Ken Sim Is Wrong. We Need More Supportive Housing, Not Less

Last week Mayor Ken Sim announced that he plans to stop new supportive housing in Vancouver and dramatically alter the Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan that has preserved low property values and encouraged social housing for the last 10 years.

We write to set the record straight as members of the Order of Canada with years of experience living, working and volunteering in the Downtown Eastside, or DTES.

The DTES Local Area Plan, intended to last for 30 years, was co-developed by the city and a local planning process with representatives from the community’s diverse groups, organizations and businesses. They came up with a plan that moves toward a livable and supportive place for all its middle- and low-income residents, local businesses and services.

The plan is working as intended. One of the eight sub-areas of the DTES, the Oppenheimer District, has rules that keep condos out and require developers of private rental housing to include social housing in 60 per cent of the building.

Research by University of British Columbia assistant professor Kuni Kamizaki shows that 41 social housing buildings have been built or acquired or are in progress in the DTES.

The plan requires that all social housing buildings in the DTES, except in Chinatown and industrial areas, must have at least one-third of units renting at social assistance shelter rate ($500 a month today). This strategy ensures that low-income people are not excluded from social housing.

Calling for a pause on “net new” supportive housing in Vancouver is exactly the opposite of what we need. The city has already abandoned 144 units of supportive housing (Larwill Place, Little Mountain) in 2024 with 39 more at Aneki Place on the chopping block for 2025.

Why? Because the city has no plan to renew leases or find new sites for over 600 units of supportive modular housing.

With 3,500 people on social assistance with no fixed address and more homeless seniors and others who aren’t on social assistance, we desperately need housing that rents for $500 a month so people don’t have to live on the street.

Living on the street means people are vulnerable to criminals and have to sleep in front of stores, which is not fair to them or to local businesses. Not having housing is bad for physical and mental health, personal safety, life expectancy and the health of a community as a whole.

Services are concentrated in the DTES where people need them in order to live. Imagine being homeless and having to carry your belongings across the city to get to a doctor appointment, or to get a desperately needed free meal.

More supportive housing is needed throughout Vancouver, the region and the country, to provide services like meals, connections to mental and physical health, harm reduction and life skills help.

Stopping construction of supportive housing in Vancouver won’t create it in other places and will condemn Vancouver’s homeless to die on the supportive housing wait-list.

Housing should be available to everybody who needs it, in their own neighbourhoods and at rates that people on income and disability assistance and basic seniors’ pension can afford.

Conflating criminal activity, supportive housing and people living in poverty misdirects blame. It avoids the real solutions: public policies resources, and housing that people can afford. These would enable all Vancouver citizens to live fulfilling, healthy lives.

We all need to press our political leaders for more supportive housing and an end to homelessness. In the long run, this will cost far less than paying for homeless shelters, hospital care, mental health hospitalization or jail.

Michael Clague, Libby Davies, Terry Hunter, Donald MacPherson, Jean Swanson and Savannah Walling are all Order of Canada recipients for their work on social justice issues.

[Top photo: Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s plan to halt new social housing will condemn more people to live on the streets. Photo for The Tyee by Jen St. Denis.]