Cost overruns to slash social housing in Olympic Village
About 250 social housing units included as part of the Olympic Village project for the 2010 Winter Games may face the axe due to new cost overruns, according to a Vancouver city administrative report.
The cost of the affordable housing component of the project has risen to an estimated $110 million — a 70 per cent increase over the original budget of $65 million — says the report, released Monday night on the city's website.
Activists see red (and green) over housing shortage
Housing advocates staged an "art-in" yesterday at Little Mountain
Housing, a social-housing complex in Vancouver slated for demolition.
They were calling attention to the more than 200 livable homes they say could be used to ease the housing crunch.
About
100 artists and supporters gathered to paint colourful scenes of family
and domestic life on cardboard and post them on the boarded-up doors
and windows of 25 condemned buildings.
Downtown Eastside condo plan needs social housing
A controversial condominium development on Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside got the go-ahead from the city Monday night despite opposition
from many in the community.
The development permit board approved Concord Pacific's plan to
build a seven-storey building at 58 West Hastings with shops on the
ground level and 160 residential condos above.
The site is currently an empty lot just half-a-block from the
landmark Woodwards redevelopment project, which will provide some
social housing for low income residents,
Concord's plan for the new project does not include social housing,
and that angered citizens and activists who showed up at the meeting to
voice their concerns.
Appalling living conditions a form of passive ethnic cleansing
I saw houses with their roofs draped with cheap blue tarps. That's
because the roofs leak and the houses are condemned. At least five are
subject to seasonal flooding from the river. Peters last warned the
government they need immediate replacement a year ago.
In fact,
he tells me, he told the government that the In-SHUCK-ch are now four
generations behind in meeting infrastructure and service needs.
In-SHUCK-ch
population is projected to double by 2028. One study estimates $40
million in new residential housing is needed for Skatin and sister
communities at Samahquam and Douglas. Already there's a diaspora as
people leave in search of basic shelter.
Maybe we should start
calling this what it is, a kind of passive ethnic cleansing policy by
which people are forced off their traditional land not by direct action
but by permitting the basic living conditions to become untenable even
as they try to negotiate a treaty.
Controversial EcoDensity charter passes in Vancouver
Vancouver city councillors have approved the EcoDensity charter, but
many members of the public made it clear they are not yet on side.
Dozens of protesters turned up at city hall Tuesday wearing black
gags, arguing their views had been ignored, as council voted to pass
the new regulations.
EcoDensity is a set of principles that councillors say will allow
environmentally sustainable management of inevitable population growth
in the city.
But the name EcoDensity and the principle behind it have been controversial from the get-go.
Mayor Sam Sullivan stirred up controversy when he copyrighted the
name EcoDensity, and public hearings have drawn hundreds of speakers
and protesters concerned about the longterm effect the charter will
have on their neighbourhoods.
Development of Little Mountain Housing complex unlikely
A BC Housing spokesperson has confirmed that a phased development of
the Little Mountain Housing complex on Main Street, between 33rd and
37th avenues, probably won’t be possible.
“It’s something
we haven’t ruled out, but it’s unlikely that’s going to happen, because
the site has to be prepared for the whole redevelopment process,” Sam
Rainboth told the Georgia Straight by phone on May 2.
This
would mean that the remaining 50 or so residents who are hoping to stay
in the six-hectare property might have to move out before the 224
social-housing units are demolished.
Housing vigils grow across the province
The protests started with a group of neighbours taking a stand about
losing their 224-unit Little Mountain social housing complex in
Vancouver.
By March of this year, the demonstrations had grown to 15 "stands" on street corners.
Now
the stands - silent vigils to raise awareness of the twin problems of
dwindling affordable housing and rising homelessness caused by the
city's rocketing real estate prices - have mushroomed into a movement
that is spreading across B.C.
Activists take housing cause to UN
IA group of students and Downtown Eastside advocates is today
sending the United Nations a human rights complaint against the
government of Canada, protesting the lack of adequate housing in the
troubled community.
In the document, addressed to UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, the complainants argue
that the federal government has violated the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Canada is a signatory.
"The
federal, provincial and municipal governments in Canada are not
upholding basic human rights standards associated with the right to
adequate housing in Vancouver, British Columbia, leading up to the 2010
Olympic and Paralympic Games," reads the letter. It is signed by
representatives from Pivot Legal Society, the Carnegie Community Action
Project and the Impact on Communities Coalition.
