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editor
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 Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:19 am Post subject: Any info on AFFORDABLE HOUSING on the Lower Mainland? |
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What can you tell me about affordable housing on the Lower Mainland?
Council proposes a plan to save remaining rental stock
Richmond may provide for at least some affordable housing:
We were delighted to read the good news in the excellent story, Making housing affordable by Nelson Bennett in the Richmond News online July 21/06, describing the city's plan to save what's left of rental housing and make way for more affordable new housing. Here are a few key paragraphs:
| Quote: | The City of Richmond is adopting an affordable housing strategy aimed at encouraging developers to build low-cost housing, including homes that young families can afford to buy. In the meantime, it is slapping a moratorium on the demolition or conversion of all rental housing stock in the city.
The moratorium was approved Tuesday by the city's planning committee, as part of an interim affordable housing strategy. The strategy goes to council Monday for ratification. A permanent plan is expected in a few months from now.
"I'm ecstatic that at least we have an interim strategy," said Coun. Linda Barnes, who has been pushing for a low-cost housing policy since being elected to council six years ago. There has been little in the way of rental housing built in Richmond for decades, and what remains is either at risk of being knocked down and replaced with market housing, or is falling into disrepair.
While she welcomes the moratorium on rental stock, Mary Phillips, co-chairperson of the Richmond Poverty Response Committee, thinks the strategy itself needs some serious massaging. "It's a bit weak," she said. "We'd certainly like a lot more meat on the bones."
The problem is an opt out provision that allows developers to avoid including low-cost housing in their developments by simply paying a contribution to an affordable housing fund. Essentially, that is a continuation of the policy that has been in place for years in Richmond - a policy that has seen money going into an affordable housing account, with little to show for it.
What's different about the new policy is that now the city has some solid definitions of affordability, as well as targets. The strategy also allows for flex or convertible housing (legal secondary suites) in areas zoned for single family, but provides no subsidies or added incentives. Under the new policy, developers are encouraged to provide either six per cent subsidized housing in their developments, or 14 per cent entry-level ownership. But the strategy allows developers to avoid the inclusion of low-cost housing, if they contribute 60 cents per buildable square foot to an affordable housing fund. Compared to Vancouver, which charges $2 per buildable square foot, 60 cents is a bargain. |
View cbc.ca's updated story of July 25/06, Lower Mainland city stops condo conversions.
Thinking of moving? Consider Richmond's flood danger:
See the story, City of Richmond prepares to avoid the fate of New Orleans, by Charlie Smith at straight.com July 9/06:
| Quote: | On Monday (July 10), Richmond city council will deal with a topic that should be of vital interest to its 170,000-odd residents: preventing floods. According to the appendix of a report going to Richmond council, "Currently, there is no regional flood protection management strategy." (emphasis added)
...Egad! Aren't parts of Richmond below sea level? And aren't we all living in an earthquake zone across the region? Doesn't anyone remember New Orleans?
According to an appendix in the report going to council, the probability of the dike breaching is three times more likely west of Highway 99/Knight Street than to the east. The report estimates it would cost $91.2 million to upgrade the perimeter dike to a 1:1,250-year flood-event standard. Another $51.1 million would be necessary to improve the internal barrier.
The report going to council recommends staff begin more detailed discussions with the BC Ministry of Transportation to clarify the scope of work required to build a mid-island barrier along the Highway 99/Knight Street corridor. Richmond staff have recommended that the report be forwarded to the City of New Westminster, Fraser River Port Authority, Fraser Basin Council, and relevant provincial ministries. Naturally, city staff have also urged council to pursue cost-sharing with senior levels of government and stakeholders. |
See also the following annotated excerpt from City Looks at Upgrading Dykes Proposed Mid-island Dyke Would Run Along Highway 99, Knight Street by the Richmond News and posted July 6/06 at oneday... :
| Quote: | Tom Becker, a land use planner for UMA Engineering Ltd. in Burnaby, helped craft a report detailing a 25-year strategy to protect the city from future flooding.
