Critics are pushing back on Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s proposal to remake the Downtown Eastside by decentralizing services and freezing any new supportive housing.
Sim laid out the plan Thursday at a public safety forum, saying he will amend the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Plan to promote a mix of housing, businesses and services, while decentralizing social services that are concentrated in the neighbourhood.
The mayor said the supportive housing freeze would give the city a chance to fix up its deteriorating existing housing stock while pressuring neighbouring municipalities to do their part.
“I think it belies lack of comprehension from the mayor on what’s really going on down here,” said Vancouver Green city councillor Pete Fry, calling the move “incredibly troubling.”
“It certainly won’t help decentralize some of the concentration that the mayor talks about because if we are saying no more (supportive housing) in the City of Vancouver then really all we are leaving is a further concentration in the Downtown Eastside.”
Supportive housing, Fry added, doesn’t just refer to the stereotype of low-barrier social housing for people with addictions or mental health problems.
“We are also talking about seniors housing, we are talking about people with disabilities, we are talking about recovery housing, those are all forms of supportive housing,” he said.
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The local business improvement association was also cool to the mayor’s proposal on Friday.
Hastings Crossing BIA executive director Landon Hoyt told Global News supportive housing facilities in the neighbourhood tended to be the ones with the fewest problems.
He said the BIA gets the majority of its calls related to safety or cleaning from the private single-room occupancy or “slum-oriented” buildings in the neighbourhood.
“We were pretty shocked and a bit concerned with the announcement,” he said.
“Supportive housing is something this neighbourhood actually needs more of because that’s the kind of housing that provides access to services, clinical care, food, that sort of thing that people really need to prevent them from falling into homelessness in the first place.”
Hoyt said he agreed with the need to spread social and supportive housing out across the city and the Metro Vancouver region in general.
But he said in the absence of commitments from other neighbourhoods or municipalities to accept housing, banning it in Vancouver will only do harm.
“We have how many, 4,000 people who are homeless now on the street … throughout the region? So reducing services or supportive housing in one area of the city is not the right answer,” he said.
In making his announcement, Sim said said 77 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s supportive services were located in Vancouver, which has about 25 per cent of the region’s population.
He attributed some of the Downtown Eastside’s woes to its “cycle of hyper-concentrated social services” and said the neighbourhood would be better served by integrating it into the rest of the city.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said he has yet to speak with Sim to get details on what exactly the plan entails.
The mayor has yet to offer any specific details about how services should be revamped in the city, or how new construction would be paused.
Sim’s office said he was not available for an interview on Friday, but said more details would be made public in the coming weeks.
The mayor’s plan comes as the city kicks off a byelection for two seats on council. Voters will go to the polls on April 5.
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