Housing affordability tied to density

How can a balanced housing mix be kept in the last building phases in Southeast False Creek?

By Pieta Woolley

Publish Date: May 21, 2009

Gregory Henriquez

Managing partner, Henriquez Partners Architects

“I believe that if we can use density bonusing to save heritage buildings, we can use it to build affordable homes, too.…Woodward’s is a case in point. It’s almost one million square feet, which is the size of the Olympic Village. That density is what allowed all these things [public amenities] to occur.”

Sharon Isaak

Cofounder of Renters at Risk and director of the West End Residents Association

“We need to look at this [the modest-income third] from a renter’s perspective, about what’s affordable. Some of the renos in the West End have meant the new rents are $2,500 a month. So I’d like to know whether it’s going to be ‘affordable’ by supply-and-demand rules? Or whether it’ll be linked to income?”

Libby Davies

Vancouver East MP and deputy NDP leader and house leader

“We should fight like hell for the federal government to come up with the money. When my housing bill [C-304] is adopted, we’ll have a national housing strategy again, and it won’t be an issue anymore. The Bloc and, I’m pretty sure, the Liberals are supporting it, so it will likely pass in September.”

Kim Kerr

Executive director, Downtown Eastside Residents Association

“Anything can happen if we have the will to make it happen. They could do it if the different levels of government got together and decided to give a damn. We see what’s happened with the [Homeless Emergency Action Team] shelters and the reduction of crime. We’d get paid back enormously. But I’m not holding my breath.”

In the view of developer Stanley Kwok, high-rises are key to Vancouver’s economic future.

In the United Arab Emirates, Vancouver-based developer Stanley Kwok recently helped create a waterfront community much like Southeast False Creek (SEFC). Unlike in Vancouver, though, where planners “have a concern about heights”, Kwok said, the glittering Dubai Marina boasts twin 44-storey condo towers that rival the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre in height. The development is massive. Cash from sales of super-dense condos is what supports the Middle East community’s posh amenities, such as a faux lagoon.

Kwok isn’t the kind of guy to say “I told you so,” but his original development plan—released in 1997—for what’s now the Olympic Village called for far higher density than the green, low-rise project that has evolved a decade later. That density, Kwok said, is a key to economic sustainability, and halting it could be to blame for gutting the 2005 goal of one-third social housing, one-third modest-income housing, and one-third market housing.

“You can’t have champagne on a beer budget,” Kwok, one of the people behind the Concord Pacific development in Yaletown, told the Straight during an interview in his 18th-floor penthouse on South Granville. “It’s like everything. Without money, nothing happens. You can dream all you like, but you have to be practical.”

In 2005, the Olympic Village site’s official development plan contained the “thirds” goal. But in 2006, Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association council changed the mix to 20-percent social housing and 80-percent market. The party blamed empty social-housing pockets at the provincial and federal levels for forcing the change, which otherwise could have cost the city’s Property Endowment Fund at least $42 million ($63.1 million total), according to SEFC’s 2005 financial plan and strategy.

Kwok’s argument is that if the city wants goodies like affordable housing—and the federal and provincial governments are not shelling out housing dollars—Vancouver must be prepared for towers. Even though the Olympic Village has already been built, this still matters, because the other two phases of SEFC have not.

On paper, the outer ring at SEFC still contains that “thirds” housing mix. In the next couple of years, the new Vision Vancouver–dominated council will move forward with developing that land. But with the continued drought of provincial and federal housing dollars, where’s that money going to come from?

Vision councillor Raymond Louie is hesitant to endorse Dubai-like towers, but he won’t write them off, either. So far, the city has been successful in securing funding for the HEAT (Homeless Emergency Action Team) shelters from the province, he said. Council is planning to continue to lobby the provincial and federal governments, he noted, and he hopes for continued success. Plus, he said, the city’s soon-to-be-introduced rental strategy will provide short-term incentives for developers to create 2,000 units within two years.

