Kitsilano will soon be home to a new supportive and social housing project at 7^th to 8^th Avenues and Arbutus Street, located near the end of the Broadway subway line. The 13-storey tower—with new ceiling heights, the equivalent of 18 floors—will provide 129 single-occupancy units for people who are homeless or at risk of losing their homes.

City Council approved the proposal this week in an 8-3 vote, with Councillors Melissa De Genova, Sarah Kirby Yung and Colleen Hardwick in opposition.

A partnership between BC Housing, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and the City of Vancouver, the proposal was one of the most contentious items brought to Council during its four-year term, with multiple nights of public hearings (one lasting until midnight) stretching over six days, as well as pressure from then-housing minister David Eby to approve the project. Council heard from approximately 300 speakers and received more than 1,500 written public comments in opposition to the project, and 540 in support.

You can read a summary of the issue here, from the Daily Hive.

The well-organized group that fought for a different housing model, the Kitsilano Coalition, issued this statement in response to Council’s vote. Karen Finnan, a spokesperson for the Kits Coalition, had this to say:

“We are appalled that Council would vote to entrench a failed model of supportive housing that will have the effect of freezing housing policy for the 60-year life of the modular towers that BC Housing seeks to build across Vancouver. The Councillors who voted in support of the rezoning simply did not have the courage to fight alongside the Coalition for the most vulnerable members of our city, instead dooming them to being warehoused in stigmatizing towers of steel boxes under a harm reduction model that will perpetuate the life issues that residents need to overcome to reintegrate into society.”

Over the last four years, Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s Council has increasingly ignored the wishes of neighbourhoods. From the Streamlining Rental Plan to the Broadway and Vancouver Plans, the majority of Council has rejected neighbourhood concerns in favour of TransLink and big development projects.

With the coming civic election, UKRA would like to hear your top concerns for our neighbourhood, and for Vancouver at large.

For example, you may be concerned what new land use changes in the Vancouver Plan mean for our neighbourhood; or, you might be interested to learn  how the next Council will deal with homelessness in our city. Do you think building more housing will bring rents down? Is Vancouver as safe as Mayor Stewart suggests?

Tell us what you would like to see in our fall election coverage. What questions would you like us to ask the candidates?

We invite you to send your comments to our contact page.  

 UKRA wishes everyone a restful, fun, and safe summer!