Candidates vow to take council to task over housing

Vancouver’s civic byelection candidates are pledging to take council to task for its failure to effectively solve the city’s housing crisis.

Nine people are competing for a seat in council chambers vacated over the summer by Vision Vancouver’s Geoff Meggs, who took a job with Premier John Horgan as chief of staff.

Thursday at Simon Fraser University’s Vancouver campus, seven candidates spoke at a public forum where they pitched their platforms and answered questions from 60 voters about government spending, protecting small businesses and addressing the dearth of affordable housing. Vision’s Diego Cardona and independent Joshua Wasilenkoff did not attend.

Most questions led to discussions about housing, with each candidate promising to disrupt the status quo at city hall should they be elected Oct. 14.

Independent Jean Swanson, a longtime advocate for the homeless, reiterated her proposal for a “mansion tax” on homes assessed at $5 million or more, pledging to use $174 million in annual proceeds to house the homeless, build co-op and social housing and return land to First Nations. She used as an example Chip Wilson, who last year paid $194,920 in property on what is Vancouver’s most valuable home. Under her scheme Wilson would pay $1.56 million in property tax based on last year’s assessment.

The Non-Partisan Association’s Hector Bremner stressed the need for supply, pushing for density and increased volume of multi-family residential buildings. Bremner said he wants a city-wide plan to address “piecemeal zoning” and for the building-permit process to be sped up so that construction isn’t impeded by years-long waits for approvals.

Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon, a small-business owner running for pro-cannabis Sensible Vancouver, said she wants tax dollars that are spent responding to overdoses instead allocated to a “housing first” policy that would find adequate shelter for homeless substance users. Their subsequent treatment would cost taxpayers less than the ongoing societal costs associated with their drug use, she said.

The Greens’ Pete Fry said he hoped to join Green Adriane Carr on council so that she can have someone to second her motions, allowing the party to “take power back from” Vision and the NPA. Fry said a second Green seat will let them work more effectively as the only elected party not taking donations from developers. Fry, too, said he wants to speed up the pace of construction, adding that he wants to incentivize the building of rental units and establish a renters’ office that would support tenants.

Judy Graves, running for OneCity, said her focus would be finding ways to ensure that people’s rents are tied to their incomes, so that more units would become available that would cost one-third of tenants’ monthly incomes. Graves said she believes a council seat will allow her to effectively continue her longtime struggle to help house the homeless.

Independent Gary Lee said he’s running to represent the city’s younger residents, his generation. He is concerned about a “brain drain” of people with good jobs who are bogged down by student loans and high rents, and subsequently forced to move elsewhere. Lee said ensuring affordable rental stock to keep workers in the city is vital.

Independent Damian J. Murphy said zoning, with more dedicated rentals and increased reliance on laneway homes, infill housing and creative use of land space. Murphy said housing and the overdose crisis must be council’s priority.