“Height and density need to be appropriately placed in this city,” Louie told the Straight. “My hope would be that we could recover some of the lost opportunities at the Olympic Village, and it may entail additional density. This wouldn’t necessarily be high towers. We’d have to look at it very carefully.”

But to architect Gregory Henriquez, height is right. Henriquez Partners Architects is the firm behind Woodward’s, Lore Krill Housing Co-op, the 1976 False Creek development, and other progressive mixed-income developments. He doubts that the next phases of SEFC will retain the “thirds” goal without a civic change in favour of towers.

Developers can only be part of the solution, according to Vancouver–Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan. The tower-rich Collingwood Village, she said, is a good example of offering density to a developer in exchange for affordable housing. Ongoing subsidies, however, still depend on the involvement of government.

“All that [provincial and federal] money has now dried up,” Kwan told the Straight, noting that’s what supported the model income mix at the old False Creek site. “So how will the city solve the mix in SEFC? That’s the ultimate question.”

From Kwok’s penthouse view, the towers at Yaletown are picturesque while the low-rise zoning in Fairview appears dull. But the view from City Hall, ultimately, will determine Vancouver’s affordable future.

SEFC: rich in expensive goodies in 2005

> Cost of low-income housing: $42 million (for one-third of the mix; $25.4 million was the estimated cost for 20 percent low-income housing)

> Cost of middle-income housing: $21.1 million (for one-third)

> Park sites and development: $42.6 million

> Heritage buildings renovation: $10.6 million

> Community centre and boating facility: $9 million

> Library: $1.5 million

> Childcare: $19.8 million

> Roads and traffic management: $36.5 million

> Of this, $85 million was to come from the Property Endowment Fund.

All figures from the January 17, 2005, document Southeast False Creek Redevelopment: Financial Plan and Review

West End renters under eviction get ready for fight as Liberals stay in power

Sandra Thomas, Vancouver Courier

Published: Thursday, May 14, 2009

On Monday afternoon another press conference was held in the West End in front of another apartment building where the tenants have been served eviction notices.

Sharon Isaak, a volunteer with the ad hoc Renters at Risk, said it’s a scenario that’s been playing out too often in the West End. She believes it’s the reason Liberal candidate Laura McDiarmid didn’t stand a chance running in the West End in Tuesday’s provincial election. The NDP’s Spencer Herbert, who won the riding in the provincial byelection last October, received 9,302 votes to McDiarmid’s 5,375.

“It’s fantastic that Spencer won,” said Isaak. “But the Liberals were in power yesterday, and they’re still in power today. We’re going to have to see if they change the legislation that caused this mess.” Renters rights have become a huge West End issue in the past year, particularly during the provincial byelection and last November’s municipal election. Renters advocates say the problems stem from changes to the Residential Tenancy Act in 2004 by the Liberals which allows landlords to raise rents beyond the 3.7 per cent annual limit, providing they can prove neighbouring buildings are charging higher rents. This “geographic profiling” was used by the owners of the Seafield Apartments on Pendrell Street to justify a proposed 73 per cent rent increase application.

The Residential Tenancy Office ruled last month the owners could increase the rent up to 38 per cent. Another change to the Act allows landlords to evict tenants to make way for renovations. In many cases, says renters activists, landlords have used the loophole to evict tenants, add a coat of paint to suites and then raise rents. Tenants living at the Berkeley on Bute Street were given “renoviction” notices this week and organized the press conference in response.

“I would like to see the Liberals revise the Act,” said Isaak. “It’s obvious the Act is flawed. Too many tenants are being evicted and with the Seafield ruling landlords are all going to try and raise their rents. But this is not a story about bad landlords, this is about bad government.”

Isaak said Herbert has worked to help tenants, including introducing a private members bill that would see the Act revised.

“I’m glad he’s on our side,” she said. Brian Garlick, who’s lived in the Berkeley for more than five years, said he’s glad Herbert won the riding but was disappointed the Liberals won the general election.

