The Meaningless Words

June 28, 2022 Public Hearing - CD-1 Rezoning: 2086-2098 West 7th Avenue, and 2091 West 8th Avenue

"Listening, truly listening to the community."

"Key to understanding the challenges."

"It allows us to pro-actively create solutions."

"Once our application was submitted, we continued to receive valuable feedback."

"Fulsome conversations and receive feedback from both the public and staff."

"Relationships with the neighbourhood are the key to our success."

James Forsyth, BC Housing, June 28, 2022, 2:21:50

Who was James Forsyth listening to?

It wasn't to St Augustine School Principal Michael Yaptinchay(4:27:39), who was clearly emotional talking about the lack of any dialogue in four meetings with BC Housing.

It wasn't to women and families advocate Charlene Kettlewell, from Parents for Thoughtful City Planning. Despite Councillor Dominato having written an email of introduction to James on Charlene’s behalf, there were no responses to any of Charlene’s emails or phone messages(1:47:10).

It wasn't to area social housing residents Tracy Reimer(1:09:50) or Laurie Wilkie(3:37:25) wishing to protect the green space on the Arbutus Greenway or the shade park/ blue bell wood south of Delamont Park for use by all residents on the parks-deprived Broadway Corridor.

And Councillors, who has listened to you?

From the initial public hearing date of June 28th, substantive questions about appropriateness of tenanting (MDG 2:27:45, Fry 2:42:35) conditions of lease and service agreements (MDG 2:26:00, Fry 2:45:20 + 2:50:00) and consequences for breaking the lease were deflected by Celine Mauboules, Managing Director, Housing and Homelessness Services, stating that these questions would come to Council at the development permit stage.

Councillor Hardwick asked what recourse did the city have if there were issues (3:11:15). Celine Mauboules said with city-owned buildings like 205 Kingsway, there is some recourse. "We have a proven track record...with BC Housing to respond to issues as they arise."

This is ironic, considering all of the issues posed by the former Howard Johnson in Yaletown on its neighbours, plus the Marguerite Ford building in Olympic Village. Principal Michael Yaptinchay could attest to the ongoing chaos inside and outside of the Marguerite Ford, since he lives in the area and has had his own complaints not responded to.

The Council and the public would have no say in the tenanting agreement between BC Housing and the operator (Carr 2:52:02).

Mayor Stewart repeatedly interfered and asked Councillors not to ask operational questions (2:27:10, 2:44:43, 2:53:00).

Councillor Kirby-Yung asked why the substantive conditions weren't addressed prior to the application (2:33:00).

Planner Derek Robertson's answer was that the applicant (VAHA, part of the City of Vancouver) provided a preliminary study on how the conditions could be addressed, but of course, nothing was shown.

Planner Chee Chan stated that the goal was to provide deeply affordable housing by transit and so, despite concerns brought forth by the neighbourhood, staff recommended that it go before Council.

Councillor Kirby-Yung asked for commentary on the unique traffic demands for this area. Rosemary Drasovic from engineering, expected emergency vehicles to travel north-south on Arbutus and east-west on 7th Ave, not seeming to realize there is a bus loop on Arbutus between West Broadway and 8th and a concrete barrier on Arbutus at 7th preventing pass through traffic (3:21:44).

Engineer and Speaker 20 Cristina Doyle clearly expressed the poor response from the City on traffic control issues on Arbutus between 7th and 8th on Day 2 of the hearing (1:42:53). Lon LaClaire, General Manager of Engineering, had stated in the past that Arbutus and 8th will be an "unresolvable transit bottleneck" without the Millenium Line extension.

Councillor Wiebe had asked what was the needs assessment for the Kitsilano homeless (2:56:20). Homelessness planner Alison Dunnet had no answer, stating that they didn't seek that level of granularity (2:57:00). Councillor Wiebe asked why there was no family housing and was told by Dunnet that this requirement can be waved for seniors and supportive housing. The focus was on singles housing (2:57:24).

In the opening remarks, planner Chee Chan stated that families could live in this building, but each member would need to live in their own unit (2:07:00).

However, on Day 3 of the hearing, social justice activist and Speaker 111 Bill McGrath, stated that the Kitsilano homeless had alcohol use disorders, whereas those living downtown had other drug use disorders. These two populations did not get along with each other (6:20:22). Bill has been the only speaker with any expertise in the Kitsilano homeless population to present in the first three days of the hearing.

Councillor Kirby-Yung asked if there was consideration for medical facilities on site (2:31:36).

Celine Mauboules said that it's not a medical model of building, but later stated that they would look to VCH, but currently had no agreement for level of services.

Councillor Kirby-Yung asked how many square feet were dedicated to harm reduction and treatment. Planner Chee Chan did not know and Heidi Hartman from BC Housing said it depends upon the building.

Councillor Carr tried to clarify best practices for tenant mix, tenant numbers, amount of supports and any requirement for abstinence (3:12:37).

Heidi Hartman from BC Housing stated this is negotiated with the operator closer to the time of the operations agreement. Heidi stated that an abstinence requirement depends upon the operator, but for this particular location, the model was for harm reduction. She also stated that the residents could not live independently and needed 24/7 support.

Needing 24/7 support. This is a curious statement, considering that planner Derek Robertson stated during the Nov 10, 2021 UDP meeting that this site was selected because it was 1 block from the subway station. Chee Chan, in his opening comments on June 28th, extolled the importance of having a grocery store and a community centre within 900 m.

