Speakers list for Arbutus and 8th social housing, June and July 2022

An epic battle in Kitsilano

The rezoning for social housing at Arbutus and 8th was approved 8-3 on July 26, 2022, with Colleen Hardwick, Melissa De Genova, and Sarah Kirby-Yung voting No. This is a 13-storey building, close to a new SkyTrain station, with 130 studio apartments, half low-income and half shelter-rate, fully funded by BC Housing (estimated cost $64 million).

This was an epic battle: 300 people signed up to speak to council (more than for the Broadway Plan), and it took five days to hear them all. This was in sharp contrast to the similar social housing project at King Edward and Knight, in East Van: approved 9-0 on June 14, with Colleen Hardwick and Melissa De Genova absent. BC Housing. Daily Hive. Globe and Mail.

A couple months later, in October 2022, opponents of the project filed a lawsuit seeking to have the rezoning approval overturned, blocking the project from proceeding. Last month the provincial government brought in legislation to allow the project to move forward, in response to a request from the city.

I think the same reasoning applies as for the social housing on Grandview near Nanaimo:

To me, there's two main reasons for the city to approve this rezoning. One, the province is putting up the money to build and to operate the housing, which is tens of millions of dollars that the city doesn't have to pay. Two, when social housing doesn't get built, the people who would have lived there don't disappear - they end up living in parks and on the street, which seems like it's worse for everyone.

The operation of the social housing (who lives there and how well it runs) is the responsibility of the provincial government via BC Housing - BC Housing is paying the operator. If there's big issues with the way the building runs after it's built, the appropriate level of government to lean on is the provincial government. It's the role of the local MLA to communicate people's concerns to the province and push for an effective response.

I think the key issues to focus on are:

• Tenant selection. You don't want to have too many of the hardest-to-house in one place, as opposed to people who are just unable to afford housing because it's so expensive and their incomes are low. (I've heard that this was the big issue with Marguerite Ford Apartments, which has 147 apartments - the city wanted to get homeless people off the streets before the 2010 Olympics and so they put way too many of the hardest-to-house in one place.)

• Tenant safety, which will depend on how effective the operator is at enforcing their own rules. From talking to someone who used to live in the temporary modular housing in Marpole, I think if there's issues with security and safety (e.g. people who are intoxicated, yelling, and aggressive), it's going to affect the tenants themselves first.

• Complex-care housing, which is more institutional and thus more suited to people who are hard to house. The province announced this back in January 2022. The more complex-care housing there is, the less likely it is that you'll get a lot of hard-to-house people in social-housing buildings like this one. So it'd be good to push the province to follow through. David Eby is also considering expansion of involuntary treatment for mental health and drug addiction.

Direct links to each speaker are included below.

Tuesday June 28.

• 1:53:07 Staff presentation

• 2:23:19 Council questions

• 3:35:46 William Azaroff, Brightside (support)

• 3:37:32 Laura Wilkie (oppose)

• 3:43:05 Mahtab Laghaei, Women Transforming Cities (support)

• 3:48:31 Serena Eagland, Kitsilano for Inclusivity (support)

• 3:51:10 Brian Palmquist (oppose)

• 3:58:57 Karen Finnan, Kitsilano Coalition (oppose)

• 4:13:29 Stephen Bohus (oppose)

Wednesday June 29.

• 0:15:49 Michael O’Shaughnessy (support)

• 0:20:21 Colin Sharp (support)

• 0:22:00 Sandra Oh (oppose)

• 0:28:12 Lisa Bellissomo (oppose)

• 0:33:58 Bree Graham (support)

• 0:36:02 Jill Atkey, BC Non-Profit Housing Association (support)

• 1:09:48 Tracey Reimer (oppose)

• 1:19:21 James Cooper (oppose)

• 1:33:00 Lindsay Murphy (support)

• 1:37:13 Rebecca Cleary (oppose)

• 1:42:58 Christina Doyle (oppose)

• 1:59:09 Catherine Tan (oppose)

• 2:02:15 Sean Patrick Finnan (oppose)

• 2:09:05 Tanner David (support)

• 2:18:38 Serena Jackson, OneCity (support)

• 2:21:38 Clara Prager, Women Transforming Cities (support)

• 2:27:01 Erin Larocque (support)

• 2:31:42 Scott de Lange Boom (support)

• 2:34:33 Catherine Chupps (support)

• 2:38:58 Scott Ell (oppose)

• 2:45:21 Lacey Beck reading an anonymous letter (oppose)

• 2:55:22 Pam Rosengren (oppose)

• 3:03:48 Jonathan Ma (oppose)

• 3:17:44 Owen Brady (support)

• 3:22:28 Catherine Oberendorf (oppose)

• 3:31:28 Shannon DeVries (oppose)

• 3:36:51 Michelle Simek (oppose)

• 3:42:18 Jennifer Bradshaw, Abundant Housing Vancouver (support)

• 3:45:30 Daniel Lesnov (oppose)

• 3:50:02 Nessa Finney (oppose)

Thursday June 30.

