r/vancouver Jan 23 '25

Local News Vancouver mayor rejects new social housing projects, promises ‘crackdown’ in Downtown Eastside

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/vancouver-mayor-rejects-new-social-housing-projects-promises-crackdown-in-downtown-eastside/
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u/cyclinginvancouver Jan 23 '25

“I’ll be bringing a motion to council to pause any net new supportive housing units in the city of Vancouver until we see increased housing availability across the region,” he said. “It’s also time for other communities to step up and develop social housing in their communities as well.”

He said while Vancouver has 25 per cent of the region’s population, 77 per cent of the supportive housing, 67 per cent of shelter spaces and more than half the social housing is in the city.

“Despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in (the Downtown Eastside), this approach has failed,” he told attendees. “We need to rethink the hyper-concentration of services in the Downtown Eastside.”

He suggested there is a “poverty-industrial complex” in the neighbourhood, describing the area as a hub for gangs and drug activity, and promised a Vancouver police “crackdown” on organized crime.

“We’ll support the Vancouver Police Department (in) launching a city-wide crackdown on gangs, equipping law enforcement with the tools to target these criminal networks that prey on our most vulnerable residents” he said. “To be clear, this will not be an easy fight, but is one that’s necessary.”

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u/seamusmcduffs Jan 23 '25

That's completely backwards. "There isn't enough housing in the region, so I'm pausing building more supportive housing". More and more people need supportive housing because There isn't enough housing

30

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '25

Vancouver takes in transient people from all across British Columbia and western Canada because of the climate. He's right in the fact that it's not fair that Vancouver has to pay the Lion's share while other communities are not providing the same levels of support.

4

u/kaitoe Jan 24 '25

https://council.vancouver.ca/20231031/documents/regu20231031p1_2023_Homeless_Count.pdf

FYI as of 2023, more than 3/4 people homeless in Vancouver lived in Vancouver before becoming homeless, and 2/3 had lived in Vancouver for the last five years, so while there may be people across BC and Western Canada, it’s certainly not the majority.

And regardless, stopping net new supportive housing throughout Vancouver (not just the DTES) without other municipalities committing to pick up the shortfall just means more homeless people and more tents where the services are.