City's housing crisis in global spotlight at Venice architectural festival
Vancouver's housing crisis is being dissected on a global scale at the world's first architectural festival, the Biennale Archittetura, which kicked off in Venice this week.
Photographs of tents erected in the Downtown Eastside partly cover the Canadian pavilion, providing the festival's 300,000 spectators with an intimate look at the city's long struggle to provide adequate housing for its growing homeless population.
The Canadian entry was designed by Architects Against Housing Alienation, a group of architects, activists and First Nations advocates.
Matthew Soules, a University of B.C architecture professor, says Canada's main problem is that in its real estate-driven economy, homes are being built as financial assets rather than spaces for living.
“We're calling for the end of housing alienation — of that feeling of separation and distance between housing and its sheltering function.”
In the Downtown Eastside, more than 570 structures have been removed from an East Hastings Street encampment since August. Only 90 of the residents have found permanent housing, according to the city.
To this day, Vancouver continues to spend money on police to prevent camping, while unhoused residents continue to populate the street.
Nisga'a Nation architect Patrick Watson says spectators are having their “eyes opened” to the state of housing in the city.
“Some people can't believe it when we tell them those tents are in Downtown Vancouver,” Watson said. “We want Canada's housing crisis to no longer be kept silent. As a wealthy nation, having these issues is unacceptable.”
The exhibition is offering an interim solution: “To support unhoused people, cities must use underutilized land to fund and build intentional communities where residents receive services, share community responsibilities and regain agency to govern space.”
In Toronto, Architects Against Housing Alienation is in the process of designing a cluster of 25 cabins and facilities to be built on land already owned by the city, some in parking lots. The tiny shelters will serve as transitional housing until longer-term units are secured.
“Our goal is to provide a suitable alternative to living in a tent, when the municipal shelter system is not an option,” the group says.
While Vancouver is launching its own “tiny shelters” pilot project this year in the parking lot of Lu'ma Native's Housing Society on Terminal Avenue, the $1.5-million development will house only 20 people. Architects Against Housing Alienation says larger-scale solutions are necessary to address Canada's housing crisis.
It is pushing for senior governments to return more Crown land — which was historically stripped from Indigenous Peoples — so that communities can afford to build housing upon it. Latest estimates indicate 94 per cent of British Columbian land is publicly owned.
“Municipal, provincial, and federal governments own an immense number of surplus property assets,” says the group, “properties that are sitting idle — often in the form of vacant buildings and empty parcels. We demand that these assets be made available for the public good and the development of affordable housing.”
While land transfers have happened in B.C., they have been happening at a glacial pace.
The Musqueam First Nation recently broke ground on rental housing on its traditional territory near the University of B.C. after a landmark settlement was reached with the province in 2008. It came at the cost of many years in court and steep legal bills.
“It took us 100-some-odd years to get it back,” Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow previously told Postmedia News.
Architects Against Housing Alienation says it is working with the Squamish Nation to design housing that will meet the needs of Indigenous individuals and families in the community. “This would be a strategy that would be scalable and applicable across the country in all First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.”