“I’m sorry the Liberals, or should I say the Socreds, got back into power,” said Garlick. “I know they’re not called Socreds, but a skunk by any other name is still a skunk.” The Social Credit party dominated B.C. government for almost four decades between 1952 and 1991, aside from a brief NDP administration from 1972 to 1975. It had fiscally conservative views on social welfare spending and loosened rent controls in the 1980s.

Garlick, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, said the Berkeley has been an ideal home because it’s close to St. Paul’s Hospital, where he receives treatment and also speaks to men and women with HIV and AIDS. Garlick said his situation caused him to pay close attention to the May 12 election and he now plans on volunteering to help Herbert fight for changes to the Residential Tenancy Act.

“I hope he’ll be able to keep his focus on this issue, but he’s got a lot of other responsibilities too,” said Garlick. “So I’m going to be there helping.”

sthomas@vancourier.com

© Vancouver Courier 2009

NEWS: Rent hikes threaten residents of housing complex

NEWS: Rent hikes threaten residents of housing complex (Mole Hill)

Posted By: Jackie Wong

05/21/2009 12:00 AM

Arwen Brenneman (left) and fellow residents of the West End’s Mole Hill housing complex are facing substantial rent increases that may force them to move out. Credit: Doug Shanks

It’s not easy these days to raise a family in Vancouver on a modest income, but living in affordable rental housing should help to make the financial burden a little lighter. That’s why Arwen Brenneman and her husband, John, applied to live in the West End’s Mole Hill housing complex when they decided to have children. But a rent increase recently issued to them and other tenants who pay low market rates in the complex is forcing them to rethink their plans.

“If this goes through, we’ll probably [have to move] out to New Westminster,” says Brenneman, whose family has lived in Mole Hill for six years. “We made choices based on initiatives that were… to try to support middle-income people [who chose to live] downtown for all sorts of very good reasons,” she says, adding that she wants her children to grow up within the diversity of the West End. “But I feel like we’re a social experiment that’s been abandoned.”

Mole Hill, a collection of West End heritage homes behind St. Paul’s Hospital (between Pendrell and Comox Streets), was saved from demolition as the result of extensive community activism throughout the 1980s and ’90s that eventually led to the revitalization of the houses, as reflected by their current incarnation. Mole Hill housing units range in size from bachelor to three-bedroom suites, 60 per cent of which are subsidized (rents are determined by calculating 30 per cent of residents’ incomes), and 40 per cent of which are market housing at the low end of market rates, usually 10 to 15 per cent less than what the market charges.

Brenneman’s family now pays $1,068 per month for its two-bedroom, 850-square foot apartment, with no amenities such as laundry rooms in the building. Rent increases will see that rate rise to just below $1,400 in two years. Brenneman, a part-time web consultant, is the primary caregiver for her two young sons, while her husband works as a network technician (he was laid off twice in the past year as a result of the economic downturn). Like many young parents, Brenneman is saddled with lingering student-loan debt and prohibitive childcare fees. “Last year, I made about $25,000, but I spent about $10,000 on childcare,” she says. “And I’m working to go back to school… I’m not sure whether that will happen or not, but it does mean we are in sort of temporary poverty.”

Brenneman says one-bedroom apartments will be hardest hit, with 48-per-cent rent increases over the next two years, which tenants first heard about in December 2008. Affected tenants have filed for a joint arbitration (scheduled for July 17) at the Residential Tenancy Office to dispute the rent increases. In the meantime, Brenneman has seen her neighbours start making plans to move out of the community, which has long been known for its long-term tenants. “My next-door neighbour, he’s got three kids; he’s already given notice,” she says. “The stress is too much.”

Margot Beauchamp, executive director of the Mole Hill Housing Society, has dealt with the difficult task of liaising between BC Housing, the volunteer board of the Mole Hill Housing Society, and tenants. “We were between a rock and a hard place,” she says of the rent increases. “[BC Housing] suggested that they would not solve this problem for us, and we had to go to the Residential Tenancy Act and exercise the part of the Act that says a landlord can, in fact, exceed the allowable amount [of a rent increase] if they can prove that there are similar rents in the community that are charging more, and/or if they can prove that they’re in a financial deficit situation — which are both true, in our case.”

