The City of Burnaby has wrapped up the second phase of its community plan for Metrotown.
Between Nov. 22, 2016 and Feb. 1, staff gathered public feedback on a draft of the Metrotown Downtown Plan, which seeks to establish Metrotown as Burnaby’s downtown.
The last phase will have staff compile a final document, to be presented to council sometime in March for approval.
But one housing advocacy group hopes to sway the final decision.
Alliance Against Displacement, who oppose “demovictions” and say the construction of new condo towers will evict up to 6,000 low-income people, met last week to create an alternate plan, one they called the People’s Plan for Metrotown. The idea is to present it to council before it greenlights the community plan.
Some 35 community members attended the brainstorming session.
“(They) were deeply concerned and troubled by the demovictions that are happening and afraid of being displaced,” said the organization’s Dave Diewert. “We had residents there from the Silver (Avenue) buildings, who received these unofficial eviction notices.”
Under the city’s tenant assistance plan, adopted in 2015, developers must give tenants three months’ notice and three months’ rental compensation, as well as offer interested tenants units in the new development or other housing managed by the applicant.
But Diewert said that’s not happening for some who moved in after the city approved the developer’s rezoning application.
“So (they’re saying), ‘We’re only paying you one month compensation,” he said. “We think it violates the spirit of the tenant assistance plan. A lot of people in those buildings are feeling the pressure to leave now. The management company is pushing them out.”
Part of the People’s Plan for Metrotown would ensure that “no one gets thrown out.”
Another guiding principal, according to Diewert, is that people should feel included and have a sense of belonging.
It’s also important that housing is secure and affordable, he said.
“There is a downtown, which is downtown Vancouver, if you have all kinds of wealth. But if you’re going to turn Metrotown into a downtown, turn it into a people’s downtown for ordinary, working-class folks.”
The group came to the consensus the people’s plan can’t let the real estate market determine housing needs; rather, a variety of subsidized non-market housing – co-ops, housing for seniors, to name a few – is needed.
Diewert said this will require all levels of government to work together, including the City of Burnaby.
“We’re trying to insert a different discourse and open up our imaginations to something where a community can thrive and flourish, and not be pushed around and pushed out by these market forces. I can’t imagine them (the city) being convinced by any of this,” he added. “It’ll all seem dreamy and unrealistic. But as long as we’re going to stay within the realm of what’s realistic, within a market-dominated housing situation, then people will always be displaced.”
Mayor Derek Corrigan agreed with Diewert on his point that governments need to collaborate more. He didn’t shy away from pointing fingers at the province and the feds for not being at the table.
“We can’t expect that your average property owner will subsidize rental housing in our community, but we do expect the federal and provincial governments, who have access to a broad range of taxes will achieve that kind of subsidization,” Corrigan told the NOW. “Anytime you let your infrastructure go for a protractive period of time, making up the ground is very expensive.”
The mayor cited the province’s decision to spend $470 million on a construction camp for Site C employees.
“The reality of the provincial government having no hesitation in committing $470 million to provide temporary housing, free, for workers, ... but claiming it has no money for housing in the Lower Mainland, it’s absurd,” he said.
Kennedy Stewart, NDP MP for Burnaby South, criticized the federal Liberal government for not following through on establishing a national housing strategy.
Stewart said he’s visited Metrotown buildings slated for demolition to see how he can help those being displaced.
“I view housing as a right and have been fighting for more federal investment in housing since being elected in 2011,” he wrote in an email to NOW. “I also make sure those with housing difficulty are receiving the maximum federal aid available; for example, making sure they get the maximum pension money or access disability tax credits. I find what is happening in Burnaby deeply alarming and doing everything I can to make sure the federal government gets back into the housing game.”
A request for comment to Kathy Corrigan's office, the NDP MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake, has not yet been returned.
