By Gilles Cyrenne with Amy Romer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporters - Megaphone Magazine

During the recent Heart of the City Festival, the Carnegie Housing Project and DTES SRO Collaborative organized a town hall meeting to raise awareness of a motion brought forward by Vancouver City Council called 鈥淯plifting the DTES and Building Inclusive Communities that Work for All Residents.鈥�

The motion includes the possibility of changing the unique zoning of the Downtown Eastside Oppenheimer District (DEOD), and the social housing definition in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), which critics say would further exclude low-income people from new social housing.

The town hall, titled 鈥淯plifting or Gentrifying the DTES?,鈥� saw 130 people in attendance and a panel that included anti-poverty advocates, politicians and academics. The central question the panel explored was: is this a motion for 鈥渦plifting鈥� the DTES, or a motion for gentrification by another name?

The DEOD 鈥� a small six-by-four block corner of the DTES which centres Oppenheimer Park 鈥� is unique as it is zoned differently from other parts of the city. It has its own Official Development Plan (ODP), which emphasizes maintaining affordability and prioritizing social housing. Any idea of condo development in the DTES, therefore, is a contentious one.

People in the DTES want to protect their community as an affordable place to live and are opposed to a change in bylaws that could pave the way for market-value highrise rentals. The city hasn鈥檛 鈥� yet 鈥� changed the existing bylaws, but they are up for review. There will be 鈥渟takeholder consult鈥� with select groups, though not necessarily with the community, until a rezoning happens in early 2025.

Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh is navigating a challenging path, working with a council under serious pressure from developers. She鈥檚 tasked with balancing the concerns of a vocal community with the need to bring a balance of housing types to the area.

During the panel, she highlighted the complexities of 鈥渇ostering collaboration between higher orders of governments to address the pressing need for housing.鈥�

One of the most pressing needs for housing is for those who are homeless.

According to the 2023 Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver, 2,420 people identified as homeless, a 16-per-cent increase over 2020. One-fifth of homeless people are seniors and one-third identify as Indigenous, despite making up less than two per cent of the population, according to Statistics Canada.

A homeless citizen鈥檚 life expectancy is about half that of a housed B.C. resident. Unhoused people face a wide range of health problems associated with poor living conditions, such as mental illness, foot rot, seizures, respiratory diseases and dental problems, but they frequently report their needs are overlooked.

For those suffering from trauma, becoming unhoused multiplies their distress and can accelerate their descent into substance use. In January 2024, Megaphone reported that such decline is 鈥渟tructural or systemic鈥� the lack of quality jobs, inequality, climate disruptions, and economic and health crises, among other issues, lead a person into poverty and homelessness. When housing becomes unaffordable, including in single-room occupancy hotels 鈥� often the last stop before homelessness 鈥� developers and landlords have the power to create conditions that turn streets into tent cities.

During his land acknowledgement at the town hall, Aboriginal Front Door Society President Norm Leech, who has ancestry in the T鈥檌t鈥檘鈥檈t community of the St鈥檃t鈥檌mc Nation wondered why so many people like to talk about the Downtown Eastside.

鈥淓ven Snoop Dogg likes to tweet about the DTES,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 because it鈥檚 the end of the road, people end up here鈥� We are the result of people making money and pushing poor people into smaller and smaller places. We are survivors.鈥�

After the meeting, Leech told Megaphone that society鈥檚 relationship with the land is important.

鈥淚t determines our relationships with one another, with Creator, and with the entire Universe,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need to see land not as property but as our relative, our ancestor, our Mother.鈥�

Developed in 2014, The City of Vancouver鈥檚 DTES Area Plan has worked to protect the community from high-end condo development. Jean Swanson, long-time anti-poverty advocate and former Vancouver city councillor, noted that since the city made the DEOD a no-condo zone, it鈥檚 seen only two market rental buildings developed, each with 60 per cent social housing units. As for social housing buildings in the DEOD, 22 have been either built, acquired or are in process, with 2,251 units of social housing, of which 988 will be at the welfare shelter rate.

No-condo zoning, like that of the DEOD, keeps property values down and makes it affordable for government and social agencies to purchase and build housing for low-income citizens, but developers are casting predatory eyes on the community. Changes in zoning bylaws that would allow highrise condo development would give them massive profits and exacerbate income inequality in the DTES. Their desire to gentrify our community into another Yaletown, where rents average $2,600 a month, does nothing to uplift us.

From 1960 to 1994, the federal government built or purchased, on average, 16,000 units of non-profit or co-op housing every year. By the early 鈥�90s, property-supremacist, trickle-down economic theory dominated government decision-making, and the feds stopped this contribution to communities.

Homelessness was not a pronounced issue in Vancouver until the 1980s, when Riverview Hospital began accelerating the displacement of its patients without adequate community supports.

Before then, there had generally been enough affordable housing provided by programs under the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, initiated in 1946 by the federal government. However, funding cuts in the 1980s led to a significant decline in such programs, and eventually to their complete discontinuation by the early 1990s. This shift left the private sector able and willing to dominate housing development, prioritizing market-driven projects over affordability, the impact of which is visibly stark on Vancouver鈥檚 streets, now overrun by unhoused residents.

On Instagram, the Carnegie Housing Project (@carnegie.housingproject) recently posted a reel interviewing staff member Devin O鈥橪eary, who reminded us that housing is a human right, recognized in both Canadian law and International law, but that 鈥渇or decades now, the majority of people have had to live in a system where housing is not .125 treated as .375 a human right.鈥�

O鈥橪eary, who also spoke at the town hall, noted that if housing is not treated as an essential service, it can force people into dangerous situations 鈥� such as keeping an unsafe job, staying in an abusive relationship, spending entire incomes 鈥� just to survive.

鈥淢eeting people鈥檚 needs immediately is the responsibility of our government,鈥� said O鈥橪eary, who along with the Carnegie Housing Project is calling for the newly elected B.C government to treat housing as a human right.

鈥淭he political will required to turn the government鈥檚 priorities needs to come from communities affected by these policies,鈥� the Carnegie Housing Project reported in a written statement. It spent the last year interviewing nearly 100 DTES residents and 11 community groups, and has developed a list of 42 recommendations for all levels of government to take action and end homelessness. The report, This Isn鈥檛 Working, can be found online at carnegiehousingproject.ca.