The July 21, 2022 Yellow Memorandum
CD-1 Rezoning: 2086-2098 West 7th Avenue, and 2091 West 8th Avenue
The full text of the memorandum is located at https://council.vancouver.ca/20220628/documents/phea3yellowmemo.pdf
What does the Yellow Memorandum tell us?
BC Housing was untruthful about when the operator was selected
During the March 2021 Zoom Neighbourhood Dialogues for 36 people, BC Housing was untruthful when they said that no operator had been yet selected. Dominic Flanagan, formerly of BC Housing, stated that an operator would be announced later. We found out that the operator was MPA when it was added to the Let's Talk Housing website in August 2021.
Answer to Question 18.a of the Yellow Memorandum states that MPA was selected as the operator in Dec 2020.
In front of Council, James Forsyth was lying about "listening, really listening" to the neighbourhood. However, David Eby wasn't lying that this project was a "done deal."
With:
1. the advance selection of MPA,
2. no actual consultation with the neighbourhood, and
3. planner Alison Dunnet clearly not knowing who the local homeless are,
this operator selection was not catered to the neighbourhood in any way.
Only Speaker 111 William McGrath, who had extensive experience with the area homeless, stated that the local population tended towards alcohol use and did not like association with the DTES homeless population that tended towards use of injected substances.
If BC Housing had wanted to listen to the neighbourhood, they would have made an attempt to contact those existing in the area first. Prior to posting a RFP, BC Housing should have spoken directly to St Augustine Church about what kind of supportive housing project would work in this area and then build on what exists at Sancta Maria House.
If asked, the neighbourhood would have stated that it would have wanted mixed affordable housing, second stage housing for women in recovery and no harm reduction focus.
Selection of residents
The answer to Question 13 does not discount the introduction of the DTES population into this building. As stated already, City staff is unaware of differences between the Kitsilano and DTES homeless populations.
Questions 3, 4 and 14 involve the Reiderman Temporary Modular Housing near Sir Wilfred Laurier School:
Question 3 stated that 25% of the tenants were homeless individuals sleeping by the Langara Golf Course and were prioritized for housing. This means that 75% came from elsewhere.
The Reiderman Residence was another contentious project, but with substantial differences: quiet, preserved low density neighbourhood, temporary low rise building proposed and no busy terminal subway station and bus loop bringing up to 3500 people per hour into the area with an "unresolvable transit bottleneck" as stated by Lon LaClaire, GM of Engineering.
By speaking to staff at the Reiderman Residence, it was learned that the operator intentionally chose independently functioning residents. There were two groups: ones that were of "retirement age" and younger ones, many of whom were working.
In contrast to what Heidi Hartman of BC Housing said on June 28th, not all supportive housing residents require 24/7 care.
It appears that operators can have latitude and use the Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VAT) or certain composition ratios in different ways.
Perhaps residents that weren't that vulnerable could have lived in a regular apartment building or a seniors’ assisted living building. Regardless, Reiderman Residence is lauded as a BC Housing success story.
On Day 2 of the hearing, Councillor Fry had mentioned something pertaining to the school on the land lease for the Reiderman Residence. This information needs to be better explained in public.
Regarding Community Advisory Committees (CAC's), nobody wants to part of a committee to talk about problems. People want buildings that work and don't create problems. Through the city hearings, we've heard from Mt Pleasant residents that undergo the headache of non-productive CAC meetings for multiple buildings on a monthly basis. From the July 14th hearing date, we've heard from a speaker on the pointless Marguerite Ford CAC meetings with no resolution on needles and feces on the street.
Harm Reduction Approach
From the answers to Question 14:
"This project will be based on a harm reduction approach, which is supported and encouraged by Vancouver Coastal Health. There would be a private space within the building for residents to ensure safe use in the presence of staff; this room would only be for residents and no outside guests."
In looking at the design of this building, everyone who enters the main entrance on West 7th, whether they are supportive housing resident, low income resident, guest or staff, walks past the harm reduction rooms.
In 2017, the media was full of articles about the successful Portugal model and rapid access Suboxone clinics at St Paul's Hospital.
Societal losses in health and productivity due to substances had been discussed:
https://csuch.ca/publications/CSUCH-Canadian-Substance-Use-Costs-Harms-Report-2020-en.pdf
Already there had been activism for substance use as a lifestyle choice:
https://www.drugpolicy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CDPC2013_en.pdf
With the introduction of the NDP government and this city council, it's become a one pillar approach to managing addiction: harm reduction and safe supply.
Since Vancouver Coastal Health has been promoting "harm reduction" and not "substance use treatment," have our lives improved?
We see more people with addiction and more random acts of violence in the city. Is this harm reduction?
Mental illness alone is not responsible for all of these random acts of violence. There is no way to destigmatize random acts of violence.
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/vancouver-stranger-attack-kitsilano-2022-5579105/
Stimulant drugs, like cocaine and increasingly Methamphetamine, can cause psychosis. The man that stabbed the Mexican tourist at the Tim Hortan's downtown was high on Methamphetamine.