The Flood Protection Management Strategy was presented to councillors at Tuesday's general purposes committee meeting. In the overall report, city staff are recommending that a mid-island dyke be built along Highway 99 and the Knight Street Bridge corridor, rather than along No. 8 Road which had previously been considered, to the dismay of farmers. Environment Canada's Stewart Cohen, an adjunct professor at the University of B.C. who is studying regional impacts of climate change, applauded the fact that the city is taking into account a possible rise in sea level in its planning. |
For more on Richmond's leaky condos, search the term 'Richmond' anywhere at this website.
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:12 am Post subject: |
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Vancouver affordable housing situation pretty grim:
The Gobe and Mail
No flexibility with moratorium, mayor says
Daily newspaper
By Shannon Kari
Oct. 20/06
| Quote: | There are about 5,000 people in the Downtown Eastside living in *SRA hotels, many of which are old and in extremely poor shape. However, they are some of the only places people on social assistance can afford to live on the province's $325 monthly shelter allowance.
Last year, a City of Vancouver report concluded that 400 units of new low-income housing need to be constructed each year. Fewer than 300 new units are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008.
The provincial government announced recently that it will provide rental subsidies to low-income families that qualify, as long as they are not receiving social assistance.
The number of homeless people in Vancouver could triple to over 3,200 by 2010, the Pivot Legal Society predicted in a report issued last month. It said there has been a net loss of more than 400 units of low-income housing stock in the city since 2002. (emphasis added)
More than 40 people were scheduled to address the planning and environment committee meeting, which began late yesterday afternoon. (Last four paragraphs of the story, p. S2) |
| Quote: | | *SRA refers to Vancouver's Single Room Accommodation Bylaw, which requires the owner of an SRA-designated building to obtain city approval prior to converting the building to another form of rental housing. |
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:22 am Post subject: |
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Health Worker not buying Campbell's promise to help mental health patients
News 1130
Oct. 27/06
By Claudia Kwan
| Quote: | Over the past 20 years, mental health patients have been turned out onto the streets with the closure of institutions like Woodlands and most of Riverview. B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell says the 'de-institutionalization' experiment has been a failure, and is now vowing to spend more on care and support services.
But if that's the case, one mental health worker is asking why the Shaughnessy facility run by her family is slated for closure. Nicola Jaworsky of Hampton Court says she just doesn't believe this promise. She wonders when are they going to start, and where does it leave the people that are remaining at Hampton Court? Jaworsky says the eight people that are remaining there are devastated because they've lost three of their family members because of the closure. She's asking where is the support?
In addition to three recent deaths, she says patients have been put on extra medication because they're so traumatized by the impending closure. The Canadian Mental Health Association says more housing, more outreach workers, and higher disability allowances are needed right away to help those with mental health issues to continue living in their communities. (emphasis added) It says studies have shown institutions are not the best solution for the mentally ill.
Hampton Court is supposed to close in January of next year, but the government now says it's reassessing the decision. |
More about Hampton Court on W. 16th Avenue in Funding cut hits home for mentally ill by Cheryl Rossi in the Vancouver Courier Aug. 123/06.
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:52 am Post subject: |
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Will he keep them?
Gord's making promises to address B.C.'s absymal lack of affordable housing:
Here is the press release issued by the Premier Online Oct. 27/06 regarding affordable housing:
| Quote: | PREMIER URGES JOINT ACTION ON HOUSING INITIATIVES
VICTORIA – Premier Gordon Campbell encouraged local governments to work with the Province to build more affordable housing and facilities to support people with mental illness and addictions through concerted actions aimed at increasing densities, reducing building costs and achieving net benefits for the environment.
“There are two major components to addressing the need for affordable housing,” said Campbell in his address to the UBCM convention. “The first is to lower building costs to make construction more affordable and the second is to leave more money in people’s pockets so they can afford housing. We’ve taken action on both and now we want to work with communities to move projects forward faster. “Sometimes, it is not politically popular to create homeless shelters, halfway houses, rehab centres or mental health facilities,” said Campbell. “We need to get passed the small ‘p’ politics, and face the reality that we simply can no longer afford not to make better use of our local land base, not to shrink processing times, not to reduce the burden of fees and not to build smaller units. The time to act is now and we will work with communities to use our land more effectively and create affordable housing solutions.”
