The rezoning for a 13-storey supportive-housing project in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood was rescinded on April 30.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
A controversial supportive-housing project that would have been the first of its kind in a west-side Vancouver neighbourhood is dead, after city council declined to keep fighting a lawsuit brought by residents challenging the legality of the rezoning.
The rezoning for the 129-unit, 13-storey project was rescinded April 30, after a consent order between the residents’ group and the city quashed a July 26, 2022, rezoning approval. The order was signed by B.C. Supreme Court Judge Alan Ross.
Mayor Ken Sim said the city has taken this step to find a better fit for both supportive-housing residents and the communities they’re in.
“In hindsight, this was probably not the best site for a supportive-housing project,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail Monday.
The city is negotiating with the province to find other sites, preferably two, where 40 to 60 residents per project who need supports for mental health, drug addiction or other issues could be housed.
“The smaller sites, we‘ve been trying to work with the province on them. We‘re hoping to see them respond.”
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says the city has stopped fighting a lawsuit brought by Kitsilano residents challenging the legality of the rezoning to find a better fit for both supportive-housing residents and the communities they’re in.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
It is a huge victory for the west-side residents who fiercely opposed the project, pouring time and considerable resources into fighting it. They say the project, a block from the new subway stop planned for Arbutus Street and Broadway, was completely inappropriate for the site – too big, too many troubled people in one place, across the street from a private Catholic elementary school, and near a women’s recovery house.
“It opens up a conversation with the city about that site,” said Cheryl Grant, a spokesperson with the Kitsilano Coalition for Children and Family Safety Society. “There‘s a lot of opportunity on that site for density, as well as a mix for seniors, families, that could maybe accommodate more people and be a match within the community.”
Mr. Sim didn’t say anything about the future of other applications for supportive housing, but there are seven major projects under construction in the Downtown Eastside. As well, another project in an east-side neighbourhood that was proposed and approved around the same time the Arbutus project debate was going on, is still on track.
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Although residents in the neighbourhood at 25th and Knight also protested that tower, a 12-storey, 90-unit proposal, their objections were more scattered, there wasn’t a school issue, and opponents were not as organized as the Kits resident group.
The city’s move is a huge blow for the province. David Eby, then housing minister and now Premier, advocated energetically for the project, which was in his riding.
The death of the project is the latest in a series of pushbacks for the province on supportive housing.
In Richmond, a 90-unit tower was paused after backlash emerged during the 2024 provincial election campaign. After the election, the province said it had looked at alternative sites but decided the original site was still the best one. Then Richmond council refused to approve a rezoning, saying BC Housing hadn’t provided enough information on the search for alternatives.
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Mr. Sim also announced last fall that Vancouver wouldn’t back any new supportive housing, unless it was a replacement, accusing other cities of not doing their share. Although many cities, including Surrey and Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland, have made big strides in providing supportive housing, as have dozens of cities through the B.C. Interior, Mr. Sim complained that Vancouver carries 77 per cent of the region’s supportive-housing units.
Vancouver Green Party councillor Pete Fry said he is concerned about what this means going forward.
“I have no confidence in any forward momentum from this mayor,” he said.
He said he believes Richmond council started backing away from support after Mr. Sim made his announcements last fall.
The momentum against the Kitsilano project was strong from the beginning. Although the neighbourhood, a historic hippie hangout, had seen much social housing built there, these tended to be less controversial and lower-impact projects – low-rise co-ops, seniors housing, the occasional women’s shelter. In the few projects done in recent years, the focus was again on low-rise and aimed at seniors or people with disabilities.
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The supportive-housing tower was a radically different type of project.
The Kitsilano Coalition launched two lawsuits over the proposal. In one, they argued the province had overstepped its authority by passing a law prohibiting lawsuits involving the project. They won that one in December, with a Supreme Court judge agreeing that the province had improperly taken over something the courts should decide.
The other lawsuit was about the legality of the public hearing. The coalition’s lawyers argued that the public had been improperly denied access to a memorandum of understanding between BC Housing and the city, which was constantly mentioned in the public hearing, but which the city said was not a public document.
The residents eventually got a copy of the MOU through a freedom of information request, which they say showed some important agreements that were different from what BC Housing and the city were saying publicly.