Vancouver city council was forced to briefly cancel its scheduled Tuesday meeting, after protesters upset with the city’s plans for social housing at 58 West Hastings St. blockaded city hall.
Demonstrators with the Our Homes Can’t Wait coalition and the Chinatown Concern Group set up outside city hall ahead of the morning meeting “in an effort to shut down the office’s activity for the entirety of May 1 2018,” according to spokesperson Martin Steward.
LISTEN: Protesters shut down Vancouver City Hall
City councillors gathered outside, before moving into another city building to discuss prescheduled in-camera agenda. The city initially said the meeting would be called off completely and council would reconvene on Wednesday.
City Hall reopened after protesters thinned out, and around councillors returned around 2 p.m.
“We need to look at our process for being open and transparent and reaching people,” said Coun. Melissa de Genova in response to the protest.
“Especially people in the Downtown Eastside or other vulnerable communities that might not be able to come up to city hall and have open, transparent consultation with us.”
Social housing concerns
At the heart of the demonstration is the future of 58 W. Hastings, the site of a high-profile 2016 homeless tent city.
The encampment was shut down in Nov., 2016 over health and safety hazards — but not before Mayor Gregor Robertson met housing activists and signed a pledge to convert it to “100 per cent welfare/ pension rate community controlled social housing.”
Plans for social housing at that site are now moving forward: the city is proposing a 10-storey tower with 231 units of social housing.
However, while all of those units will meet the city’s technical definition of “social housing,” just one-third will be held at the welfare/shelter rate of $375 per month.
“There’s not enough affordable housing for people of all incomes, but people who suffer the most are on welfare and pension and are very vulnerable living on the Downtown Eastside,” said coalition spokesperson Beverly Ho.
“Right now people are spending most of their money, their income or welfare, on rent and they don’t have enough for transportation let alone food and other necessities.”
The Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency (VAHA) has estimated the cost of turning 58 W. Hastings into 100 per cent welfare and pension-rate housing would be approximately $75 million.
However, back in 2016, Robertson appeared to suggest it was a real possibility.
“That building could be as many as 300 homes in it,” Robertson said at the time.
“We’re going to be putting pressure on the B.C. and federal government to commit to making sure that all of those rooms can be at shelter welfare rates.”
The City of Vancouver says despite the protests, Crossroads at Broadway and Cambie and the Service Centre at Cambie and 10th Avenue have reopened.
It says it has also made plans for city hall staff to work at alternative locations.
Residents who need help with city business are being asked to call 311, or check the City of Vancouver’s Twitter or Facebook page for updates.
-With files from Janet Brown and Michelle Morton
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