“We learned about the redevelopment through a notice in the mail, it was devastating,” shares Nikki.
Nikki is a tenant living with her family in a detached home within the Broadway Plan area. Their home was bought by the development company Fastmark in 2023.
Launched by the City of Vancouver in 2022, the Broadway Plan rezoned the corridor from Vines Street to Clark Drive and 1st Avenue to 16th Avenue to add 64,000 residents, which would nearly double the number of households in Vancouver's third densest area.
A gold mine for developers, a nightmare for tenants who are being evicted from their homes to make way for units in towers no current residents would be able to afford. While the City implemented an “enhanced” Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy for people displaced under the Broadway Plan, tenants have faced barriers accessing any meaningful support, while the resources offered have been described as woefully inadequate.
Fastmark is targeting the neighbourhood that Nikki and her neighbours – all renters – call home with plans to redevelop three recently rezoned sites in the area, and a fourth in the works.
The first project, approved in 2024, aims to replace the homes from 523 to 549 East 10th Ave with a 19-storey tower. Nikki's home at 529 East 10th avenue will be destroyed to make place for this development. The second, approved in June 2025, would gut the homes down the street from 469 to 483 E 10th Ave in order to build a 17-storey tower. The final site, under conditional approval since September 2025, would build another 17-storey tower on top of 2535 Carolina St and 557-569 E 10th Ave.
“It’s sad that living in Vancouver as a renter feels like there’s a ticking clock, there is no stability,” reflects Nikki. “We have felt completely disposable, with developers treating us as if we are annoying, worthless, and money-grabbing, while they are upending our entire lives.”
Hans Fast, the owner of Fastmark, has bragged about owning a real-estate development company in his 20s, downplaying the fact that he comes from a rich family. The Fasts are well established in Vancouver’s real-estate industry and hold direct ties to the Conservative Party of Canada.
Nikki and her partner moved into her home, currently under threat of demotion, five years ago with their now six-year-old child. The young family has since welcomed a new baby. “When we first moved back to Vancouver, finding a place to live was extremely challenging. This rental felt like a real blessing, and we have truly enjoyed living here. Being within walking distance of parks, schools, amenities, and close friends has been so valuable.”
Although they qualify for tenant protections within the Broadway Plan, the City of Vancouver’s TRPP – a policy that was hard fought by tenants as a bare minimum support ahead of mass evictions – is not as clear-cut as it seems. ”There is a lack of transparency. While tenants may be offered the ‘right of first refusal’ [to rent a unit in the redeveloped building], replacement units are often significantly smaller and can come with hidden costs such as parking and storage,” says Nikki.
“Families, workers, and people with children, hobbies, or even the desire for a functional kitchen are clearly not being considered in these plans.” In other words, while on paper tenants may be offered the opportunity to remain in their neighbourhoods, in practice, this will be an uphill battle for most tenants.
The challenge staring down tenants is not necessarily redevelopment or building new houses in general, as Vancouver Tenants Union members residing in the Broadway Plan area have explained. Rather, the Broadway Plan is a conduit for the displacement of existing tenants, the destruction of the social fabric of the neighbourhood, gentrifying their community spaces, and forcing out long-term working-class tenants in favour of higher-income residents. When housing is a commodity, increasing density won’t solve the problem of affordability.
Building Neighbourhood Solidarity
With some of her neighbours facing similar threats, Nikki joined a meeting of the Mount Pleasant chapter of the Vancouver Tenants Union on March 25, 2025. “One of the only sources of support and hope has been involvement with the tenants union and the solidarity of fellow renters and neighbours.” Through weekly meetings and socials, she says. “This community has been a refuge against developer greed and the vapid Vancouver they seem intent on building.”
“They’ve lived here for over 10 years. You can see the stress on their faces, having to move everything out of their home while having to move their mother back in with a breathing tube because she's on her last final days. They asked for more time, even just a week, and were denied.”
In another house two doors down, facing the same redevelopment threat, Corey shares what brought him to the union, “Community is the only option to stop displacement and the tenants union is all we’ve got right now.”
Recently, Corey has witnessed his next-door neighbours caring for their sick relatives while facing a fast-approaching deadline to leave their home. “They’ve lived here for over 10 years. You can see the stress on their faces, having to move everything out of their home while having to move their mother back in with a breathing tube because she's on her last final days. They asked for more time, even just a week, and were denied.”
