NDP MLA Jenny Kwan suggests that the B.C. Liberal government wants shirk its responsibility for public housing.

The Vancouver-Mount Pleasant representative said that this explains why the province is selling off its social housing sites to nonprofits, starting with Stamps Place, which is in her riding, and Nicholson Tower in the city’s West End.

“I think the provincial government is trying to off-load housing altogether,” Kwan told the Straight in a phone interview.

Kwan has written deputy premier Rich Coleman, who is also the minister responsible for housing, four times, but she has yet to hear from the senior B.C. Liberal cabinet member.

“I also think though that the government is trying to get out of doing subsidies for these projects,” she said. “Part of the questions that I asked of Coleman is not just protecting the subsidies for the existing tenants. What happens when that tenant moves out of that building or passes away?”

The NDP MLA doesn’t think subsidies will be preserved for future tenants.

“It’s a critical commitment that we need to get from the provincial government, that they will maintain the number of subsidies and ratio of subsidies,” she said.

Also, with nonprofits saddled with maintenance and operating costs, one way they could deal with this is through higher rents.

Another is redevelopment, which Kwan suspects is one of the government’s intentions.

“That is a backdoor way for the government to do redevelopment,” Kwan said. “So that they don’t have to lead the redevelopment, right? But rather they’ll say that the nonprofit would be doing it, and then they can wash their hands of the issues that come with redevelopment.”

Coleman did not make himself available for an interview with the Straight.

According to Kwan, four nonprofits have been shortlisted as potential buyers of Stamps Place, a four-hectare housing project at 400 Campbell Street.

These are the Atira Women’s Resource Society, Vancouver Native Housing Society, Lookout Emergency Aid Society, and New Chelsea Society.

Stamps Place is a family-oriented housing project. Built in 1968, the apartment and townhouse complex has 368 residences, plus eight common and staff living areas. The buildings had a retrofit in 2012.

Residents have formed the Stamps Place Tenants Council. On November 28, tenants released a manifesto containing a list of 10 demands.

These demands include keeping the land under some form of common ownership, like through a cooperative or a land trust.

Stamps Place residents also want the province to work out an arrangement wherein tenants are able to build some equity through the rent they pay. This equity could be cashed out but the housing unit would remain public.

Another is for tenants to have a voice in running the housing in the future. Stamps Place is directly managed by B.C. Housing.

“The reason we’re putting that in there is once the government is out…there is really nowhere for tenants to go,” Stamps Place Tenants Council vice president Guy Wakeman told the Straight in a phone interview. “So we want to be sure that the tenants have a say in how everything is going to look in the way of everything from maintenance of our places to dealing with bugs to dealing with future tenants.”

The sale of Stamps Place does not include the site occupied by the Ray-Cam Co-operative Centre on East Hastings Street, which constitutes the northern edge of the larger Stamps Place area.

However, the request for expressions of interest put out by the government states: “The Ray-Cam community center and the associated lands, including but not limited to the parking lot, basketball court and paved areas to the East of the Ray-Cam community center, will be subdivided at a later date by BC Housing in coordination with our various partners.”

Judy McGuire is a member of the board of Ray-Cam, and she has been helping Stamps Place tenants in responding to the sale of the housing project.

“As much as this land has been able to help people here who have low incomes, they want to make sure that the land exists in perpetuity to help others in the same straits,” McGuire told the Straight in a phone interview.