About a dozen people gathered at Edmonds Street and Kingsway Tuesday afternoon to draw attention to the looming threat of demo-victions in the neighbourhood.
The lunch-hour rally was organized by members of ACORN’s Burnaby chapter – the same group that has been at odds with Burnaby city council over the loss of affordable rental units in Metrotown in exchange for new highrise developments.
“Not a single citizen spoke for those rezonings to highrises, and the city still went ahead (with the rezoning),” Murray Martin, a member of Burnaby ACORN, told the NOW.
The local chapter hopes Wednesday’s pre-emptive event will encourage city council and developers to consider renters and low-income residents when considering development in Highgate.
“We really see the city as not representing renters’ interests,” Martin said, adding that Mayor Derek Corrigan is fighting Kinder Morgan on behalf of homeowners along the proposed pipeline route but has allowed low-rise after low-rise to be demolished and replaced with unaffordable highrises.
Evidence of new development in the area is obvious. The Value Village that stood at the corner of Edmonds Street and Kingsway for years is now closed, in its place is a showroom office for what will one day be Kings Crossing, a new three-tower mixed-use development.
Highgate resident Jackie Lafoley has lived in the same low-rise rental apartment for 20 years and fears that developers will soon be eyeing hers and other buildings in the area as potential sites for new highrises.
“I get the feeling that it’s only a matter of time, and they’re going to buy it out and it’ll be priced out of my range,” she said.
Martin suggested Burnaby look to neighbouring municipalities like New Westminster, which has a rental housing policy, when it comes to protecting low-rise rental buildings, or Vancouver’s own rent bank that helps renters with payments in emergencies.