The Premier also announced that the Province will increase the shelter allowance for income assistance recipients for the first time since 1994 in the next provincial budget as part of its ongoing commitment to expand affordable housing options for British Columbians.
“Since 2001 we’ve built or committed to almost 11,000 more units of affordable housing, but in addition to building affordable housing we need to make housing more affordable – especially for those who need that support the most. We’ll increase the housing allowance in the next budget and we’ll keep working with local governments to find new ways to ensure British Columbians have access to the safe, affordable housing they deserve.” (emphasis added)
Premier Campbell also urged local government leaders to find innovative solutions to accelerate construction of affordable housing and reduce costs for the benefit of British Columbians. “Delays, land costs, permit costs, building costs, development costs – these are all barriers to making housing affordable for B.C. families,” Campbell said. “Local governments have a role to play in helping us bring down those barriers, whether its increasing density or addressing zoning issues. We need to tackle those challenges if we’re going to build the kind of livable, thriving, safe communities we all want.”
The increase in the shelter allowance builds on the government’s recently announced housing strategy – Housing Matters BC – which includes:
$40 million a year for the new Rental Assistance Program, which will provide an estimated 15,000 low-income working families with direct financial assistance for rental accommodation.
An additional 450 housing units through the Provincial Homelessness Initiative, which since 2004 has already allocated 533 units of subsidized housing combined with supports and services to residents who cannot live independently and are at risk of homelessness.
Expanding the provincewide homeless outreach program that will help those living on the street access government housing and income support
Premier Campbell also noted that the shelter allowance increase is only the latest in the series of actions the Province has taken to help reduce the cost of living for B.C. families, including:
· Doubling funding for the Shelter Allowance for Elderly Renters with the first increase to that program since 1990.
· Reducing provincial income taxes so that every British Columbian earning under $80,000 a year now pays the lowest income taxes in Canada.
· Supporting seniors and renters on fixed incomes by eliminating provincial income taxes for everyone earning under $15,500 a year.
· Increasing the basic Home Owner Grant by 22 per cent – the first increase since 1993.
· Reducing prescription drug costs and eliminating or reducing MSP premiums for more than a quarter of a million lower income seniors and families. |
Quaere how many of the homeless and those on social assistance became insolvent as a result of leaky condos?
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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More evictions in New West this winter of tenants in reduced-rent apartments:
| Quote: | | We listened with interest to a news item on CBC Radio One Early Edition Dec. 5/06 concerning the extension to Jan. 31/07 of the eviction date of tenants from another affordable-rent apartment building in New Westminster. Notice was extended beyond the original December deadline following intervention by a New West MLA. According to the report, landlords have developed a practice of evicting tenants only to rent the same units at a considerably higher price following what are usually quite modest renovations. The MLA interviewed was proposing changes to the Residential Tenancy Act to give tenants fair notice and a say when they're being forced out of their homes, especially at a time when affordable housing stock hovers between low and non-existent in most communities on the Lower Mainland. |
We'll continue to follow this story as it develops. Please check back for updates. Please send any leads to editor@bccondos.ca. |
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editor
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| Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 11:15 am Post subject: |
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Homelessness OK with B.C. 'billies:
More affordable housing advocates arrested in Vancouver
We were very disturbed by the story, 6 arrested in latest round of homeless battle, posted at cbc.ca/bc Dec. 11/06. Here's an excerpt:
| Quote: | Vancouver police arrested six homelessness protesters at an empty provincially-owned building in the Downtown Eastside on Sunday. About 12 members of the Anti-Poverty Committee tried to take over the building but police blocked the entrance on East Hastings Street. At that point, the protesters pitched two tents on the sidewalk. A few hours later, police moved in and made the arrests.
