Fearing it would hurt the poor, demonstrators want proposed development quashed
VANCOUVER -- Housing activists made a last-ditch effort to derail a Downtown Eastside condominium project at a city hall hearing yesterday, claiming the development would fuel "class hatred" and make it more difficult for low-income people who live in the neighbourhood to obtain decent housing and services.
"We need some indication that there is a future for poor people in this neighbourhood - otherwise these condos are a slap in the face," Carnegie Community Action Project spokeswoman Wendy Pedersen said yesterday at a development permit board meeting.
Ms. Pedersen and other activists attended the meeting to register their objections to the 160-unit Greenwich condominium project, which developer Concord Pacific has proposed for a downtown site at 58 West Hastings St.
The area is now dominated by single-room accommodation hotels and the rough edges of Vancouver's drug trade.
Ms. Pedersen asked board members to consider the possible clash between prospective condo dwellers and area residents, many of whom signed a petition against the development.
"Will they like our needle exchange and safe-injection site?" she asked. "Will they need a cheap grocery store?"
City staff have recommended the project go ahead under several conditions, including tweaks to the building's blocky exterior. The project fits zoning requirements and revitalization guidelines that call for a mix of housing types in the neighbourhood, staff said.
The project is also consistent with the Downtown Eastside Housing Plan. That 2005 plan calls for a low-income community, a supply of low-income housing and a growing supply - possibly double over 10 years - of market housing.
The Carnegie Community Action Project has called for a development slowdown as a result of the flurry of new condominium projects in the neighbourhood.
Activists say the city needs to do more to preserve low-income housing in the face of rising property values and an eastward push by developers.
This week, city council is scheduled to discuss the Columbia Hotel, an early-1900s property that houses nearly 30 long-term tenants.
The hotel changed hands in late 2004 and its new owners have come under fire from community activists for refusing to rent rooms on a monthly basis. The owners want permission to renovate the hotel by installing bathrooms in most of the rooms - something that will increase the quality of the accommodation, "but likely lead to rent increases and lower the affordability of the units," says a city report that will be presented to council this week.
The conversion would result in 70 upgraded single-room accommodation units and the loss of one. In their report, city staff recommended the conversion be allowed with conditions, including a tenant-relocation plan and a five-year requirement that units be rented monthly. The city has asked the hotel's owners for a tenant-relocation plan, but one has yet to be provided.
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