City staff to scour Vancouver for new sites to use for temporary modular housing for homeless as result of recent council vote

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As the result of a recent council vote, city staff will spend the next few months scouring Vancouver for new sites that could be used for temporary modular housing for the homeless – locations that had been off-limits until now.

OneCity Councillor Christine Boyle said she’s not sure what staff will find in the traditional “single-family” zones that cover most of Vancouver, but she hopes there will be enough options to make it worthwhile proceeding with her initiative to open up more of the city to tackle homelessness.

Large sites that have been assembled for townhouse or apartment projects on major streets – Oak Street, for example – are likely candidates, Ms. Boyle said.

Although parks and school sites are zoned single-family and technically fall within the potential new permissible zones, she doubts any of those would be appropriate.

As well, “it’s very unlikely that temporary modular housing ends up right in the middle of a very residential area,” she said.

But her motion, which was supported unanimously by Vancouver’s four-party council, allows planners to now look at sites beyond just the limited number already zoned for multiple uses, called CD-1 in Vancouver planning language.

And she said other parts of her initiative pave the way for ensuring that all Vancouver neighbourhoods allow housing geared to lower-income households.

“We need to look at how to make our wealthier neighbourhoods integrate more low-income housing.”

Ms. Boyle said she is hoping that the city could, as part of what she proposed, start buying new sites and putting temporary housing on them until something permanent is built.

Vancouver, using provincial money and sites that were either owned by the city or by developers waiting to go through years-long zoning and permitting processes, has seen more than 600 units of temporary modular housing go up in the past year and a half on 11 sites, all of them on the east side except for one near Cambie and Second.

There is another 50-unit project on the books now near the Nanaimo SkyTrainStation, the first that is being paid for by a second round of provincial money for this new strategy for housing homeless people.

Ms. Boyle said she has felt some push-back from Vancouver residents about the idea, “the usual fear of people ‘different from us,’ some poor-bashing and anti-drug-user stigma.”

Councillors did not hear any public speakers at city hall on the issue, because it was referred to staff for further research and a possible public hearing if it turns out there’s enough land to make the process worthwhile. Vancouver residents will get a chance to register their opinions then.

So for the moment it’s still more of a symbolic statement than an immediate change.

However, those who work on housing issues say even that is important.

“It sends a really strong message from a diverse council. It helps move the conversation forward,” said Jill Atkey, the CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association.

That group’s members sometimes find themselves dealing with strong public opposition to social-housing projects, whether they are for homeless people or for a broader swath of low-income households.

Kelowna has a policy similar to what Vancouver is moving toward, Ms. Atkey said.

That policy to allow supportive housing into any residential neighbourhood, which has been in place for about two years, hasn’t meant that there haven’t been challenges, she said.

“It hasn’t eliminated the opposition but it does give council a bit of policy backing. They still are forced to make really tough decisions.”

A recent housing project proposed for Kelowna’s Rutland neighbourhood generated a petition of 14,000 names opposing it and a turnout of hundreds of angry and anxious residents at a June meeting.

That reaction prompted a vice-president from BC Housing, Stephanie Allen, to convene a forum in Vancouver last Saturday to talk about ways of fighting misinformation and fear.

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