The group had staged two earlier protest squats, and spokeswoman Jill Chettiar said they won't let up until there is more affordable housing.
"We are looking not just at other empty buildings, but definitely things like government offices, places we might go to to bring the attention to the doorsteps of the people who have the power and the money to do something about this." |
A report on CBC's Early Edition before 8 a.m. revealed that only 44 social housing units were created recently despite an unprecedented construction frenzy the last two years. Housing Minister Rich Coleman nevertheless defended the govt's do-nothing response by affirming that protests breaching the law would not be sanctioned - this despite a recent outbreak of pneumonia on the Downtown Eastside so severe public health nurses are currently approaching locals to offer free innoculations.
More on the excellent Anti-Poverty Committee and the protests to which housing advocates are forced to resort here in 'Dogpatch,' B.C.
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=917#917
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| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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cbc.ca
Protesters disrupt Vancouver Olympics celebration
Feb. 12/07
| Quote: | Protesters hurling eggs, rocks and profanity-laced insults disrupted what was supposed to be a celebration of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on Monday.
A crowd of about 60 anti-poverty activists descended on a celebration outside the Vancouver art gallery, where a crowd of several hundred people were watching dignitaries and political leaders unveil a countdown clock that is ticking down the seconds until the Games begin in exactly three years from now. Dozens of police, some on horseback and wearing riot gear, arrested seven people. One officer dragged a protester off the stage, another tackled a woman with a bandana across her face.
Insp. Steve Schnitzer said police anticipated a protest, but nothing of this scale. He said police will keep the disruption in mind when planning for the next pre-Olympic event.
...He said the protesters, who are believed to be with the group Anti-Poverty Committee, threw eggs, paint-filled balloons and rocks wrapped in papier mâché. They shouted obscenities and booed B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell as he addressed the crowd.
Some members of the group unveiled their own doomsday-style clock at the event, which concludes that by 2010, 6,000 people will be homeless in Vancouver. The protesters said the city must focus on finding affordable housing for the poor. "You can see that the numbers are starting to get bigger, and that's because we're losing the housing in the downtown eastside, to Olympic speculation and gentrification," said anti-poverty activist Wendy Peterson. (emphasis added)
The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) did not acknowledge the protest as it unveiled its countdown clock, which is made of cedar, glass and stainless steel and stands six metres tall and three metres wide. |
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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The Vancouver Sun
Tiresome Daily Trumpet
Protesters crash Olympic flag ceremony
By Jeff Lee
March 13/07
| Quote: | A large crowd of protesters used an Olympic flag-illumination ceremony Monday night at Vancouver city hall to protest everything from poverty and homelessness to Vancouver's missing women and native issues. Against a backdrop of heavy security - including Vancouver Police's Emergency Response Team and horse-mounted officers - several hundred people shouted anti-Olympic slogans on the city hall north lawn. At least one person was arrested.
Police and city hall security nearly outnumbered the protesters, who in their own right outnumbered casual onlookers who turned out to see the lights turned on to illuminate two large 2010 Winter Games flag poles. Police searched everyone - including media - who entered the public area in front of a fenced-off area for dignitaries. The clear presence of police was also a response to last week's night-time theft of a massive Olympic flag from one of the two seven-storey flag poles at city hall. A group calling itself the Native Warriors Society (see GuerillaScience Blog Aug. 8/05 for possible clues) later claimed responsibility in memory of Harriet Nahanee, a native protester who recently died. The incident took place on the same day members of the International Olympic Committee's co-ordination commission arrived to inspect the Olympic planning progress by its Vancouver organizers.
Vancouver Police Const. Tim Fanning said police are still actively investigating the theft but have no leads as to the identity of the three people pictured in a photograph the Native Warriors Society issued showing it had the flag in its possession.