From the BC Coroner's report on toxic drug deaths between Jan 2011 and Oct 2021, presence of Methamphetamine in toxic drug deaths increased from 14% in 2012 to 45% in 2020
"The prevalence of crystal meth use in 2018 and 2019 was significantly greater than that reported in the previous iteration of the harm reduction client survey. In 2015, aside from cannabis, crystal meth use was on par with heroin for the most commonly used drugs, with 47% percent of participants reporting use. Thus, crystal meth use has increased significantly and surpassed illegal opioids, including heroin and fentanyl, to be the most prevalent drug used in 2019."
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0252090/
It is my opinion that most Vancouver residents object to the badly failing one pillar approach and that people in the West 8th and Arbutus area don't want it in their neighbourhood, either.
It is enough that the subway and bus loop will give a new population of substance users access to this area filled with children, seniors and people with disabilities; never mind the attention brought to a building with a harm reduction focus directly accessible from the bus loop.
"Similar to any other housing in Vancouver, residents are able to make personal choices regarding their use of alcohol or drugs in their homes."
Speaker 15 Tracy spoke about the small, low rise social housing buildings in the neighbourhood and the good relationships inside, including those tenants with substance use and mental health issues. The reason that this worked was because of the small scale nature and no dominance of one particular health issue. This is what Dr. Julian Somers means about when scattering small numbers of people with mental health and addiction issues throughout city buildings; people learn to self-regulate behaviour and interact with others. This still involves active support of an ACT Team.
Re: Question 8 Flashing Light at West 7th and Arbutus
Council can request a flashing light at this intersection, despite staff's lack of interest in doing so. Engineer and Speaker 20 Christina Doyle well-articulated problems with communicating to the city important traffic safety issues on Arbutus in proximity to the school. The city does not seem to appreciate the narrowness of the streets and that there is a cross street barrier at West 7th and Arbutus due to the bike lane.
When the bus loop is operational, the "unresolvable transit bottleneck" will be in effect at Broadway and Arbutus.
The bike lane needs to be removed from West 7th so that parents exiting the laneway west of the school can turn left and away from Arbutus and reduce traffic.
This area does get traffic accidents. From the ICBC crash report website, the following crash numbers have been documented between 2017 and 2021:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/icbc/viz/LowerMainlandCrashes/LMDashboard
Arbutus St + West Broadway - 172
Arbutus St + West 8th - 21
Arbutus St + West 7th - 9
Arbutus Greenway + West Broadway - 5
Expect more crashes once the bus loop is operational.
Imposing Conditions
Questions 5, 6 and 7 address supports in a supportive housing building. There is no reason why Mayor and City Councillors cannot set a minimum standard of care services as part of the lease agreement with BC Housing and have enforceable consequences on not providing these services in the lease agreement. A minimum standard of care can't be determined in a post-hearing debate.
Answers to Question 10 show that Mayor and Councillors can impose restrictions, such as abstinence to substances and no history of violence, on properties leased to BC Housing in order to make them better integrate into the community. The Mount Edwards site in Victoria was successfully tenanted despite restrictions.
Placing restrictions would demonstrate that Mayor and Councillors actually care about this neighbourhood. Those that oppose restrictions do not care.
Setback
Question 11: Setbacks.
Setbacks on Arbutus are important because children don't appreciate the danger of being at a street edge. They need space for being pulled away from the street. Anyone that has cared for young children would realize this. Staff has no idea how busy that sidewalk will be as the area densifies, so a wider sidewalk is better.
What is not discussed in detail is the setback on the Arbutus Greenway. On May 17, 2022, Lon LaClaire, GM of Engineering stated that the Arbutus Greenway will have street status and setbacks will need to be the same as that for a building fronting a street. How has this change been incorporated into the building design?
Tower Massing and Impact on the School
This was the subject of Question 16.
People in the West 8th and Arbutus area do not believe the shadow studies on the school yard and Delamont Park, especially when city staff inserted discriminatory shadow policy specifically for the St Augustine independent school under the Broadway Plan. Fortunately, Councillor Dominato, with her belief in equity for all children, amended that line in the Broadway Plan.
People in the West 8th and Arbutus area favour the shadow studies performed by Stephen Bohus, who spontaneously came forwards and produced these studies. He had no prior relationship with anyone in this neighbourhood and had no financial gain issues with densification along Broadway.
If there had been truly a Kitsilano homeless impact needs assessment, I presume that the loners sleeping rough and using alcohol don't want to be supported with activities and congregate meals. It is reasonable to expect that people living out of their RV's and vans at the beach want a place to park their vehicles and not be bothered by other people. Targeting those specific populations in a building does not require activity space at all. However, a restaurant at the bottom level of the building to provide meals on-site or through delivery, could provide choice for a meal plan. This type of building would allow variation of massing so as to reduce shadowing on the school yard. There would be opportunity to retain tree canopy.
The arrival of the Yellow Memorandum, just prior to the expected last day of the public hearing, does not give the Mayor and Councillors much time to reflect on the options.
The best course of action is to reject and return to staff.
Once again a superlative analysis of this difficult subject. Thank you!