Beauchamp says the rent increases are a necessary course of action to resolve a deficit in Mole Hill’s operating agreement with BC Housing. “We’re not doing this in order to increase our profit,” Beauchamp says. “We’re doing this in order to have a balanced budget and continue to operate as a housing society, and that’s mandatory. It’s part of our operating agreement with BC Housing.”

Terry Lavender, a longtime West End renter who chairs the Mole Hill Housing Society, doesn’t predict a positive outcome from the rent increases at Mole Hill. “We certainly hope it doesn’t become a gentrification of Mole Hill,” he says. “None of the board members would want that… That’s not why we’re here. But we may be forced into that if we’re forced to raise rents.”

A spokesperson from BC Housing requested not to be quoted in WE.

More West End evictions (The Berkeley)

More West End evictions
HOUSING / ‘I am so goddamned angry with the system in this province’: HIV-positive tenant

Source:  XTra West
Shauna Lewis / Vancouver / Saturday, May 16, 2009

An HIV-positive man is the latest casualty in the ongoing string of West End rental disputes after another apartment building was mass evicted for what tenants are calling a “renoviction.

Brian Garlick, 65, and neighbours in 21 other suites of the Berkeley building at 990 Bute St were presented with eviction notices May 8.

They have been given until Jul 31 to vacate pending plans to “gut” the building or “renovate in a manner that doesn’t allow tenants to stay,” say residents.

Tenants say the news didn’t come as a shock since rumours of eviction and renovation began circulating after one of the alleged four landlords, Dr Satnam Singh Gandham, took over the building last summer.

“We’ve been living under the threat of eviction since late last year,” says tenant Dominic Schaefer.

For Garlick, who relies on St Paul’s Hospital’s HIV/AIDS resources for ongoing care and support, living in the West End is more of a lifeline than a luxury.

“Not only would moving be expensive, but it would be too unhealthy for a person with respiratory problems,” says Garlick, who has contracted pneumonia three times in the last fives years due to HIV complications.

Garlick blames the provincial government. “I am so goddamned angry with the system in this province. It just seems to shit on the people,” he says. “We’ve just been screwed royally by the government.”

Schaefer too blames the BC Liberals for the rental disputes plaguing the West End. The Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) “has to change if tenants are to have their rights respected,” he asserts.

NDP candidate slams West End “renovictions”

Updated: Mon May. 11 2009 18:54:58

ctvbc.ca

Incumbent NDP candidate Spencer Herbert spoke to evicted tenants in Vancouver’s West End Monday, re-stating his party’s promise to end the series of “renovictions” in the province.

Herbert held the press conference on the steps of the Berkeley apartment building on Bute St., after all of the building’s remaining tenants were served eviction notices over the weekend.

“This is a key issue in this election,” Herbert said. “Days before the election, these eviction notices have hit – and it really shows the need to change government if we’re going to change the Residential Tenancy Act.”

In April, Carole James pledged to amend the act to close a loophole that critics claim has enabled landlords to evict tenants after performing minor, cosmetic renovations and then sharply increase rent — a process dubbed “renovicting” by activists.

Related: Read the Residential Tenancy Act.

Residents of Berkeley apartments – who now pay from $850 to $1,400 for a one-bedroom – have been on pins and needles since landlord Satnam Singh Gandham applied for permission to gut the 36-suite complex for renovations last year.

Under looming threat of eviction, almost half of the building’s tenants moved out. This weekend, after months of waiting, the remaining 22 suites received their notices. They have until July 31 to find new homes.

“People can’t be treated this way,” resident Dominic Shafer said. “This kind of thing has to stop.”

Shafer, a tenant for 17 years, told reporters about the anxiety of waiting for eviction.

“We just knew the sword was hanging over our heads,” Shafer said. “We didn’t know when it was going to be happening.”

He added that some neighbourhood landlords are asking as much as $26,000 a year for a two-bedroom – and many of his evicted neighbours will not be able to find another home in the area as a result.