Tewanee Joseph, the executive director of the Four Host First Nations Secretariat, also said he had no idea who represents the warrior society. The secretariat represents the four bands on whose traditional territory the Olympics will be held. |
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editor
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:46 am Post subject: |
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Yahoo! News
Members of Anti-Poverty Committee storm
Vancouver provincial cabinet offices
Attributed to Canadian Press
May 23/07
| Quote: | Anti-Olympic protesters stormed into the provincial cabinet offices Tuesday, overturning chairs, tossing around plants and pouring water into a fax machine. No one was hurt and the two men and a woman waited to be arrested after causing the damage. The Anti-Poverty Committee has threatened to "evict" Olympic officials to protest what they claim are poor people losing their homes to Olympic-related developments.
Anti-poverty activist David Cunningham said Tuesday's action was taken in response to his arrest on the weekend. He said the target was Ken Dobell, who is on the board of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.
Cunningham was arrested and issued a peace bond after he arrived at a public location in the city's Downtown Eastside for what he believed was an interview with a reporter. But it was a Vancouver police officer posing as a reporter. Cunningham said the Anti-Povery Committee called a news conference but didn't tell the media what was to occur. "We just called the media together, didn't notify them of the eviction, otherwise the police would have been notified," he said. "It was us resorting to police tactics if you will, and fooling the media, using and abusing the media for our own objectives." |
More about the well-connected Ken Dobell:
cbc.ca
No conflict, declares premier's adviser
April 30/07
| Quote: | B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's longtime associate, Ken Dobell, has answered his critics, insisting there is no conflict between his dual roles as an adviser to the premier and as a contractor with the City of Vancouver. Two weeks ago, the NDP said Dobell, who served as deputy minister to the premier before retiring and becoming Campbell's special adviser, appeared to have begun work as a lobbyist more than six months before he registered with the provincial registry of lobbyists.
Ken Dobell told reporters in Victoria on Monday he is not in a conflict of interest.
The Lobbyists' Registration Act (p. 7) says any lobbyist must register with the province within 10 days of starting work for a client.
On Monday, Dobell told a packed news conference in Victoria that he is not a lobbyist, but a consultant for the city. He said he only signed up with the registry out of an abundance of caution.
...He also said there was no conflict in his various roles: formerly deputy minister to the premier, he is currently a special adviser on issues such as softwood lumber, as well as a contractor with the City of Vancouver on culture and homelessness. |
More about Vancouver's Anti-Poverty Committee, which had this to say about Dobell May 22/07 at its website:
| Quote: | Ken Dobell is, among other things, director of the 2010 Legacies Now Society and the Canadian Council for Public-private partnerships. A member of the board of the 2010 Bid Corporation in its early years, Dobell now serves on VANOC’s board of directors, where he chairs its finance committee.
When not acting as a symbolic figurehead, Kenny rakes in $250-an hour as special adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell. Not so coincidentally his second job is as a lobbyist for the City of Vancouver, which has hired him to influence Campbell on development issues...
This eviction was carried out in a non-violent manner with respect to the workers inside. This is contrary to the evictions that take place every day in the Downtown Eastside. Often the police serve as the City’s eviction service and assist in the displacement of people from their homes. In cases such as the Marr Hotel and the Burns Block, poor people are evicted from their homes violently. In the case of Burns Block, people who had lived there for 20 years were evicted with less then 30 minutes notice, their belongings thrown to the curb.
So long as people are being evicted from their homes to make room for the 2010 Olympic Games, we will continue targeting VANOC representatives in their offices. It is from these offices that life and death decisions are made. |
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:09 am Post subject: |
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Vancouver Magazine
Magazine Subscription
(Freebie in the city's plum 'hoods)
Endmark
Bed and Breakfast
By Rosemary Poole
June, 2007
| Quote: | | For the past decade, about 100 people have shown up each day at First United Church on East Hastings seeking an empty pew, a clean blanket and temporary sanctuary. Last month, Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the province was purchasing 10 single-room occupancy hotels (SROs) in the downtown area. Technical inspections are now being conducted to determine what renovations are needed, and new supportive housing is planned on three vacant city lots. The City of Vancouver, for its part, intends to construct another 10-15 buildings of supportive housing dispersed across the city. It will all add up to 737 new rooms, 595 protected SROs and perhaps less pressure on places like First United... (-- p. 98) |
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editor
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| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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SIGN here:
Make city-owned Storyeum - vacant since 2006- a homeless shelter
| Quote: | | E-mail Vancouver's illustrious mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca to demand the city make amends for its appalling record on poverty by agreeing to this EMERGENCY imperative. |
Here's ours:
| Quote: | From: editor
To: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca
Cc: editor
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 12:08 PM
Subject: Make Storyeum a shelter!
