The issue of housing in the Downtown Eastside dominated the comments of many of the first speakers to address city council on a long-term plan proposed for the area.

During a meeting Wednesday (March 12) that stretched from early in the afternoon to late in the evening, council heard various perspectives on what the future of the neighbourhood should look like.

Many presenters focused their remarks on a proposal for a rental-housing zone in the Oppenheimer District of the Downtown Eastside, which would require any new projects above current height restrictions to contain 60 percent social housing and 40 percent rental housing.

The idea drew criticism from speakers including Henry Tom of the Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization Committee and developer and architect Michael Geller.

“I do not believe that banning condominiums will achieve the goal of creating new social housing,” Geller told council.

“Rather than serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of Hastings Street, I worry that this could prevent the revitalization that I think we all want to see, and similarly, rather than enhance the heritage character of the area, I worry that this could compromise and indeed detract from the heritage in the area.”

But the proposal to keep condos out of the central sub-area of the Downtown Eastside also drew support from scores of residents, many of whom spoke passionately about their community.

Karen Ward, who represented Gallery Gachet on the local area planning committee, noted the proposed social housing and rental zone for the area has been characterized as “ghettoizing”.

“If low-income people have indeed been concentrated in one area, it’s because we have been effectively priced out of the rest of the city,” she said.

“The local area plan, it can, if implemented carefully, keep land values low in the Oppenheimer District, using the 60/40 formula. The success or failure of the rest of the 30-year plan depends entirely upon it.”

In a presentation to city council, staff outlined statistics about the neighbourhood, including the fact that 67 percent of the population is low-income, with a median income of $13,691.

The 30-year strategy outlines plans for 4,400 new social housing units in the Downtown Eastside, 3,000 units of secured market rental housing, and 8,850 units of new “affordable homeownership”.

Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt was among the speakers who was scheduled to address council on Wednesday.

While he had to leave before delivering his remarks, a copy of his statement distributed by the Building Community Society indicates that the organization is calling for the city to adopt the Downtown Eastside plan as a draft and develop the policies through further work with the community.

“Council, if you adopt this as the final DTES Area Plan before carrying out the missing parts you will have an incomplete plan built on inadequate information and insufficient consultation,” the statement reads.

“The issues being faced by the DTES are too important to the well-being of this city to be further harmed by any impulse to announce a premature accomplishment.”

The policies the group wants to see more details on include the issue of replacement housing at the welfare shelter rate, and addressing the challenges faced by seriously addicted and mentally ill residents.

Many Downtown Eastside residents also spoke to council about the sense of community in the neighbourhood, the need for social housing at the welfare shelter rate and for an aboriginal health and wellness centre, and about inadequate housing conditions that many low-income tenants face.

“When people live in pest-infested 10 by 10 rooms…your life becomes so much less private,” Ward told council. “Everything you do is on the street, everything you don’t do is on the street, everyone you associate with, your friends and your neighbours, you can’t meet them inside anywhere—you meet them outside.

“I think a little bit about my own past, and how I wound up here…and how a lot of us are running away, and we’ve run away as far as we can, and now we’re here,” she added.

“We’ve been displaced from everywhere else, we’ve been excluded from everywhere else, and this is the first and last place we can find home—and some of us emerge within the space, and some of us take longer. There’s ongoing public pain, and if people find that hard to bear, they should.”

While presenters such as the Carnegie Community Action Project spoke in support of the 60 percent social-housing requirement for new projects in the Downtown Eastside, the organization also criticized the definition of social housing as part of the proposal, which outlines a target of 20 percent social housing at the welfare shelter rate. 

Other organizations that have so far addressed council on the plan include The Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society, which urged the city to ensure that "zones of meaningful inclusion" are created across Vancouver's 24 communities.

More than 120 people have signed up to speak to city council on the issue. The hearing is scheduled to continue on Friday (March 14) at 4 p.m.