Community group asks City of Vancouver to oppose rezoning after BC Housing review and board layoffs

The Kitsilano Coalition said Vancouver should ask BC Housing and its new board to review and make changes to the Arbutus social housing project.

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A community group is calling on the city of Vancouver to oppose a BC Housing rezoning application for a supportive housing project after the province abruptly fired its housing agency’s board late last week after independent and critical review.

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“There is a lack of proper governance and due diligence in how significant sums of public money are spent and distributed,” said Cheryl Grand of the Kitsilano Coalition, which is against rezoning a site in Arbutus between West 7th and West 8th.

Minister responsible for Housing David Eby announced on Friday that the province would appoint a new board chairman and had sacked seven other BC Housing board members.

Their statement said the new board “will continue to oversee the governance of the organizations and ensure the implementation of best practices,” as recommended in a report prepared by Ernst and Young for the province and released a week earlier.

The Kitsilano Coalition repeated two issues highlighted by the report, noting that BC Housing sometimes awards multi-million dollar contracts without a rigorous process to ensure the best provider is chosen and that its actions are not aligned with its mandate, with success measured in number of units built rather than outcomes for residents and the community.

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A public hearing for the 13-story building with 140 social housing units near what will be the Arbutus SkyTrain station has already drawn a huge response from some 275 residents. It heard from less than half of them over three days between June 28 and 30 and will meet again later this week.

In mid-June, Vancouver approved a separate development proposed by BC Housing, a 14-story residential building with 109 social housing units on King Edward Ave. in East Vancouver.

These two BC housing projects make up the bulk of the provincial government’s goal to build an additional 350 permanent supportive homes in the city. Additionally, the city received two more requests from BC Housing for smaller projects in East Vancouver.

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In a statement Monday, the Kitsilano Coalition said Vancouver should ask BC Housing and its new board to review and make changes to the project at Arbutus and 8th Ave.

BC Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing, David Eby. He also said that Eby has “focused on lobbying and blaming civic leaders and municipalities for housing construction delays. However, he has failed to acknowledge the role and responsibility of BC Housing and his ministry in coming up with poorly thought out proposals”.

Eby’s ministry said in a statement that there is no impact on ongoing rezoning applications. He added that if the Arbutus social housing project is approved, BC Housing will establish a community advisory committee to identify and resolve problems.

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The city of Vancouver said it could not comment.

The provincial housing agency has a current budget of $1.9 billion. That’s an increase of more than 140 percent from the $782 million it had five years ago in 2017-18 when the NDP took power. Its borrowing capacity also grew from $165 million to $2.8 billion.

The Ernst and Young report, which focused on financial systems and an operational review, said there was a lack of oversight of decisions and unclear spending, roles and responsibilities that could affect the agency’s ability to manage risks. . He suggested including a senior government executive as an observer on the BC Housing board to improve communication.

The BC government initiated a review in 2021 after seeing how quickly the agency had grown in recent years and also in light of its new $7bn investment in affordable housing over the next 10 years. The report said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing need has been significant.

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The outgoing councilors were appointed by the PND. Board chairwoman Cassie Doyle, whose four-year term was due to end in mid-July, will be succeeded by Allan Seckel, a former director of public service for the Liberal government of BC and a former deputy attorney general.

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