Jim Green's Legacy to Social Housing
Jim Green (right) takes former UBC planning professor David Hulchanski on a tour of Four Sisters Co-op in 1989, one of Green's first affordable housing projects with the Downtown Eastside Residents Association. Photo: UBC Archives
In his decades-long trajectory from Downtown Eastside organizer to city politician, the late Vancouver Coun. Jim Green (1943-2012) is today credited with creating nearly 1,000 units of affordable and social housing in the city, in the midst of a growing housing crisis.
Through the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA), he and other advocates made the leap from street activism to apartment-building, and from co-ops and entirely below-market rental to controversial mixed-income partnerships with developers.
Over this series, the Tyee Solutions Society explores that legacy from the perspective of residents in the various models of housing he helped develop -- Four Sisters Co-op, Solheim Place and Woodward's Redevelopment -- through stories, photographs and film.
On Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m., City Coun. Geoff Meggs hosts a memorial retrospective event on Jim Green’s work, and panel discussion on Vancouver’s housing future, at the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W. Hastings St. Read more about the event here.
In This Series
At Four Sisters Co-op, an Affordable Housing Dream Realized
But can the late Jim Green's project survive rising rents? First in a new series.
'At My Age, All I Expect Is a Place to Live'
In Solheim Place, late councillor Jim Green helped create a Vancouver rarity. Second in a series.
Inside Woodward's, a Still-Contentious Social Housing Experiment
The late Jim Green's legacy project in Vancouver continues to generate buzz. Last in a series.
Event: Social Housing Experts Look from Legacy to Future
Expect feisty debate at this Vancouver event honouring late councillor Jim Green.
Undone: A Newcomer’s Story
Farid was happiest when jotting down plans for his new life in Canada. Within a year of arriving, he was dead. A special report.
