July 26 - The Georgia Straight

Coincidentally, the Georgia Straight has come out with a few great articles on Housing Solutions, just as my blog is ending. The cover of this edition depicts a rather sad looking character cramped into the stump of a hollowed out tree, squished in with all his earthly belonging. A bewildered an annoyed squirrel watches over. The analogy doesn’t seem so silly these days. One of the articles (by Charlie Smith) provides some insight into the Little Mountain Housing complex. It is a 6 hectare site (quite a large piece of land by today’s standards) at 33^rd and Main St that is slated for redevelopment. The site will be redesigned to includes hundreds more units, both of market and non-market housing. The city can then use the profit to fund other social housing projects. While I think there intentions are good (increase densification, increase capital for more projects, provide more social housing) they are going about the development all wrong. Rather than develop the project in phases (which is quite possible given the scale of the site), all the residents are forced to move out at once. They are being relocated across the city. So while the project is under construction (which will take a few years), children are forced to switch schools, people will have to commute longer distances, and seniors will have to arrange travel for medical attention. It seems to me, that if we want to provide housing, we should not have to evict people from their homes in order to do it.