The apartment where Teresa Alfred and her cat Frankie live is facing redevelopment part of Vancouver's Broadway Plan, which some tenants say does not protect all tenants and is not proving to increase affordable housing.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Tenants won a small victory this month at a hearing over one of several recent rezonings along Vancouver’s central east-west Broadway corridor.
Tenant Teresa Alfeld knew going into the hearing for her building at 1270 West 11th Ave. and the building next door, 1290 West 11th Ave., that the developer’s application for a 155-unit tower would get approved, and they would lose the battle to save their homes.
The tower is one of an estimated 550 towers that the city is proposing will ultimately be built in the area as part of a sweeping plan to house 64,000 people. Current tenants who face displacement have been speaking out at council hearings, arguing against a policy that they say does not protect all tenants and is not proving to increase affordable housing. Others have concerns about the disruption to their lives caused by displacement, the reduction in living space they will be offered in the new buildings and additional traffic on established bike routes.
Ms. Alfeld held out hope that the council might hear their concerns about their landlord not following the requirements of the city’s Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy (TRPP). Lack of transparency and communication from the developer-owner had been ongoing, tenants said. Six of the 30 tenant households in their two buildings wouldn’t be eligible for any protections at all, and a couple of tenants had already moved out. Tenant Christopher Boyd said the council should consider mental-health issues around precarious housing.
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Council voted in favour of the rezoning, but in an unusual twist, they approved an amendment that would require city staff to check with tenants to ensure the developer had met all conditions under the TRPP, before the city would issue a building permit. Green Party councillor Pete Fry introduced the motion because of the outpouring of tenant grievances.
“It was justifiable because, to date, we haven’t had tenants describe the failure of the process to the extent we heard and the developer for this project was unknown to us,” Mr. Fry said in an e-mail.
All councillors voted in favour of the amendment except for ABC councillor Brian Montague.
“I think our jaws were on the floor that this motion actually passed,” said Ms. Alfeld.
“It’s a huge win, because what it means is that we now have a modicum of, dare I say leverage, and some power,” said Ms. Alfeld. “Now, we’ve codified the responsibility of the city to actually listen to us and include our voice when deciding whether or not the developer is fulfilling obligations, and whether or not they have the privilege of kicking us out of the building.
“The city says it’s not precedent-setting. But I would certainly suggest to anyone up for a public hearing on their building that they should refer to this.”
One of three heritage houses on East 10th Ave., in Vancouver which are slated to be removed to make way for a 138-unit, 17-storey tower.Kerry Gold/The Globe and Mail
The rezoning was approved the same week another Broadway Plan rezoning was approved, at 469 to 483 East 10th Ave. That one involved the assembly of three detached houses to make way for a 138-unit, 17-storey tower by a developer who’s already been approved for a tower a block to the east. There are nine rental units in the three houses on the leafy street.
On a tree, tenants have taped a sign asking others to show their support for them, while they “show the reality of Broadway Plan demovictions,” and promise, “we will fight this displacement every step of the way.”
Next door, another assembly is underway for an 18-storey tower, which would replace several large heritage houses with rental tenants.
Mr. Fry said he will push to make his amendment a permanent part of the TRPP policy, so that it applies to other apartment buildings within the Broadway Plan area. But he knows that move would likely face greater opposition. The TRPP gets reviewed later this year or early next year.
“I don’t know to what extent other councillors will support tenant consultation as a permanent policy. [I’m] speculating here, but I think there is a lot of pressure from ‘the industry’ to remove barriers and red tape in order to build. So anything that adds more rigour to the TRPP might be objectional,” he said in the e-mail.
A bigger battle for tenants and housing advocates is perhaps the number of below-market units the new rental towers will deliver. City policy typically requires 20 per cent of the floor area of a new project to be set at rents that are 20 per cent below the city-wide average. Out of 155 units to be built on West 11th Avenue, only 30 would provide below-market rents – the same number as the existing rental units. But housing advocates say the city should be doing more than simply keeping the number of affordable units at current levels.
On a tree near 469- to 483 East 10th Ave., tenants have taped a sign asking others to show their support for them.Kerry Gold/The Globe and Mail
Frustration over the failure to increase affordable housing amid a housing crisis was echoed a few blocks east, just outside the Broadway Plan, at the Broadway and Commercial Safeway site. Last month, the council approved the developer’s vision for a three-tower, mixed-use rental housing development, which had undergone several design revisions over the years, each one bigger than the last. Despite the size, none of the 1,044 rentals will be at below-market rates. Only 10 per cent will be secured at the city-wide market average rent. Housing advocates fear that this departure from the city policy will set a precedent for future projects.
“What really bugs me is the city could have required the developer to come up with a better below-market component, like a 20 per cent discount off average city-wide rent,” said Paisley Woodward, co-ordinator for No Megatowers at Safeway. The group wrote to Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon and asked him to intervene but did not get a direct response.
“I think, overall, there will be more and more awareness amongst the public about the financialization of the housing industry in Canada and how our policies have tilted this in favour of the investor and got in the way of real affordability,” said Ms. Woodward.
Former city planner Sandy James said current city policies aren’t designed to generate affordable housing or deliver density in context. She cites a calculation by former city planner Ralph Segal, who said it would take 140 new rental towers just to make up for the loss of one-quarter of existing affordable rentals within the Broadway Plan.
“We have simply lost all control of zoning, which means there is no likelihood of anything being built if it’s all going at the highest possible density and height,” she said. “There is no incentive to build anything mid-rise or townhouse with this kind of zoning. It just stalls the whole market.”
She said the Broadway Plan should have been delivered in stages, with a focus on existing and future transit stations, and an emphasis on four to six-storey buildings instead of out-of-scale highrises.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the council approved a three-tower, mixed-use rental housing development plan earlier this month. The approval occurred last month.