Mayor Gregor Robertson vowed Tuesday to expedite the rezoning and development process for a lot at 58 West Hastings
STEPHANIE IP
The Vancouver Sun
Standing on the steps of the Downtown Eastside’s Carnegie Centre, Mayor Gregor Robertson vowed Tuesday to expedite the rezoning and development process for a lot at 58 West Hastings, in a bid to bring more social housing to the impoverished neighbourhood.
“We’ve come to an agreement to make sure that the 58 West Hastings site is 100 per cent social housing,” said Robertson to cheers.
Mayor Gregor Robertson poses for photographs after he speaks outside of Carnegie Centre. Mark van Manen / PNG
He added that the city would continue to push the B.C. government as well, in hopes of raising shelter rates and seeking a province-wide promise to end homelessness. Robertson also promised that the city would “crank up” the single-room occupancy task force to “crack down on the slumlords.”
“So we’re going to keep focused, working with the community, to make sure this site and many others around the city are focused for the most vulnerable people, who can only afford welfare rates, and that’s going to be a big piece of our work in the weeks ahead.”
The promise came following a one-and-a-half hour-long meeting between Robertson and members of the DTES community and housing advocates Tuesday, in which the two sides hammered out details on how to proceed with the Hastings lot, where a tent city of about 50 people have been camped since early July. At the meeting’s end, Robertson and other advocates appeared outside Carnegie Centre to share the agreement that had been established.
On a large sheet of poster paper, a mock contract had been drawn up, promising that the city would work with local community to put forward a rezoning application to city council by the end of June 2017. Robertson’s signature flourished the bottom of the contract, above a blank labelled ‘Mayor Robertson’ and dated Tuesday.
Organizers asked that media not attend the meeting with the mayor, which was scheduled for 3 p.m., but did speak with media afterward at Carnegie Centre to share what was discussed.
Yuly Chan with the Chinatown Action Group was among those in the meeting, noting that being able to unite different groups from various backgrounds on a central issue was key to the meeting’s success.
“I think today was a very positive development for the struggles that Downtown Eastside residents have been facing for a very long time,” she said.
“I think it was very encouraging to see his (Robertson’s) commitment to building social housing here at 58 West Hastings, and like I said, that’s definitely the first step – it’s not the end – and we will continue to push for more but we’re encouraged by his willingness and we will continue to ask for more because this wasn’t enough.”
Chan said it’s important to note that 58 West Hastings represents “just one fight out of many” for social housing in Vancouver, citing the displacement taking place in Chinatown where low-income Chinese seniors are being pushed out by gentrification and development.
Tuesday’s meeting, coordinated by members of the Our Homes Can’t Wait campaign, is the second meeting Robertson has attended to discuss the encampment on Hastings Street.
The lot is city-owned property, bookended by the Portland Hotel and the Grand Union Pub. The site currently hosts a community garden, operated by the Portland Hotel Society, but had previously been empty since a demolition in 2008.
In 2010, the lot was also the site of an Olympic Village protest camp, in hopes of drawing attention to the growing homeless population during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Dozens of homeless and local housing advocates remained on-site until early March 2010, following the end of the Olympics.
At the time, the lot was owned by developer Concord Pacific. The developer later returned the land to the city as a community amenity contribution, in exchange for the rezoning of another Concord property elsewhere in the city.
Earlier this year, local advocates staged a paint-in at the site, splashing their dreams and visions of what the lot should be on the walls of the adjacent buildings. Participants at the time spoke of what they hoped would be 100 per cent welfare- and pension-rate housing built on the lot, with one-third housing Chinese seniors, one-third housing Indigenous people, and the final third for DTES residents who are currently homeless or live in single-room occupancy hotels.
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