Group that shut Vancouver city hall occupies site planned for housing

VANCOUVER — An empty lot on Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside was occupied Tuesday by the same housing protesters and homeless residents who shut down Vancouver City Hall on May 1.

According to a statement, the group called Our Homes Can’t Wait Coalition is demanding 100 per cent welfare and pension-rate housing at 58 West Hastings, the former site of a tent city homeless camp.

The site is one of four construction projects in the area receiving $83 million in provincial funding to build 450 new units of affordable housing.

The four buildings will include 300 units that will be rented at the welfare rate of $375 a month. The others will be rented for up to $1,272 monthly.

“Two years ago, Mayor Gregor Robertson promised the people of the Downtown Eastside that the city would build 100 per cent welfare and pension-rate housing at 58 West Hastings. This was a victory for the poor, the homeless, and the working people of the city, hard won after years of tireless organizing,” the coalition said in a statement.

“In five days, Mayor Robertson and half of city council will leave their seats without fulfilling this promise, abandoning Vancouver’s most vulnerable residents to die in the streets.”

Earlier this year, in response to the protesters’ concerns, Robertson said the total number of social-housing units promised across the four buildings, at 300, is higher than if all 230 units at 58 West Hastings were offered for $375.

The coalition shut down city hall operations back in May, with protesters assembled around city hall, barring anyone from entering.

“While the coalition savours Gregor’s resignation and the humiliating end of Vision Vancouver, we know better than to blindly trust their replacements. This occupation is a challenge to the next Council to fulfil the promise of 58; it is also a threat of future action to come,” the coalition said in Tuesday’s statement.