Yo, eco-zilch mayor and council,
How ironic to contract for a report on the street from Geoff Plant, a so-called 'advocate' who did more on his watch than most of his Charter-flouting colleagues in Victoria to ensure legitimate provincial disability claims became EVEN MORE DIFFICULT to obtain! How can you face yourselves in the morning, I wonder? Well, here's your chance to make it up for your unconscionable willingness to create the affordable housing crisis Vancouver currently enjoys: Open Storyeum as a shelter. It's been vacant since 2006 and you already own it. Do it today! It's cold outside. Have a look at the peition here: http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1102#1102.
Eco-density indeed.
You should be ashamed! |
| Quote: | The 10 hotels the province recently purchased are not additional housing. (see above) These hotels only guarantee that the rooms (SROs) presently occupied will not be lost to new development. In the DTES (Downtown Eastside) we can only hope to maintain housing as it is and ask for crumbs: shelters. Shelters are necessary as we have a zero vacancy rate and there is no place to put anyone. We feel it is disgraceful for a city as rich as Vancouver to have anyone homeless.
... 2007 stats for the DTES homeless range from 2,000 to 4,000. There are only 515 all-weather shelters in Vancouver. In the winter, emergency shelters can increase the units to 719, but these figures do not take into consideration the 5,000+ nearly homeless who live in evictable you-would-not-want-to-live-there 10’X10’ SROs (Single Room Occupancy Hotel) or those who are couch surfing or living in transition housing. |
| Quote: | | For more information, contact homeless advocate extraordinaire Audrey Laferriere, who has taken to the streets to collect signatures for the petition, at audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca. |
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editor
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| Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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The Canadian Press
Like Corporate Media Only More So
Bedbugs, cockroaches used as mascots for the 'Poverty Olympics'
Jan. 31/08
| Quote: | VANCOUVER - Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach and Chewy the Rat don't sound like Olympic mascots, but they are - at least they're the mascots of the first annual Poverty Olympics.
Anti-poverty advocates say they will stage the games Sunday in Vancouver, including such events as the
Welfare Hurdles,
Poverty-line High Jump, and
Long Jump over a Bedbug-Infested Mattress.
Wendy Pedersen of the Carnegie Community Action Project, one of several groups behind the poverty games, says Vancouver and B.C. suffer from what she calls world-class poverty and homelessness. She's hoping that displaying the problems for the global media will spur Canadian governments to use their surpluses to hike welfare rates and build social housing. The group organizing the Poverty Olympics says it's written to the International Olympic Committee asking for money for future poverty games and urging the committee to press Canadian governments to meet their promises to help the poor. |
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editor
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| Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:03 am Post subject: |
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The Hampton Journal
Earnest Tabloid Free at the UEL
Blue Scarves at Protest 'STAND' for More Housing
Advocates draw strength from historic protest
movement in South America
March 24/08
| Quote: | A handful of West Point Grey housing advocates wearing blue scarves and brandishing blue banners stood at the corner of 10th and Sasamat for an hour March 15th to protest what they called “the shortage of ‘social housing’ in Vancouver.”
The group of 10th and Sasamat ‘STANDers’ were one of 12 such groups standing on streetcorners in Vancouver this day with local spokesperson Andrea Lum, saying, “This all started when the government starting pushing tenants out of the Little Mountain housing project in Mount Pleasant so that they could develop it for wealthy people to buy condos here in time for the Olympics.” Ms Lum said her group is calling on Vancouver City Council to protect all Vancouver renters from condo-conversion of their homes, and for renewal of federal and provincial programs that formerly built permanent social housing for low- and moderate-income singles and families. A series of Vancouver STANDS has occurred the past four successive weeks.
