A community organization says a future modular housing site in Marpole has been vandalized with swastikas and racial slurs.
Community advocacy group Right Idea Wrong Location has been protesting the future site of modular housing for homeless people in the Marpole area since late October.
The organization says that some time on the morning of December 8, construction signs at the site were spray-painted with bright red swastikas. The graffiti also included racial slurs that the group described as having a “vicious, anti-Asian sentiment.”
Residents of the Marpole community have been left “anxious and afraid in their own homes” by the incident, according to a news release by the group.
The group has been in the spotlight for protesting the modular housing site, citing that it will negatively impact the safety of their children at nearby schools.
“Residents are growing increasingly frustrated by the negative rhetoric being hurled at their neighbourhood,” said the news release.
“More alarming and disheartening, is that one week has passed and the Mayor still has not publicly spoken out against this act of racism to ensure the safety and inclusion of all Vancouverites.”
The group said that in response to their concerns about the temporary modular housing site, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has referred to members of the Marpole community as “intolerant, heartless, cruel and ignorant”.
While construction signs at the site were vandalized, it was not apparent whether protest signs put up by Right Idea Wrong Location were also graffitied.
Global News has reached out to Vancouver Police to inquire if they’re investigating the incident.
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