How Many Condos?

DERA meeting on Historic Area Height Review – April 27, 2009
Written by Jean Swanson, Carnegie Community Action Project (604) 729-2380
The first thing I want to say is that Wendy and I and Andy, our planner at CCAP, were horrified when we saw the city’s Heritage Area Height Review (HAHR) documents.  We have told the planners [...]

What does “affordable” housing mean and who is “low income”?

Prepared by Jean Swanson, CCAP, Jan, 2009 – Contact 604-839-0379
When talking about what kind of housing we need in the Downtown Eastside, many people say we need housing that is affordable to low income people, or to the working poor.  But we don’t have an agreed upon definition of who these people are or what [...]

DTES residents and groups respond to VPD business plan changes

Speakers from the Downtown Eastside Women Centre Power to Women Group, DTES Neighbourhood House, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Carnegie Community Action Project, as well as lawyers David Eby and Douglas King of Pivot spoke on the issue at a news conference at Pigeon Park.
The changes to the police plan include removal of the [...]

City Council gets a titch tougher on hotels

Kurt from Neighbourhood Helpers tells council about how nothing was done about complaints he made about his hotel.

Streams of Justice “quests” for new social housing

Here’s the report that Dave Diewert wrote following the Streams of Justice action in March to draw attention to the need to fund social housing at 12 city-owned sites below. Just after this action, the Province announced funding for 4 out of 12 sites (1338 Seymour, 188 E 1st, 3212 Dunbar and 525 Abbott). [...]

A Small Mountain Town Fights Gentrification

Robert William Sandford lives in a small town in the Rocky Mountains. Long-time residents of his town are being forced out of the community because wealthy people are buying houses and condos there, and it is becoming too expensive for local people to live in their own homes. Sandford was so distressed [...]

Housing budgets not much help to DTES

Sometimes people say, “I don’t pay any attention to politics. It doesn’t affect me.” Well, if you are a person who needs decent housing politics does affect you, a lot.
One of the most important things that governments do is decide how much money to rake in each year and [...]