• 0:08:26 David Chudnovsky (support)

• 0:13:03 Bill Tieleman, TEAM (oppose)

• 0:19:34 Dragana Bajalovic (oppose)

• 0:24:50 Tim Matheson (oppose)

• 0:34:26 Monica Agala (oppose)

• 0:38:02 Zoe Mabry (support)

• 0:43:42 Raul Martinez (oppose)

• 0:49:03 Andrea Berisolmo (oppose)

• 0:57:30 Agustin Marachal (oppose)

• 1:04:39 Margarita Vasquez (oppose)

• 1:09:19 Mary Elizabeth Burke (oppose)

• 1:17:08 Jacinta Lawton (oppose)

• 1:23:39 Dharmesh Mekwana (oppose)

• 1:30:54 Sheila Vizzi (oppose)

• 1:34:55 Erica Picardo (oppose)

• 1:38:19 Gustavo Marin (oppose)

• 1:47:01 Charlene Kettlewell (oppose)

• 2:08:22 Amanda Boggan

• 3:25:27 Chase Chow (oppose)

• 3:36:39 Stephanie Valentinoozi (oppose)

• 3:41:02 Craig Piercini (oppose)

• 3:45:49 Irene Hansell, St. Augustine’s (oppose)

• 3:54:47 Niall Currie (oppose)

• 4:00:17 Nathan Davidowicz (oppose)

• 4:04:29 Andrew Roznicki (oppose)

• 4:10:04 Garnet Klott (oppose)

• 4:13:00 Andrew Keller (oppose)

• 4:18:59 Robin Chan (support)

• 4:23:18 James Ashington (oppose)

• 4:27:54 Michael Yaptenchane, St. Augustine’s (oppose)

• 4:54:48 Tony Calabraro (oppose)

• 5:03:03 Shannon Little, Kitsilano Coalition (oppose)

• 5:06:08 Daniel Roberts (oppose)

• 5:21:55 Alice Choi (oppose)

• 5:25:02 Maris Power (oppose)

• 5:29:59 Nora Ma (oppose)

• 5:31:42 Jonathan O’Connor (oppose)

• 5:37:42 Colin McGrath (oppose)

• 5:46:06 Joanna Roberts (oppose)

• 5:53:29 Gloria Chow (oppose)

• 5:57:41 Saj Carson (support)

• 5:59:35 Margaret Nan Gregory (support)

• 6:05:32 Chris Reed (oppose)

• 6:11:06 Louisa Desvio (support)

• 6:17:46 Rebecca Aston (oppose)

• 6:20:29 Bill McGrath (oppose)

• 6:29:05 Cole Howard (support)

• 6:35:15 Curtis Jagalski (oppose)

• 6:41:03 Gemma Isaac (oppose)

• 6:43:56 Liz Flores (oppose)

Thursday July 14.

• 0:19:13 Staff response to council questions

• 0:31:11 Damian Kettlewell (oppose)

• 0:34:56 Jean Chisholm (support)

• 0:39:52 Sean Nardi, TEAM (oppose)

• 0:47:12 Jinny Sim (oppose)

• 0:52:50 Kim Page (oppose)

• 0:57:49 Barbara May (oppose)

• 1:05:12 Claudine Blair (oppose)

• 1:07:00 Miriam Meyer (oppose)

• 1:12:10 Giovanna Del Alfonso (oppose)

• 1:14:51 Diana Lee (oppose)

• 1:17:20 Dustin Huff (oppose)

• 1:18:16 Christina Dodiak (oppose)

• 1:20:43 Alexander Sukas (oppose)

• 1:23:44 Carlos Estrada (oppose)

• 1:30:45 Rebecca Cortemos (oppose)

• 1:35:31 Mike Chandler (oppose)

• 1:41:25 Parinder Arnija (oppose)

• 1:43:47 Francesco Castrillo (oppose)

• 1:49:18 Patricia Legg (oppose)

• 2:56:23 John Legg (oppose)

• 2:58:13 David Butcher (oppose)

• 3:08:29 Dangoul Chandler (oppose)

• 3:13:32 Marina Abraham (oppose)

