p0stcap
Whose block? Our block!
UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY: On Tuesday June 11 more than 300 low-income Downtown Eastside residents and their allies rallied at Hastings and Main against displacement by gentrification. For two hours this spirited group held all four lanes of Hastings Street as they marched, sang, drummed, chanted, and spoke out against the high end condos and shops flooding their majority low-income community, and demanded social housing now!
The framework of their march was a five-point social justice zone which they demanded City Hall implement as the planned future of the neighbourhood. Over 10 days in the lead-up to the action the group carried out a petition drive supporting those five points on the streets, in the parks, and door-to-door in the housing projects of the DTES. This petition gathered 3,000 signatures of support over these ten days, and mobilized the community for this action.
The rally ended with a delivery to the city's DTES planning office of the 5-point social justice zone plan and 3,000 name petition by a delegation of low-income residents who have been involved in the City's official planning process for over 2 years.
Read the 5-point social justice zone plan statement here: ccapvancouver.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/dtes-community-pla...
Stop the city’s Developer Plan for the Downtown Eastside
Block condos today to build social housing tomorrow
Downtown Eastside Community Plan for a SOCIAL JUSTICE ZONE to end the housing crisis and stop displacement
We acknowledge that the Downtown Eastside occupies the unceded territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish Coast Salish nations.
SJZ graphic for FBThe future of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) is being decided by rich real estate investors and developers who are profiting off changing the neighbourhood from a place where low-income people feel at home into yet another upscale area. While city planners fuel the engines of real estate corporations by approving boutique condo towers, 5,000 people are living in increasingly expensive SRO hotel rooms that are unhealthy, bug/rodent infested and lacking kitchens/private bathrooms. As these SRO hotels become unaffordable, more and more people are pushed out into the streets and shelters. This housing crisis forces Indigenous women, children and others vulnerable to violence to live in danger and isolation. Gentrification, as a displacement pressure, is making these crises worse and, we fear, soon irreversible.
For two years, low-income Downtown Eastside residents have been working on a Local Area Planning Process (LAPP) that the city promised would “improve the lives of those who currently live in the area, particularly low-income people and those who are most vulnerable,” as stated in LAPP’s Terms of Reference. That’s why we got involved. However, after 2 years of consultations, there’s no evidence that the city plans to stop gentrification, which is displacing low-income residents.
Therefore low-income residents have created a set of specific policies for a SOCIAL JUSTICE ZONE that would bring our vision of our neighbourhood to life:
1. NO CONDOS BEFORE LOW-INCOME PEOPLE’S HOMES Use zoning laws to keep all condos and real estate speculators out of the DTES Oppenheimer District until the SROs are replaced and the homeless are housed in social housing. In the Hastings Corridor and Thornton Park, use zoning laws to make 2/3 of all new developments social housing for people on welfare/pension and also the working-poor. Protect DTES spaces for social housing and advocate for senior government housing programs.
2. REVERSE THE LOSS OF HOMES & SHOPS FOR LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS Create and use bylaws to freeze rents and stop renovictions in SRO hotels while improving conditions and making landlords pay for violations. Create a social impact assessment process directed by low-income residents to approve or deny new business applications.
3. ENSURE JOBS FOR LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS Create job training programs for anyone who wants them. Adopt hiring policies for low-income residents with barriers, including languages, for jobs in city-owned, city-supported and city-operated services. Order police to exempt survival work, such as binning, street vending and sex work, from ticketing, harassment and arrest.
4. PROTECT RESIDENTS’ SAFETY Create a resident-directed DTES police and security ombuds office to receive complaints and direct investigations. Provide free public transit passes to all low-income Vancouver residents. Expand, don’t cut, funding to support residents and programs organizing for the safety of women, trans and other people vulnerable to violence.
5. END DISCRIMINATION SO EVERYONE CAN ACCESS THE SERVICES THEY NEED
Adopt policies for language, cultural and mobility accessibility in all services, including hiring plans for Indigenous residents, people with disabilities, seniors, queer and trans people and women, as well as Chinese and Spanish speaking workers. Create anti-colonial planning and service organizations. Make the DTES a sanctuary zone where all have equal access to health, housing and social services regardless of citizenship status.
This is a call to the City of Vancouver to adopt the policies proposed by low-income DTES residents as the truthful outcome of the Local Area Planning Process. Our DTES community plan turns away developers and protects the DTES as a SOCIAL JUSTICE ZONE where low-income communities can continue to work to build a healthy, safe and just community themselves.