A key STAND demand is for federal, provincial, and civic politicians to dedicate substantial funds to building new, permanent social housing “as was done for 50 years until 1993.” (emphasis added)
The idea of STAND is based on an episode in the history of South America when The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose children were 'disappeared' by military forces from 1976 to 1983--stood every week in a city square wearing white scarves until the generals capitulated. These scarves became an international symbol for protests against unjust and inhumane governments, and Ms Lum said her group hopes the blue Canadian scarves will become a symbol of protest against unjust and inhumane housing policies in Canada. |
| Quote: | Nothing Like the Sun
Audio CD
Words and Music by Sting
| Quote: | They Dance Alone
View the YouTube.com video.
Why are these women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can't see what it is that they despise
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone, they dance alone
It's the only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces they scream so loud
If they were to speak these words they'd go missing too
Another woman on the torture table what else can they do
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone, they dance alone
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angustia
Danzan con sus padres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas
Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone, they dance alone
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Our e-mail to social housing advocates:
| Quote: | From: editor
To: info@citywidehousingcoalition.org
Cc: editor
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 12:24 PM
Subject: STAND protests are up at bccondos.ca
Hello housing advocates,
Just a quick note to let you know we give you a link at our Affordable Housing riff at Watchdog Forum thus: http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1267#1267. If there is anything more we might publish to assist in this righteous protest, please let us know. We live to serve.
Ed. |
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1267#1267
Last edited by editor on Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:44 am; edited 2 times in total |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 878
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:48 am Post subject: |
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An affordable housing protest we admire:
New Yorker
Magazine Subscription
Housin’ the Joint
By Sasha Frere-Jones
Feb. 11 & 18/08
| Quote: | | Late in the summer of 1973, a Bronx teen-ager named Cindy Campbell decided she needed extra money for clothes and school supplies. She and her brother Clive threw a party in the recreation room of their building, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, an affordable-housing complex in the West Bronx. Invitations were written on index cards, with the name of a favorite song (the Ohio Players’ “Skin Tight,” for instance) next to the time and location of the party. Girls could enter for a quarter; guys, twice that. Clive played records under his graffiti name, Kool Herc, while a friend, who was known as Coke La Rock, exhorted party guests to dance. Thirty-five years and one genre later, Herc has enlisted Senator Charles Schumer to help the current residents of 1520 Sedgwick buy the building from developers and maintain it as affordable housing. “Someone is going to spend fifteen million dollars to put that waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge, just so it will be visible throughout New York City,” he said. “Affordable housing should be visible throughout New York City.”That sort of rhymes. (-- p. 36) |
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1299#1299
Last edited by editor on Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:07 am; edited 1 time in total |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 878
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:12 am Post subject: |
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Here's another affordable housing protest we admire:
| Quote: | saobserver.net
Citizens urged to protest marina
April 16/08
| Quote: | I strongly oppose the re-zoning of the Cottonwoods campground for New Recreation Ltd. to build “West Beach Marina”, a 218-condo development with a 160-slip marina at the mouth of the Adams River. My greatest concern is that the marina poses unacceptable risks to the sockeye salmon habitat. This is one of the wonders of the world right in our backyard. Why would we ever want to jeopardize it?
Last Saturday at the Adams River Rally for Salmon, a salmon biologist confirmed that the sockeye use the whole bay for spawning, and it is the primary area where the salmon fry live and mature in preparation for their migration to the ocean.
Such high density developments on our lakeshores are generally inappropriate, but even more so in such an environmentally sensitive area. Imagine the concentrated boat traffic and inevitable oil and gas spills. Moreover, marine motors exhaust gas and oil directly into the water. Imagine the small fish fry swimming amongst all the high-speed props. Imagine the noise pollution and the impact on the wildlife refuge aspect of Roderick Haig-Brown Park. All sorts of waterfowl, nesting birds and eagles reside in this area. Bringing potentially 800-1000 people to a small area like this will be disastrous.