In early spring 2025, most of the 14 tenants impacted by this project met in a neighbourhood pub to discuss their situation. At the time, the residents had been asked by their new landlord to consider moving out of their homes early, by the end of July 2025, in a cash for keys offer of $2,000 per household. Despite their diverse personal situations, none of the tenants present wanted to leave their homes by the end of July, as their new landlord originally asked. The $2,000 on offer, less than a months’ rent for most households, was not enough – and less than what all tenants in BC are entitled to under the Residential Tenancy Act in the event that the landlord waits to receive the proper permits and issue eviction notices.
Pressure Tactics and Collective Responses
Neighbourhood solidarity helped the tenants of East 10th resist their landlord’s demands.
Nikki describes how Fastmark would undermine tenants' solidarity by telling them that everyone had to accept a deal or no one would receive it, “It created intense pressure to comply.”
When one tenant did accept an offer of $6,000 to leave, the remaining tenants were told by Fastmark that this meant none of the other tenants could legally be offered more than that amount going forward. But when tenants reached out to the City of Vancouver, the city said that this assertion was false.
The tenants later learned that the first person to sign the deal was offered an extra $40,000 in the event that they could convince the rest of the tenants to take the deal to move out early as well, in an email reviewed by the Mainlander Editorial Collective.
At Corey’s house, tenants were told they could be evicted because of a skateboard ramp they built in their backyard, putting pressure on them to accept the agreement to move out early. Corey remembers multiple phone calls in which Hans Fast yelled at him to “sign this deal when we told him multiple times we didn't want to.” When he and his roommates later accepted the offer of $6,000 plus four months of rent, Fastmark backtracked and rescinded the proposition.
Another tactic is the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA). Fastmark offered certain tenants individual agreements that required them to sign contracts containing confidentiality clauses. “Preventing tenants from sharing the details of their offers with the rest of the units, these agreements limited transparency and made it difficult for tenants to make informed decisions or advocate collectively,” says Nikki.
Corey adds, “this is a very inhumane way of working with people, getting their friends to sign NDAs, playing with their lives by offering money without following up on their promises.” 
In Sept. 2025, Fast put up notices saying that they will be cutting down three of the street trees in front of one of their proposed development sites starting as early as Oct. 1, although no development or building permits had been issued. Residents in the area launched an email campaign to protect the 10th Avenue bike route tree canopy which successfully alerted City Hall of Fastmark’s plans. The three trees targeted for removal by Fastmark are still standing. As tenants stated in their first meeting, “we are the people who make a difference in this community.”
Demovictions and “so-called tenant relocation specialists”
A month later, the tenants living in the five houses targeted for demoviction on the 500 block received their eviction notices. The clock was moving rapidly.
Three of the households collectively filed disputes at the Residential Tenancy Branch against the eviction and attended their arbitration meeting together. Facing the lawyers hired by Fast and his company, they stood their ground. Despite each tenant pointing to the absence of a necessary permit to start the eviction process, the RTB arbitrator decided in favor of the developer and approved the eviction set to take place on Feb. 28, 2026.
The VTU later found out that, seven days after Nikki and her neighbours filed the appeal against their eviction, Vancouver City Hall general managers of development and planning submitted a referral report to streamline the demoviction process by allowing developers to evict tenants before receiving their demolition permits. The report to this effect was passed unanimously by Vancouver City Council in Jan. 2026.
Two weeks before the Feb. 28 deadline, members of two of the households still did not know where they would go. For Nikki and her family, “trying to find a new place has been nearly impossible. The psychological toll has been exhausting, and there are very few realistic options available, especially for families. The uncertainty and constant stress have had a significant impact on our wellbeing.”
Nikki and her family
Despite looking for months now, finding a place to move into had not been feasible. “We want people to know how bad it is. We’re on Craigslist everyday, we’ve visited over 15 places in January alone. Half of them are weird condos, so small the kids couldn’t play.”
The examples abound. “The other day, one condo’s third bedroom was a glass partition with a Murphy bed in the living room. Another room was four feet nine inches. They are not built for people to live in. The only one we saw which was similar to what we have was out of the neighbourhood and over $1,400 [higher] compared to our current rent. The lump sum [TRPP compensation] won’t even cover one year of rent increase.”
For Corey and his housemates, the situation is similar, “Finding a new place has been insane. There’s places available, but nothing is adequate or safe to live in. We’ve been running into mold everywhere, or seen places with twenty people waiting to visit.”
As for the landlord's requirement to help tenants find temporary accommodation, Fast, like other developers, employs the use of “tenant relocation specialists.”
“The so-called ‘relocation specialist’ [the independent contractors that developers are required to provide tenants being evicted, per the TRPP] has been entirely unhelpful,” notes Nikki. “The support amounts to little more than being sent links to Craigslist listings, which we’ve already seen by the time they send them.”
