have.”
Anton disagreed, saying market is building rental space at its own pace already.
She said the mayor’s push for more rental housing is not sustainable. She brought up the example of STIR projects, which is one of the city’s initiatives that waives development cost levies in return for more rental units.
“It’s give-away to developers. It is a complete waste of time and money,” said Anton.
Bu she drew the ire of protesters when she said she does not think more social housing should be built on the DTES while also saying there won’t be any homeless people on our streets by 2015, to which members of the audience shouted, “lies.”
The issue of Vancouver’s affordability also came up, with one panelist suggesting house prices in Vancouver are so outrageous, the city is on its way to becoming completely unaffordable for most people.
“We are in a real predicament. The market has driven up prices extraordinarily high. We are one of the most expensive cities in the world. That is a very difficult thing for us to grapple at the City Hall,” said Robertson.
He mentioned the progress made with the so-called laneway housing that allows homeowners to build a new house behind an existing property, as well the need to look into co-operative housing, which was an important supplier of affordable housing in Vancouver for decades.
Anton noted laneway housing was actually an NPA’s initiative, but despite success, there are still people without homes, and some of them are in shelters.
“Put them in empty condos,” yelled one protester, which naturally led to a question about the Olympic Village fiasco.
“The social housing in the Olympic Village has been cut back to almost nothing,” said Anton. “For your $110 million, there are about a hundred people living in low income housing in the Olympic Village. It is not a very good deal for the city.”
Robertson said hooking the taxpayers on a luxury development project was a “ghastly” mistake, but the market has rebounded, and there is no way to tell what the remaining units will sell for. To which Anton replied how much the city lost on the Olympic Village is kept a secret that only the mayor knows.
yuliya.talmazan@globalnews.ca
Twitter: @yulst
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