NIMBYs organize against 1200 social housing units
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by David Eby
An anonymous Vancouver internet site for NIMBYs is organizing against the 1200 units of social housing anticipated to be built in the City over the next 3-4 years. People who signed up on the NIABY.com website, a site originally established to fight successfully a supportive housing development at 16th and Dunbar, received the following e-mail on December 7, 2007:
From: "info@niaby.com" info@niaby.com
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, December 7, 2007 3:18:54 PM
Subject: Important Notice from NIABY
Greetings xxxxxxx,
On December 12, 2007 at 7:30 pm, Vancouver City Council is hosting a public meeting that you should attend. You have no doubt heard of the Cityʼs plans to clean up the downtown eastside in time for the 2010 Olympics. How are they going to do that, will their plan succeed, and how will it affect you?
[Information about December 12th meeting at Council]
In June, the City of Vancouver released its "Supportive Housing Strategy for Vancouver Coastal Healthʼs Mental Health & Addictions Supportive Housing Framework". More recently, the City has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Province (BC Housing) whereby 12 City-owned sites are to be developed for social and supportive housing for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness such as the mentally ill, people with addictions, and residents of the Cityʼs Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels, and whereby.
Where are these twelve sites?
They are: [list of 12 tower sites]
The City has promised that there will be an opportunity for the public to have meaningful input, and yet it has also promised to begin construction on six of these sites within a year.
Residents in the community have been asking difficult questions regarding these proposed sites for the last year, but the City has not been forthcoming with answers.
Donʼt miss your chance to speak up and be heard. Come to the public meeting at City Hall on December 12 and join your neighbours in demanding the answers that we all deserve.
[Information on signing up for meeting]
Thank you for your action on these important issues that will ultimately affect YOUR community.
Sincerely, NIABY.com
Not only do the coordinators of this website not have the guts to put their own names on the site and engage in real debate on the issue, they have the nerve to suggest that social housing should not be in ANYBODY's back yard, let alone their own backyards. Pretty bold.
While I do not expect a bunch of people too ashamed to take credit for organizing against housing for the homeless to attend City council or planning meetings, if they do, ask yourself whether Sam Sullivan is willing to stand up to them and make good on his promise to reduce homelessness by 50%, even if it pisses off a bunch of his supporters at 16th and Dunbar.
The worst part of all of this is that these developments are being rushed, and in my opinion aren't the best type of housing development. The proposed buildings are 100 unit social housing towers and feature units as small as 300 square feet. Where special supports are not required for people (drug treatment, mental health support, physical health support), I would argue strongly that mixed income housing developments are the healthiest and best housing developments, and are what the City should be developing, everywhere, in everybody's backyard.
How can you make an argument like that when city councillors will need support just to get the vote passed that we should even build social housing outside the DTES at all, thanks to groups like NIABY? Nuances like unit size, income mix, and supportive housing vs. social housing are lost on people like the NIABY folks, who apparently don't want poor people in anybody's backyard, regardless of the project. It's an attitude we'll be fighting at City Hall tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:30 p.m., instead of fighting for more livable projects for everyone.
We can take comfort in the fact that the NIABY folks are ashamed of abusing their privilege to stop progress on homelessness and prevent us from building an inclusive city, otherwise they'd put their name underneath their criticisms. Step up and debate us or get lost NIABY, we've got a mixed income city that welcomes everyone to build, and you're just getting in the way.
From: "info@niaby.com" info@niaby.com
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, December 7, 2007 3:18:54 PM
Subject: Important Notice from NIABY
Greetings xxxxxxx,
On December 12, 2007 at 7:30 pm, Vancouver City Council is hosting a public meeting that you should attend. You have no doubt heard of the Cityʼs plans to clean up the downtown eastside in time for the 2010 Olympics. How are they going to do that, will their plan succeed, and how will it affect you?
[Information about December 12th meeting at Council]
In June, the City of Vancouver released its "Supportive Housing Strategy for Vancouver Coastal Healthʼs Mental Health & Addictions Supportive Housing Framework". More recently, the City has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Province (BC Housing) whereby 12 City-owned sites are to be developed for social and supportive housing for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness such as the mentally ill, people with addictions, and residents of the Cityʼs Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels, and whereby.
Where are these twelve sites?
They are: [list of 12 tower sites]
The City has promised that there will be an opportunity for the public to have meaningful input, and yet it has also promised to begin construction on six of these sites within a year.
Residents in the community have been asking difficult questions regarding these proposed sites for the last year, but the City has not been forthcoming with answers.
Donʼt miss your chance to speak up and be heard. Come to the public meeting at City Hall on December 12 and join your neighbours in demanding the answers that we all deserve.
[Information on signing up for meeting]
Thank you for your action on these important issues that will ultimately affect YOUR community.
Sincerely, NIABY.com
Not only do the coordinators of this website not have the guts to put their own names on the site and engage in real debate on the issue, they have the nerve to suggest that social housing should not be in ANYBODY's back yard, let alone their own backyards. Pretty bold.
While I do not expect a bunch of people too ashamed to take credit for organizing against housing for the homeless to attend City council or planning meetings, if they do, ask yourself whether Sam Sullivan is willing to stand up to them and make good on his promise to reduce homelessness by 50%, even if it pisses off a bunch of his supporters at 16th and Dunbar.
The worst part of all of this is that these developments are being rushed, and in my opinion aren't the best type of housing development. The proposed buildings are 100 unit social housing towers and feature units as small as 300 square feet. Where special supports are not required for people (drug treatment, mental health support, physical health support), I would argue strongly that mixed income housing developments are the healthiest and best housing developments, and are what the City should be developing, everywhere, in everybody's backyard.
How can you make an argument like that when city councillors will need support just to get the vote passed that we should even build social housing outside the DTES at all, thanks to groups like NIABY? Nuances like unit size, income mix, and supportive housing vs. social housing are lost on people like the NIABY folks, who apparently don't want poor people in anybody's backyard, regardless of the project. It's an attitude we'll be fighting at City Hall tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:30 p.m., instead of fighting for more livable projects for everyone.
We can take comfort in the fact that the NIABY folks are ashamed of abusing their privilege to stop progress on homelessness and prevent us from building an inclusive city, otherwise they'd put their name underneath their criticisms. Step up and debate us or get lost NIABY, we've got a mixed income city that welcomes everyone to build, and you're just getting in the way.
Subscribe by RSS
Subscribe by Email
Just to let you folks know we already have a pretty active network here in North Norway against a potential bid by Norway to host the winter olympics in 2018 in our city Tromsoe. We resisted effectively a try on a bid for 2014 (which was turned down by the Norwegian government due to too obnoxious spending of public funds) - however, the same "2018 Olympic Games Commitee" is once more trying to have our government grant for an official bid for the 2018 games.
We are firmly against such a bid, meinly because we find the whole idea unsustainable from the environmental point og view. Pls visit our homepage where you also find our "Counter Report" against the bid - in english: www.neitilol.no
We support your struggle - please support ours! Best regards Mads Gilbert, Tromsoe, Norway