How is it possible that the CSRD has approved this development at second reading already? What are they thinking? Whatever happened to the moratorium on lakeshore development?
I understand that sewage disposal has yet to be finalized.
Our family came here 38 years ago, drawn mainly by Shuswap Lake. If we are not careful, our lake will be privatized to the point where most people have no access to the lake, only those who can afford million dollar properties. We should reserve high density developments for our towns and cities, not on our highly treasured waterways. Once polluted, and habitat destroyed, it’s too late and miraculous events like the sockeye salmon runs are gone forever.
Please write to the CSRD Senior Planner Mr. Scott Beeching at sbeeching@ csrd.bc.ca.
We only have this week before the public hearing on April 21, 7 p.m. at Scotch Creek Hall. Please attend if possible.
Charles Smith |
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It might work!
| Quote: | The Vancouver Sun
Voice of B.C.'s Fraud-Friendly Real Estate Industry
Developer backs off on marina
Shuswap Lake marina proposal cut from resort
plan after fears Adams River sockeye could be endangered
By Randy Shore
April 23/08
| Quote: | The developer of a controversial resort community on Shuswap Lake withdrew the marina component of the plan just as a packed public hearing into the project was about to begin on Monday. After weeks of rallies, a letter-writing campaign and media coverage about the possible negative impact that motorized boat traffic could have on the Adams River sockeye spawning grounds adjacent to the 21-acre site, New Future Building Group downsized the West Beach project, dropping a plan to build a 160-slip marina from the rezoning application and lowering the height of the proposed condominium building.
The hearing, which drew hundreds of people, continued on the remaining 218 condominiums and 10,000 square feet of commercial space. The 100-seat hall at Scotch Creek was full and an overflow crowd milled around outside under a tent, warmed by two propane heaters. ...
The Columbia Shuswap regional district will likely consider approving the rezoning at its May 15 meeting, manager of development services Jay Simons said. The board has three options: approve the original bylaw with the condominium tower and marina, reject the rezoning outright, or alter the bylaw to reflect the developer's amendments. Even if the rezoning is allowed as originally proposed, the provincial government would still have to approve the marina component before it can be built.
Opponents of West Beach had hoped to slow progress of the project until two major planning documents are completed. The regional district is nearing completion of an official community plan, which would guide the form and scale of development in the region. The district is also collaborating with the provincial government to complete the Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process, which would guide development on Shuswap and Mara Lakes with more stringent environmental guidelines.
With the marina all but dead, but the condo community very much alive, Cooperman is changing his focus to pressuring the provincial government to purchase the former campground to be held as a protected ecological conservancy. The property is next to Roderick Haig-Brown Park, which is home to North America's biggest sockeye salmon spawning grounds, drawing millions of fish in peak years. Environment Minister Barry Penner has asked his staff to consider buying the property through a program that identifies and acquires ecologically sensitive areas and converts some of them to provincial parks. ... |
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How many LEAKY CONDOS has New Future Building Group given this province so far?
Let's look up the litigation history of Team Members Marnie McEachern, Ken Ellerbeck, Mike Rink, Alvin McGrath, Gary Klassen, Dennis Fontaine, Kimron David Rink, Simeon Patenio, Ebeth Patenio, Christopher Sundquist, Michelle O'Morrow. If only we could!
Our e-mail to the Courts of B.C. webmaster:
| Quote: | From: editor
To: Webmaster
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:35 AM
Subject: Courts website
Each time I search the 'Search Judgments' database, the result is worse. It's now just about impossible now to limit searches in any meaningful way... And the site warning regarding the no less than 300 hits only clouds the issue.
Are the courts and the judgments rendered a matter of PUBLIC record, or are they NOT?!
In view of SO MANY OF US now forced to represent ourselves even in complex civil actions, why is the database getting LESS rather than MORE user-friendly?
What's the problem?
What's being done to FIX IT?!
Haven't taxpayers already paid for this service?! |
Send your own flame to the courts today!
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1300#1300 |
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