• 3:18:55 Arizo Siribian (oppose)

• 3:22:18 Eva Valdonna (oppose)

• 3:28:01 Brian Hunt (oppose)

• 3:32:43 Patrick Cleary (oppose)

• 3:38:16 Darcy Radolet (oppose)

• 3:44:35 Heidi Battiston (oppose)

• 3:50:04 Barbara Stefanoska (oppose)

• 3:53:42 Ian Mikiakovsky (oppose)

• 4:00:14 Mateo Estrada (oppose)

• 4:02:40 Joseph Valentinizi (oppose)

• 4:06:40 Brian Poston (oppose)

• 4:15:44 Laura Demeunane (oppose)

• 4:21:24 Michael Nadeau (oppose)

• 4:26:51 M Wickham (oppose)

• 4:45:24 Mark Stockbrocks (oppose)

• 4:50:08 Andrew Henniger (oppose)

• 4:56:28 Andre Co (oppose)

• 5:02:44 Jane Kerrigan Gayless (oppose)

• 5:10:44 Jennifer Foster (oppose)

• 5:17:35 Charlene North (oppose)

• 5:23:23 John Albert Cleary (oppose)

• 5:28:38 Ann Gray (oppose)

• 5:35:05 George Krabinsky (oppose)

• 5:43:20 Everett Stem (support)

• 5:49:56 Kristy Long (oppose)

• 5:52:48 Mark Warner (oppose)

• 5:57:50 Charmaine Woo (oppose)

• 6:02:35 Ramita Sidhu (oppose)

• 6:08:10 Emily Dated (oppose)

• 6:17:29 Whitney Dunn (oppose)

• 6:20:42 Brynn Hindman (oppose)

• 6:22:21 Ben Hume (oppose)

• 6:25:18 Jane McCarney (oppose)

• 6:37:42 Katrina Stein (oppose)

• 6:43:45 Cheryl Stein (support)

Monday July 25.

• 0:10:51 Mary Bielas (oppose)

• 0:16:37 Mayumi Dar (oppose)

• 0:23:06 Kathleen Rennie (oppose)

• 0:26:37 Cheryl Grant, Kitsilano Coalition (oppose)

• 0:56:05 Owen Prior (oppose)

• 0:57:20 Elizabeth Murphy (oppose)

• 1:00:01 Michelle Wetzel (support)

• 1:10:36 Sheila Ritchie (oppose)

• 1:15:12 Tom Leapins (oppose)

• 1:16:29 Broderick Albright (oppose)

• 1:26:54 Elizabeth Lewis (oppose)

• 1:37:26 Dan Rothwell (support)

• 1:42:46 Larry Benj (oppose)

• 1:46:53 Jesse Smart (oppose)

• 1:50:53 Thomas Pila (oppose)

• 2:28:59 Wesley Wagner (support)

• 2:32:04 Francesca Lim (oppose)

• 2:35:21 Robert Hensel (oppose)

• 2:37:49 May Ho (oppose)

• 2:39:58 Katie Alexander (support)

• 2:44:10 Dr. Julian Somers (oppose)

• 3:34:44 Grant Foster (oppose)

• 3:41:56 Emilia Calabro (oppose)

• 3:48:20 Grace Blake (oppose)

• 3:53:48 Sarah Anderson (support)

• 4:10:13 Taylor Fleming (support)

• 4:15:47 Evelyn Jacob (oppose)

• 4:27:50 Ronan O’Neill (oppose)

• 4:34:44 Janelle O’Connor (oppose)

• 4:44:52 Brianna Brooks (oppose)

• 4:47:41 Thomas Gove (oppose)

• 5:01:09 James Current (oppose)

• 5:03:38 Clara Lum, Santa Maria House (oppose)

• 5:22:49 Michelle Molino (oppose)

• 5:31:52 John O’Keene (oppose)

• 5:34:52 George Musorakis

• 5:49:02 Kit Sauder, Renter Advisory Committee (support)

• 5:55:00 Bill (oppose)

• 6:02:30 Ed Berlin (oppose)

• 6:07:35 Alice Bromley (oppose)

• 6:21:16 Richard Rowe (oppose)

• 6:26:53 Belinda Furlin (oppose)

• 6:33:13 Stephanie Binnington (oppose)

• 6:38:43 Sharon Hafnite (oppose)

• 6:41:51 Michelle Barrett, West Broadway BIA (oppose)

• 6:46:44 Stef Partridge, Vancouver Coastal Health (support)

• 6:48:43 Madison McIver (support)

• 6:52:32 Roberto Arario (oppose)