3,200 units mostly geared to the poor will be built over the next four to five years
Frances Bula
Sun
Vancouver‘s housing director says a social-housing construction boom is under way in the city that hasn’t been seen since the years just before B.C.’s housing program was cut in 2001.
“We haven’t had this level of production since the late ’90s,” said Cameron Gray, as he contemplated stretching his staff to deal with 12 new housing sites that were officially put on a fast-track process last week by the city and province.
Gray said city staff will be going flat out as they try to ensure six of those sites, with 600 units among them, have buildings ready for occupation by mid-2010. That’s at the same time as 2,000 other units are already at different stages in the pre-construction phase and as the other six, more complex sites are going through the fast-track process.
“The chances of getting [the first six sites] built by the Olympics is going to be tough, so it’s more likely the summer of 2010,” said Gray. He wasn’t sure when the next six sites might be completed.
But ultimately, it means that 3,200 new social-housing units will be coming on stream in the next four to five years. That’s such a change of direction for the B.C. Liberal government that hardly anyone outside the busy city planning department and B.C. Housing can believe it.
NDP housing critic David Chudnovsky dismissed last week’s announcement about the fast-track agreement as another “housing announcement with no housing,” since the provincial government officially announced only the money for pre-construction design and planning.
And David Eby, a Pivot Legal Society lawyer, said it’s sometimes difficult to believe the money will actually be there when it comes time to build the sites.
“We’ve been hearing rumours of major funding announcements for months, and then it has never come through.” But if it turns out to be true, it’s wonderful news, said Eby.
“And what’s crossed my mind is that this is a significant reversal of housing policy.”
Housing Minister Rich Coleman confirmed the province will proceed directly to construction on all 12 sites as soon as they are through the city’s processes.
“Our intention is to amortize these projects and get them done. We can do that through our borrowing capacity,” said Coleman.
Gray said the first six sites likely to get to the construction stage are the ones in the Downtown South, International Village, 16th and Dunbar, Seventh and Fir and Expo Boulevard.
The current 3,200 units in production will have one-third to one-half of the units dedicated to people who need support services. Almost all of it will be geared to the poorest — people who have incomes of $25,000 or less. And the units will be small.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