What is known about this project is that it counts towards the provincial government's target of 4100 supportive housing units (Mauboules 3:23:19), although the numbers are shifting and not confirmed.

Celine Mauboules stated that the March 2020 homeless count found 500 people sleeping outside and speculated that this was undercounted by 20% based on previous research (3:28:00).

Note that originally this proposal was for 140 hardest to house low barrier residents, which became 129 with up to 50% being for low income people instead of 100% supportive housing. However, with the Council and the public having no say in the tenanting agreement between BC Housing and the operator, these are more meaningless words (Carr 2:52:02).

James Forsyth could not provide the annual operating budget of this project when asked by Councillor Dominato 3:01:46).

Councillor Dominato asked who was responsible for the building and the public realm. Celine Mauboules stated that is was the responsibility of all the partners, including the CAC's. She referenced the "Better Together" pilot - we all have a role to play.

So, there is anticipation that Arbutus and West 8th will become the next Olympic Village, Downtown South or Mount Pleasant centre of chaos. Compounding this is the terminal subway station with no toilets. There will be plenty of activity for the neighbourhood to deal with.

Councillor Boyle tried to create drama about 11 units sliced off the building for "slightly more slender building (Chee Chan, 2:06:00)" and possible redeployment of funding to another supportive housing project (2:38:02, 3:25:32).

Later, Councillor Boyle tried to correlate loss of this supportive housing project with the inability to empty encampments from parks (3:28:00).

Stunts by Councillor Boyle are ludicrous. From page 1 of the recent BC Housing audit by Ernst and Young:

Over the last few years, BC Housing’s scope of work and programs, and associated funding and financing have grown substantially. In 2020/21, BC Housing’s expenditures and revenues were $1.9 billion, up from $782 million in 2017/18. Most of this growth is attributable to government commitments through Homes for B.C.: A 30-Point Plan for Housing Affordability in British Columbia. This plan was supported through a $7 billion increase in funding for BC Housing over 10 years (until 2027/28). The Crown corporation was also given expanded access to borrowing capacity – from $165 million to $2.8 billion over this same time.

BC Housing is the largest developer in BC and possibly in Canada. No developer walks away from a piece of land.

Plus, BC Housing needs to get its own house in order, page 2:

The organizational structure of BC Housing results in a siloed approach to delivery, both at the strategic and operational day-to-day levels.

Aligning on program goals, outcomes and performance measures from the outset would enable effective performance reporting and improve the quality of insights that could inform future policy or provincial priorities.

As noted above, systems are not meeting the needs of the functional areas and there is no formalized data governance in place, limiting BC Housing’s ability to optimize technology and increasing effort to perform analysis and create reports.

BC Housing delivers 80-85% of services through non-profit housing providers and current oversight processes for these providers are manual in nature with limited ability to objectively assess provider performance (financial and non-financial) and manage overall risk.

There are multiple problems with the Arbutus and West 8th proposal, including:

• safety issues for an elementary school and daycare with 450+ children as young as three,

• the deceptive and callous shadowing of the school yard and Delamont Park,

• poor quality traffic planning and street infrastructure,

• the ignored co-impacts of a terminal subway station with no toilets and bus loop with low barrier housing and harm reduction site on its door step,

• co-location with a long-term women's abstinence-based recovery house,

• "handling" of Councillors by an unelected housing advocate,

• direction of substantive issues of public concern to a non-public development permit stage,

• private lease agreements between VAHA and BC Housing that exclude input from Council and the public that have absolutely no consequences for problems created for the next 60 years.

All of these problems need dissection. The biggest dissection should start with the homeless advocacy department at City of Vancouver. A "city for all" does not forego good governance in order to advance personal projects at the expense of everyone else.

References:

BC HOUSING IGNORED COMMUNITY FEEDBACK TO HELP ITS REZONING APPLICATION, Mar 30, 2022

https://www.kitsilanocoalition.org/blog/bc-housing-ignored-community-feedback

CAN WE EXPECT 1400 POLICE CALLS AT THE BC HOUSING PROJECT?, April 22, 2022

https://www.kitsilanocoalition.org/blog/can-we-expect-1400-police-calls

MEDIA RELEASE: CHANGES TO BC HOUSING REZONING CONTINUE TO MISREPRESENT PUBLIC SAFETY, May 9, 2022

https://www.kitsilanocoalition.org/blog/a-failed-model-0

LOW-BARRIER SUPPORTIVE HOUSING: THE REAL STORY, June 26, 2022

https://www.kitsilanocoalition.org/blog/low-barrier-supportive-housing-the-real-story

MEDIA RELEASE: CITY HEARING PROCESS ATTEMPTS TO LIMIT DISCUSSION, June 30, 2022

https://www.kitsilanocoalition.org/blog/city-hearing-process-attempts-to-limit-focus

New pilot launching in three Vancouver neighbourhoods aims to increase connection and address community issues, Mar 14, 2022

https://vancouver.ca/news-calendar/new-pilot-launching-in-three-vancouver-neighbourhoods-aims-to-increase-connection-and-address-community-issues.aspx

BC HOUSING - FINANCIAL SYSTEMS AND OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW OF BC HOUSING, May 10, 2022

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/organizational-structure/crown-corporations/ey-report-bc-housing.pdf

Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia, 2008-9

https://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/2008/report13/report/public-sector-governance-guide-principles-good-practice.pdf