SHE HOUSED THOUSANDS ... QUIETLY

Pete Mcmartin on Shirley Schmid’s legacy: low- cost housing in B. C.

I[ Shirley Schmid] was a real live wire ... She was a little woman in stature but she accomplished great things.

MICHAEL AUDAIN

POLYGON HOMES CHAIRMAN

n a city struggling to find ways to provide affordable housing, we should mark the passing of Shirley Schmid, who died Feb. 11 at the age of 79.

Odds are you have never heard of her.

Schmid was a mother to four, a grandmother to 10 and a great- grandmother to eight. She was, among other things, a housewife.

And while she made a home for her own family, she made homes for thousands of others.

Schmid pioneered low- cost co- op housing in B. C. She not only helped create the very first co- op housing development in Vancouver — the De Cosmos Village at Champlain Heights, in 1972 — she had a hand in 73 other co- ops all over B. C.

Between them, those co- ops contained 5,962 units. Her influence and lobbying within the federal government would also make it possible for the construction of tens of thousands more units to be built across the country.

Schmid’s activism was inspired by her sense of home. She was a testament to the fact that communities are best built by those who live in them. An east- sider, her activism began in the 1960s when she led efforts to build the Renfrew Community Centre. She became its first president. She also volunteered for the United Way, worked with the local PTA and served as a director of the PNE.

In 1970, her energy caught the notice of Polygon Homes chairman Michael Audain, who was then housing director for the Canadian Council on Social Development. He brought her to Ottawa to sit in on the committee. It was there she developed an interest in co- op housing.

“She was a real live wire,” Audain said, “and a great help to the committee. She had no formal business training, but she was comfortable with developers and adept at putting land deals together. She was a little woman in stature but she accomplished great things.”

She did it by force of will. Audain told the story of a committee meeting held in Montreal’s Windsor Hotel. Breaking for lunch, the committee members went to the hotel bar, whereupon Schmid was informed that women were not allowed in it. She was asked to leave.

“Shirley sat down,” Audain said, “and said to the hotel manager, ‘ Well, that’s fine. I’ll just sit here while we call the press and TV, because I’m not going anywhere.’”

The hotel let her stay, Audain said, though they put a screen up around her.

Back in Vancouver, she formed the United Cooperative Housing Society, and started recruiting the people and funds needed to get De Cosmos Village built.

Ever frugal, she brought the project in at $ 100,000 under budget. ( She refused, for example, to stock the new units with expensive two- door refrigerators that some of the residents coveted.)

With contractors, she was a blunt force. Describing a meeting with one company that wasn’t living up to its promises, Pete Archibald, an original resident of De Cosmos, wrote of Schmid’s resolve:

“It appeared that the landscape contract held by [ the] landscaping company was not progressing in a satisfactory manner.

“Soon Shirley arrived. Discussion wandered rather aimlessly around the subject until it came to Shirley. She looked around the room and said, ‘ You guys are in private business? What do you do when a contractor doesn’t produce? You fire him?’ This was followed by a rather uncomfortable silence and after some harrumphing, minds sharpened. Shirley got their attention and the landscaping problems were resolved.”

In 1977, she formed the Columbia Housing Advisory Association, and as its executive director, would oversee the explosion of co- op housing here and throughout Canada. She would later become president of the Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada, and would continue to advocate for affordable housing for thousands of low- to- mid- income families.

“She played an enormous role in shaping the housing policy of Canada,” said Elain Duvall, who replaced Schmid as Columbia executive director when Schmid stepped down in 1988.

“Most of her co- ops were designed to house families with children in mind. And she believed strongly that even lower- income families should have the opportunity to buy their units rather than rent them because she felt it would instil a stronger sense of pride and community involvement in them. And Shirley was all about families and community, and making communities better. She made the connection between good housing and how it made for secure, safe communities.”

When the federal government got out of the business of funding co- ops, it was the death knell for the movement. Provincial and city governments tried to take up the load, but with less funding available, they concentrated on supplying rental housing for the homeless and disabled.

Cities such as Vancouver now find themselves without affordable housing for those families Schmid used to help. Columbia Housing dissolved in the mid1990s.

She retired but left behind a large, and largely unappreciated, legacy. And she died as she had lived — bravely, and in a manner she would wish for those she helped.

Shirley Schmid died surrounded by her family, in her own bed, in her own home.