In early Feb. 2026, Nikki’s assigned “relocation specialist” emailed that, given the time constraints, it was “strongly” recommended that Nikki and her family be “open to some compromise on size or layout so that you are able to secure housing.” Fastmark, its property management company Macdonald Realty (part of Macdonald Real Estate Group), and now Nest Well (its relocation specialists), had five months to find housing for 12 households. That two households were left without options weeks before their evictions shows the main oversight of the Broadway Plan relocation strategy: there are not enough units fit to rehouse the tenants demovicted within the Broadway corridor.
If a developer, a property management company and relocation specialists struggled to rehouse seven households, what can be expected when buildings with hundreds of households are next on the chopping block?
“Profiting off displacement isn't gonna fix the problem”
Mount Pleasant houses a quarter of the renters in so-called Vancouver. With many Broadway Plan redevelopments on the docket, the actions of Fastmark reveal that the Broadway Plan’s meagre tenant protections can’t make up for a city built on the commodification of land and housing. Tenants from the block agree: “this is displacement for profit and capitalizing on it isn't gonna fix the problem.”
The reality, which developers willfully ignore, is that the issue in the city isn’t the lack of housing. It is the lack of affordable, stable, and safe housing. Proof in point: There are currently just under 4,000 condos sitting empty in Metro Vancouver, a 649% increase since 2019. It turns out that building small units, to bring “higher return on investments rates”, is only appealing to investors. None of which, if converted to rental units, would be affordable or suitable to current residents.
“The displacement caused by the Broadway Plan is profound and part of a broader pattern across the city,” Nikki tells us. “The current system often assumes renters will simply accept displacement and diminished living conditions. Building strength through solidarity is one of the most important things we can do as renters living in Vancouver.”
The area targeted by the Broadway Plan houses about a quarter of the city's affordable purpose built rentals, while wealthier neighbourhoods like Shaughnessy - with its large mansions and low density - are not even considered for expanding housing options.
Anti-Fastmark graffiti in Mount Pleasant
On their block alone, three more houses received their eviction notice from Fastmark last week. After going through the process, Nikki wants her neighbours to know the reality: “Everyone wants to comply because they believe they are covered by the TRPP. But we have not been clearly informed about when or how rent compensation will be provided, nor has any meaningful moving support been offered, despite what was promised.”
“Any protections promised under the Broadway Plan have only materialized after significant pressure from tenants. Nothing has been proactively provided. At every step, we have had to push, advocate, and involve the City’s housing relocation staff assigned to us.”
Don’t despair, organize!
On Feb. 17, a group of VTU members supported Nikki, her partner Alex and their neighbour Corey to deliver a letter to Fast and his twin brother in Fastmark’s office. Demanding fair monetary compensation - above the minimum required by the TRPP - to offset the tenants’ relocation and increased living costs, the tenants asked the landlord to pay before their eviction as “given the financial impacts of moving, [they were] not in a position to vacate based solely on future payment assurances.” This last demand is in line with the Broadway Plan policy which states the first relocation payment will be made “on or before” the move out date.
Fastmark replied three days later, through the law firm Lawson Lundell, threatening the East 10th tenants that they would “likely be held in contempt of court and the court may order fines and, ultimately, imprisonment” if they refused to leave on Feb. 28. The letter also threatened them with hundred of thousand dollars in liability if the construction was delayed.
Nikki and her partner reached out to Fast directly. At present, their new suite is about half the size of their home, forcing them to rent a storage unit and office space all while their new rent increase was not fully covered by their rent top-up payment. After three years, those extra expenses will amount to $63,396, close to $43,000 more than the relocation support compensation that the City requires under the TRPP. They explained to Fast in an email that “the impact on households, particularly those with children, is real and ongoing. Ignoring this human impact while hiding behind policy language is not fairness. It is a failure to exercise basic decency and moral responsibility.”
Talking to Nikki a month before their eviction, her words ring even stronger today. “For anyone facing a similar situation, my advice is to connect with your neighbours immediately, organize, and build support. Do not expect developers and landlords to act in your best interest. Any protections or compensation you are entitled to will only come through persistent advocacy. Even then, there is little accountability once permits are granted. Although compensation is presented as a requirement, there is no meaningful enforcement to ensure it is actually delivered, leaving tenants to pursue what they are owed on their own.”
Fastmark failed to send the first installment of the lump sum payment due on Feb. 28 to Nikki’s family. After reaching out to city staff, and receiving confirmation the matter would be escalated to the Housing Regulation team if not addressed, their first payment was - finally - received 11 days later. The bare minimum required by the city, fully inadequate for the hardship imposed on tenants, was only met through another push from the tenants.
Learn more about this fight and sign the pledge to stop displacement on East 10th!