The City of Vancouver has unveiled the first draft of its most detailed plan in years for the neighbourhood often called the poorest in the country – the Downtown Eastside.
A mix of affordable housing, stores that don’t price out low-income residents and even development all feature in the city’s strategy for the DTES in a project it has dubbed “Emerging Directions.”
“The Downtown Eastside is an enormously complex area,” said Brian Jackson, the city’s planning and development general manager. “It’s really a question of balancing all the people’s interests in the area, and it’s tough…and we think we’re at that right balance.”
Jackson said the city has listened to concerns from DTES residents in the past year-and-a-half, and access to affordable housing tops the list. That will factor heavily into the strategy, as will improving conditions of existing low-income housing.
Jay Stewart, who works in the DTES, said he’s keeping a watchful eye on what the city has in store for the neighbourhood.
While the housing policy in the “Emerging Directions” plan appears to favour current DTES residents, development of the area remains a key part of the city’s long-term strategy – and that growth may push out the people who live there, according to Stewart.
“If you’re going to put pressures on this neighbourhood to disperse people elsewhere, I don’t know where that elsewhere is,” he said. “You’re going to have a very contentious mix coming down the road if it’s just done simply for pro-development needs.”
Some residents expressed cautious optimism about the city’s plan, saying the area needs a change.
“We have an opportunity to change this neighbourhood from a perceived blight to a beacon of hope for every single low-income community,” said resident Herb Varley. “We can do that, but it’s gonna take some very bold maneuvers on everybody’s part. All anybody wants is a safe place to live.”
A group of protesters in the DTES has attracted media attention in recent months, with pickets outside new upscale eateries like Pidgin and Cuchillo. The activists have argued high-end restaurants aren’t appropriate for the low-income neighbourhood because most residents can’t afford to eat at them.
“Being able to shop in your neighbourhood, being able to eat in your neighbourhood would be nice things to do,” Varley said. “I don’t get why there’s such a big stink when our local people say ‘A high-end restaurant is not a fit in our neighbourhood, so we don’t want it.’”
As new projects continue to sprout in the area, some DTES activists are worried residents will eventually be priced out and forced to move elsewhere – and want the city to focus on that before rolling out plans for even more development.
“Until people's basic rights to shelter are met, I think that everything else has to just kind of wait," said Tamara Herman from the Carnegie Community Action Project. "Housing is the key and critical issue here."
Click here for more details about Vancouver’s plan for the Downtown Eastside.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Scott Hurst
