Model of False Creek 

Bob Ransford has recently published yet another article in the Vancouver Sun repeating his mantra that the affordability crisis in Vancouver is caused by a lack of private development. The logic goes as follows: Demand for new housing is exceeding supply, yet the people of Vancouver are preventing affordability by fighting against the development industry’s bid to add more supply. “The solution is simple,” writes Ransford, “more supply equals more affordable housing.”

In the midst of an affordable housing shortage, including a virtual freeze on the construction of non-market housing, it goes without saying that Vancouver needs more housing. The question to ask, however, is do we need more private housing development? After decades of increased housing prices, growing household debt, and growing urban inequalities, now is a good time to re-evaluate the role of the private sector in providing one of the basic necessities of life: housing.

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Trayvon

It’s Sunday early evening and we’re at Victory Square, a park in Vancouver, holding a Vigil for Trayvon Martin. We’re here to mourn Martin’s murder and express our outrage with the system that made it happen.

Martin, 17 years old, was simply walking home one day when George Zimmerman spotted him, called 911, assumed he was “up to no good,” confronted him, and eventually shot him dead. In the aftermath, Martin’s character was analyzed and condemned. Many believed Zimmerman’s story that Martin attacked him. Many accepted that Martin was a menace. Many clung to “damning” reports that he had marijuana in his system, that he’d been suspended from school, and that he, like so many young kids, had a habit of macho posturing in photos.

Few of them lingered on the fact that Zimmerman has a history of violence and paranoia. He was once arrested for fighting an officer, his former fiance filed a restraining order for domestic abuse, and he’d made 46 separate 911 and nonemergency calls between August 2004 and the day he murdered Martin. One relative even accused him of sexual assault.

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On June 10th, The Mainlander hosted The Foreign Invest Myth: Understanding the Housing Crisis & Confronting Racism in Vancouver, a panel with Jackie Wong, Pablo Mendez and Henry Yu.  Here are the videos (Q & A forthcoming).

Jackie Wong talks about her experience interviewing Chinese seniors who live in Chinatown, and some of the assumptions people make about race, ethnicity and income in Vancouver.

Pablo Mendez looks at the statistical breakdown of renters in Vancouver and talks about the problems with addressing the affordability crisis with an “affordable home ownership” strategy.

Henry Yu talks about the history of racism and colonialism in Vancouver. He talks about the neoliberal market as the driving factor of Vancouver’s affordability crisis.

mythML

Public Event
with Jackie Wong, Henry Yu and Pablo Mendez

The Foreign Investment Myth:
Understanding the Housing Crisis & Confronting Racism in Vancouver

7PM, Monday, June 10th, 2013
SFU Harbour Centre (Room TBA)
Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territory

There has been a growing consensus that the lack of affordability in our city is caused by foreign investment from Asia. Since the 1980s, this narrative has relied on Vancouver’s historic penchant for racial scapegoating while downplaying the actual causes of the current housing crisis. In lieu of basic questions about land-use and housing policy, affordability has been reframed around vague racist imperatives. As a result, the reality of the housing crisis has been obscured.

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