Battle of 58 West Hastings: The History of a Fight for Housing, 2007–2016

In 2008, Gregor Robertson built his successful mayoral campaign around the tragic death of Darrel Mikasko, a homeless man who burned to death trying to keep warm after being turned away from a Kitsilano shelter. But while Gregor was campaigning on a soon-broken promise, low income people in the Downtown Eastside were actively fighting against a new threat of displacement posed by Concord Pacific – this time on a property down the street from Woodward’s. The address was 58 W Hastings, evicted and demolished (“demovicted”) by Concord Pacific that same year.

Only fraction of new social housing units in Vancouver guaranteed for low-income people

In their annual Housing and Homelessness Report Card, the City of Vancouver reports that 1,683 units of new social housing are in development or have been built since 2012. Yet based on research by the authors, under 6% of the new social housing is guaranteed for people on welfare. The vast majority of Vancouver’s “social housing”, therefore, will be unavailable for the 1,847 people reported as homeless in Vancouver this year, the highest number since counts began.

White Supremacy and the Foreign Investment Debate

The main thing I would like to do today is to concentrate on the question of where the history of racial scapegoating in Vancouver originated. To do that it’s important to begin from the beginning. One thing that I find helpful in these conversations is to think about the question, “Who belongs here?” – “here” meaning where we are in Vancouver, but also in Canada in general. Many of you have probably heard that Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States are settler colonies that were built around white supremacy as a way determining who does and does not belong.

Burnaby renters stand up to city hall, protest ‘demovictions’

On Tuesday November 24th, protesters from the “Stop Demo-victions Burnaby” campaign brought their message to Burnaby City Hall. Chanting and singing, they marched into council chambers during the proceedings of a public hearing for the demolition rezoning of four more affordable rental housing apartment buildings in the Metrotown area. Despite public pressure, Burnaby City Council rubber-stamped the rezoning application, continuing its policy of displacement and fueling the speculative environment in the city.