This week many of you received a postcard announcement from the Kitsilano Coalition opposing a social housing project planned to rise just steps from Arbutus and Broadway, near the coming Arbutus subway station.

BC Housing, in conjunction with Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the City of Vancouver, plans to construct a 13-storey tower (equivalent to 18 storeys with new ceiling heights, according to the Coalition) on City-owned land, with 129 social housing units for those experiencing homelessness and mental health and addiction issues. Half of the dwellings will be offered at shelter rate ($375/month) and come with on-site and other support services for those making less than $15,000 a year; the other half will go to those able to live independently with annual incomes of less than $30,000.

The structure will be located on a full block face along Arbutus Street, between West 7th and West 8th Avenues, directly across from St. Augustine private elementary school in the west, Delamont Park to the north, and the coming Arbutus subway station to the south.

The provincial scheme is to build permanent, studio apartments outside the Downtown Eastside (DTES) for residents in the greatest need, to end reliance on SRO rooms — the default housing of last resort. This week, Council approved another 109-unit supportive housing project at the corner of King Edward and Knight Street. The goal is to build a total of five permanent modular supportive housing projects in the city.

There has been extensive and heated opposition to the supportive housing plan—mostly concentrated on the location and success of this type of mental health initiative. Parents with children attending St. Augustine school have raised several safety and shadowing concerns, and residents fear the proposal will dramatically change the atmosphere of their neighbourhood. The Kitsilano Coalition calls the plan “a recipe for failure and chaos.”

This week provincial Housing Minister David Eby said he was determined to make the project work despite local opposition. The public will have its say at the June 28 public hearing, and it will be up to Council to decide the outcome. The Arbutus project is the third item on the agenda; the meeting begins at 6 pm.

Julian Somers, an SFU professor and clinical psychologist who specializes in substance use, mental health, primary health care reform, and homelessness, has said high quality research has shown that housing large numbers of people with mental illness together provides markedly less success than if they were in “recovery-oriented housing”; that is, small groups of people dispersed throughout the city in places where they have a say in where and how they live. Somers told CKNW’s June 17 Jas Johal Show that there is currently a very strong bias to “congregate” people and less focus on their mental well-being and reintegration into society. “The challenge,” he said, “is to develop a willingness to shift away from a model that is clearly not working.