After 32 years living in Little Mountain Housing in Vancouver, Sammy Chan gets around his home easily despite being legally blind. He's one of a few hold-outs yet to leave the publicly owned housing which is slated for redevelopment.
“I'm not an animal,” said Chan, who was among a group of current and former residents of Little Mountain that visited the B.C. Legislature today.
Property managers with B.C. Housing have been putting boards over windows in preparation for demolition, making it even more difficult for Chan to see, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant NDP MLA Jenny Kwan explained. The evictions have happened despite doubt the project will proceed, she said.
“In the midst of a housing, homelessness crisis we have 200 units sitting empty,” Kwan said.
The Tyee reported in July 2007 on the gamble the provincial government was making with the redevelopment of Little Mountain. The plan was to replace 224 units of public housing with some 2,000 condos built by a private partner and to use sales to fund another 1,200 housing units.
“The project is either dead or severely delayed. Either way the damage is done,” said Kwan. “Does [housing minister Rich Coleman] honestly believe in today's market he's going to build and sell up to 2,000 high-end units?”
During question period Coleman said the Little Mountain units have problems including asbestos, underground oil tanks and lead-based paint. “We made the decision that we could use this property by densifying it and actually building 224 new homes for the people that live there so that they can come back to a new home,” he said.
Current resident Ingrid Steenhuisen and former resident Tommy Thomson insisted the housing units are solid and Chan and other residents should not have been disrupted or displaced.
“This was a stable place for children to live,” said Thomson.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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Raphael Alexander
3 years ago
What happens to the
What happens to the low-income residents during the renovations of public housing? My guess is the streets.
DPL
3 years ago
The big Goof Colman in the
The big Goof Colman in the house today said that all the people will be shipped to otehr places with the provicne picking up the moving costs out and back. He kept talking about the present building having asbestos, insufficient romm to operate a wheel chair. He did it each time Jenny asked the question. I tend to believe her rather than Coleman. The development will take a long time to get built.
csilva
3 years ago
Uninformed commenters
... really need to check the details. Don't "guess" if the residents hit the streets. If Raphael knows that people have been bailed to the street, prove it. I doubt that BC Housing would be that callous. The Little Mtn Housing is old housing stock and it would be best to replace it.
While I agree that Coleman is a hack, and should come up with better ways to answer different questions from the Opposition. That's very frustrating to watch.
But I digress. Back to Little Mtn. There's a good place to redevelop. I went to high school off 12th and Main and always thought that area is a great place to be and not that far from everything. How the powers that be dealt with the issue leaves much to be desired. Here's hoping that Vision Vancouver mandates 20% of social housing everywhere and if the Little Mountain redevelopment returns better housing and more of it to the neighbourhood, so much the better.
That being said, don't disparage the folks at BC Housing. It's not easy to relocate everyone into housing nearby in this rental market. Of course there's going to be empty units! Putting people back into empty, cold units won't help matters. In an emergency, perhaps, but for long-term residency. Could you live next to a full-on construction zone for 3 years while better housing was built next door?
Wilfred Laurier
3 years ago
Little Mountain Residents
The residents at Little Mountain have been relocated to other BC Housing sites. The housing is old, substandard and not a good use of the land.
krocster
3 years ago
There are lots of details of
There are lots of details of the project and relocation at littlemountain.ca. I live in the neighborhood and welcome the redevelopement. The existing residences are old, war era buildings. I'm sure the maintenance and heating costs are huge. The land use is also very poor, with density well below the rest of the area. I'm looking forward to a new development with a mix of market and subsidized housing, along with supporting retail and community facilities. I applaud the move toward profitable (yes, I used that dirty word, profit) development that includes subsidized accommodation and a move away from the institutional, segregated model that has existed in the past. Subsidized housing can be nearly self financing if coupled with market housing and retail, instead of highly subsidized, inefficient projects like the old Little Mountain project. Get the old residents out, and get on with the project.
sailorkris
3 years ago
Safety
Safe home all over BC have "asbestos, underground oil tanks and lead-based paint.". As long as these are not disturbed or leaking and are properly marked - there is no safety problem. coleman is just reading from his queue cards.