Recently, CBG unveiled
its supportive housing expansion plans for 2013-14. The plans include proposed
acquisitions of at least two of the 100 privately-owned Single Room Occupancy
buildings left in Vancouver (SROs).
In
addition, CBG plans to purchase low-income units in new-construction market
housing projects in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) and make them
available as low-income rentals. The combined efforts could increase CBG's
low-income and supportive housing stock from 250 units to 500.
CBG
has learned that the DTES Not for Developers coalition is opposed to its
proposed partnership with developers in Vancouver. The coalition has singled
out the Sequel 138 project, a mixed market and low income housing initiative,
currently under-construction near Hastings and Main on the historical Pantages
Theatre site. According to the developers, the project will provide 79
entry-level condominiums, 18 low-income rental units, commercial rental units
and studio space for the arts. DTES Not for Developers states the claims Sequel
138 makes about low income housing benefits are exaggerated.
More
importantly, the coalition also believes that projects like Sequel 138 will
displace existing DTES residents and also take usable commercial space from
local artists and shopkeepers.
CBG
is not connected to the Sequel 138 project, but has proposed to partner with
similar, small-scale market housing developers. CBG partners will build market
housing units on empty lots in the DTES and sell 20% of the units to CBG to rent
as low-income housing.
Even
though the developers will offer the units to CBG for about 50% of fair market
value, the units won't cash flow for CBG because they will be rented for $375,
well below market rates. CBG will look for low interest or no interest loans to
make the projects work.
Gentrification
perceptions have polarized interest groups in the DTES. The City of Vancouver
has attempted to hear both the voices of developers and community groups but so
far an impasse still blocks development. The blockage exists, not because
developers can't get the City of Vancouver to approve their plans, but because
community agreement in a sensitive neighbourhood is far from being realized.
CBG
hopes to bring meaningful dialogue to the table by constructively stating its
position and also asking for a rebuttal from the DTES Not For Developers
coalition. CBG promises to publish the response in future CBG communications.
CBG
argues that core urban neighbourhoods can house persons of different economic
stratification because in emergent environments, like cities, the whole is
always greater than the sum of its parts. It is reductionist thinking to draw a
straight cause and effect line between the addition of upscale housing and the
elimination of low income housing.
Complexity
breeds life into old neighbourhoods. The only difference between a desert and a
forest is diversity. The sun's energy shines on both equally. A desert reflects
the sun's energy back from whence it same. A forest absorbs the energy and
shares it over and over.
Wealth
is coming to the DTES, like it or not. It is time to adapt, not to entrench. A
social housing desert is a bad option and will never be supported in Vancouver,
nor should it.
Canadians
of wealth and poverty can live side-by-side and both groups can benefit from
the experience. The question is, "Are the two sides willing to share a
community?"
In
some cases, gentrification is displacing DTES tenants. In 2012, CBG fought hard
to protect the Palace and Wonder Rooms from falling into the trap of SRO
gentrification; a practice of some developers to renovate SROs and then rent
units from $500 - $700 to young working persons and foreign students.
CBG
has worked with private investors to provide supportive housing in
privately-owned SROs since 2002. Bottom-up operational models meant supportive
housing could be provided through self-sufficiency and tenant ingenuity;
without expensive program funds from provincial health or housing resources
(CBG has been a beneficiary of some development funds from the federally-funded
Homelessness Partnering Strategy and Supportive Communities Partnership
Initiative since 2005).
CBG
has operated the Jubilee Rooms on Main (79 units) and The Dodson Rooms in
Hastings (71 units) within a block of the Sequel 138 project and a higher end
market initiative, the Koret Lofts, built by the same developer. Little has
changed in the Jubilee and Dodson since the opening of the Koret Lofts.
Both
the Jubilee and Dodson SRO buildings have been offered to CBG to operate as
supportive housing for persons of low-income, indefinitely. The buildings are
set to house persons of low-income for decades, even as persons of means are
moving into the neighbourhood.
I
sometimes wonder if the core of the argument is more political than practical.
Vulnerable persons who need housing are not disadvantaged when businesses and
charities team up. In true public/private partnerships, both sides should roll
up their sleeves and work for the greater good. CBG is not naïve to the fact
that the private and public efforts have not always born fruit in community
development, but neither is CBG cynical about partnering with community forces
for the benefit of all.
Government-funded
social housing has a strong purpose in the Canadian social fabric, but a community
without private housing chokes self-determination and resourcefulness. A social
housing ghetto also cuts low-income tenants off from the natural market
environments. The insistence by coalitions that governments should solve all
social housing problems could easily be seen more as a political statement than
a community development statement.
I
have lived in the SROs CBG operates in the DTES since 2002. The buildings were
purchased by wealthy Canadians for DTES residents suffering from generational
cycles of poverty. Over the years, the tenants have become my friends. Many
have lived in the buildings for 10, 15 years, and longer. For some, high
mortality rates and multiple illnesses prevent the possibility of meaningful
employment and create a palpable difference with other Canadians. However, in
many ways the low-income tenants I know are just everyday Canadians, who gladly
blend in with all types of income groups in Vancouver.
Before
I moved into an SRO, I had bought into the thinking that people living in poverty
are not proponents of widespread development. I will never forget a defining
moment in my attempt to understand more about the life and perspective of
tenants living in the DTES. The moment came over a year after I moved into the
Jubilee Rooms on Main in May, 2002.
I
moved into the Jubilee when I retired from 30 years of community development
work, mostly sponsored by church organizations. In my new life I didn't want to
be religious, I just wanted to listen to people living in isolation and
poverty. I wanted to understand their sorrows, but also their joys and
aspirations.
On
July 2, 2003, as many Canadians waited anxiously while the International
Olympic Committee prepared to announce the winning city for the 2010 Winter
Olympics, I sat on my bed in room 218 at the Jubilee, not at all mindful of the
imminent IOC decision. I was startled by a sudden collective cheer which erupted
on that hot summer’s day. The tenants were jubilant. Vancouver was the winner.
CBG
applauds DTES Not for Developers coalition for standing up for the housing
needs of persons affected by poverty. But CBG invites more action-based public
discourse focused on creative and diverse housing solutions for the most
vulnerable persons.