Whose block? Our block!
UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY: On Tuesday June 11 more than 300 low-income Downtown Eastside residents and their allies rallied at Hastings and Main against displacement by gentrification. For two hours this spirited group held all four lanes of Hastings Street as they marched, sang, drummed, chanted, and spoke out against the high end condos and shops flooding their majority low-income community, and demanded social housing now!
The framework of their march was a five-point social justice zone which they demanded City Hall implement as the planned future of the neighbourhood. Over 10 days in the lead-up to the action the group carried out a petition drive supporting those five points on the streets, in the parks, and door-to-door in the housing projects of the DTES. This petition gathered 3,000 signatures of support over these ten days, and mobilized the community for this action.
The rally ended with a delivery to the city's DTES planning office of the 5-point social justice zone plan and 3,000 name petition by a delegation of low-income residents who have been involved in the City's official planning process for over 2 years.
Read the 5-point social justice zone plan statement here: ccapvancouver.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/dtes-community-pla...
Stop the city’s Developer Plan for the Downtown Eastside
Block condos today to build social housing tomorrow
Downtown Eastside Community Plan for a SOCIAL JUSTICE ZONE to end the housing crisis and stop displacement
We acknowledge that the Downtown Eastside occupies the unceded territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish Coast Salish nations.
SJZ graphic for FBThe future of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) is being decided by rich real estate investors and developers who are profiting off changing the neighbourhood from a place where low-income people feel at home into yet another upscale area. While city planners fuel the engines of real estate corporations by approving boutique condo towers, 5,000 people are living in increasingly expensive SRO hotel rooms that are unhealthy, bug/rodent infested and lacking kitchens/private bathrooms. As these SRO hotels become unaffordable, more and more people are pushed out into the streets and shelters. This housing crisis forces Indigenous women, children and others vulnerable to violence to live in danger and isolation. Gentrification, as a displacement pressure, is making these crises worse and, we fear, soon irreversible.
For two years, low-income Downtown Eastside residents have been working on a Local Area Planning Process (LAPP) that the city promised would “improve the lives of those who currently live in the area, particularly low-income people and those who are most vulnerable,” as stated in LAPP’s Terms of Reference. That’s why we got involved. However, after 2 years of consultations, there’s no evidence that the city plans to stop gentrification, which is displacing low-income residents.
Therefore low-income residents have created a set of specific policies for a SOCIAL JUSTICE ZONE that would bring our vision of our neighbourhood to life:
1. NO CONDOS BEFORE LOW-INCOME PEOPLE’S HOMES Use zoning laws to keep all condos and real estate speculators out of the DTES Oppenheimer District until the SROs are replaced and the homeless are housed in social housing. In the Hastings Corridor and Thornton Park, use zoning laws to make 2/3 of all new developments social housing for people on welfare/pension and also the working-poor. Protect DTES spaces for social housing and advocate for senior government housing programs.
2. REVERSE THE LOSS OF HOMES & SHOPS FOR LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS Create and use bylaws to freeze rents and stop renovictions in SRO hotels while improving conditions and making landlords pay for violations. Create a social impact assessment process directed by low-income residents to approve or deny new business applications.
3. ENSURE JOBS FOR LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS Create job training programs for anyone who wants them. Adopt hiring policies for low-income residents with barriers, including languages, for jobs in city-owned, city-supported and city-operated services. Order police to exempt survival work, such as binning, street vending and sex work, from ticketing, harassment and arrest.
4. PROTECT RESIDENTS’ SAFETY Create a resident-directed DTES police and security ombuds office to receive complaints and direct investigations. Provide free public transit passes to all low-income Vancouver residents. Expand, don’t cut, funding to support residents and programs organizing for the safety of women, trans and other people vulnerable to violence.
5. END DISCRIMINATION SO EVERYONE CAN ACCESS THE SERVICES THEY NEED
Adopt policies for language, cultural and mobility accessibility in all services, including hiring plans for Indigenous residents, people with disabilities, seniors, queer and trans people and women, as well as Chinese and Spanish speaking workers. Create anti-colonial planning and service organizations. Make the DTES a sanctuary zone where all have equal access to health, housing and social services regardless of citizenship status.
This is a call to the City of Vancouver to adopt the policies proposed by low-income DTES residents as the truthful outcome of the Local Area Planning Process. Our DTES community plan turns away developers and protects the DTES as a SOCIAL JUSTICE ZONE where low-income communities can continue to work to build a healthy, safe and just community themselves.