Articles of Denise D

Housing

Canada’s Homelessness Target Would Cost $3.5 Billion More a Year

Ottawa gave itself until 2027-28 to halve chronic homelessness. A friendship centre spent 18 years working toward one East Hastings building. Now a call for a national mission arrives three days before the budget, without a number.

Housing

The Changing Promise of 58 West Hastings

A safe home has changed residents’ lives at Bob & Michael’s Place. Behind that achievement is an unfinished argument over the rents and admission rules that decide who gets the same chance.

Policy

Another year to keep the washrooms open

Vancouver’s emergency washroom programs became services people rely on every day. Years later, keeping them open still depends on another grant, another extension, and now, a proposal for shorter hours.

Housing

Vancouver Can Lift Its Housing Pause. The Backlog Will Still Be There.

Several housing projects already had an exemption from Vancouver’s pause. Their long delivery schedules expose what the next council still has to resolve after repeal: approvals and the money to build and operate homes.

Policy

Eleven Years After Council Voted to Remove the Viaducts, Hogan’s Alley Still Waits

Council voted in 2015 to remove the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, expecting developers to pay. The price rose, the date slipped, and who pays is still open.

Housing

Encampments vs. Tiny Shelters: The Cost of Housing Vancouver’s Unhoused

The City of Vancouver has allocated substantial resources to manage homelessness, yet the financial and logistical viability of its approaches remains under scrutiny. Between ...

Housing

Woodward’s: The Unraveling of Vancouver’s Gentrification Icon

Once seen as a transformative project, Woodward’s redevelopment promised to redefine Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, blending social housing, high-end condos, and cultural spaces to bridge ...

Policy

Vancouver Mayor Halts New Supportive Housing Projects in Downtown Eastside

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has announced a decisive shift in addressing the challenges of the Downtown Eastside (DTES), halting the approval of new supportive ...

Housing

Lawsuit Against Atira Highlights Vancouver’s SRO Housing Controversies

A new lawsuit against Atira Women’s Resource Society and its subsidiaries has cast a fresh spotlight on the ongoing controversies surrounding Vancouver’s Single Room ...

Housing

Stalled Projects and Vanishing SROs Expose Vancouver’s Housing Crisis

Vancouver’s housing strategy faces mounting criticism as Single Room Occupancies (SROs) continue to vanish without viable replacements. Despite years of public investment and promises ...

Housing

The Broken Pillars of Housing Rights in British Columbia

In British Columbia, the promise of housing as a human right is cracking under the weight of systemic inequities and bureaucratic inertia. Behind the ...

Order

Exploring the Carceral Continuum in Downtown Eastside Social Housing

The term “carceral continuum” brings to mind an array of institutions—prisons, hospitals, mental health facilities, and low-income housing—that function to surveil, control, and manage ...

Community

Ten Years Into the Downtown Eastside Plan, Progress Remains Elusive

In 2014, Vancouver City Council approved the Downtown Eastside Plan, a 30-year blueprint aimed at revitalizing one of Canada’s most complex and stigmatized neighbourhoods. ...

Housing

British Columbia’s Approach to Homelessness Needs an Overhaul

Homelessness has become an inescapable reality in Canada’s urban centres, with tent encampments occupying parks, streets, and public spaces. While these encampments have sparked ...

Housing

Canada Faces Tough Questions on National Housing Day

As Canada observes National Housing Day 2024, a day dedicated to awareness about housing and homelessness, the stark reality is that housing insecurity is ...

Housing

Vancouver Landlords Fight Back Against Vacancy Control

Thirteen single-room occupancy landlords in Vancouver have launched a class-action lawsuit against the City of Vancouver, alleging that its vacancy control policy amounts to ...

Housing

Housing First Struggles to Deliver for Vancouver’s Most Vulnerable

In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the Housing First model once offered hope for a path out of homelessness. Yet, cracks are beginning to show as ...

Community

Class Action Seeks Accountability in Deadly Downtown Eastside Fire

In the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, tragedy struck when the Winters Hotel—a 100-year-old, single-room occupancy building—caught fire on April 11, 2022. The blaze ...

Housing

Vancouver’s SROs: Shelter or Hidden Risk?

In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Single Room Occupancy buildings serve as a last-ditch option for thousands of low-income residents facing housing instability. These aged, small ...

Housing

Vancouver’s Social Housing Initiative Driving Affordable Inclusive Communities

As Vancouver continues to face one of the most severe housing crises in Canada, the city has responded with the Vancouver Social Housing Initiative, ...

Housing

BC’s Housing Crisis: When Affordability Becomes a Luxury

British Columbia’s housing market has spiraled out of control. The dream of owning a home in British Columbia has become a distant reality for ...

Housing

Canada’s Housing Crisis Worsens as National Strategy Fails to Deliver

Despite minor shifts in the housing market, prices remain too high for both buyers and renters, pushing families into instability and homelessness. The National ...

Community

CRAB Park Residents Take Vancouver to Court Over Homeless Encampment Rules

Tammy Littlejohn and Robbie Wallace, two women who have lived in Vancouver’s CRAB Park encampment, are now taking their fight to the B.C. Supreme ...

Housing

East Village Towers Poised to Transform and Challenge DTES

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) is facing another wave of redevelopment as a trio of developers—Westbank, Promerita Group, and BC Housing—propose a project along East ...

Housing

How Vancouver’s Exclusionary Zoning is Fanning the Flames of Housing Crisis

In a city where the housing crisis has reached catastrophic levels, Vancouver remains gripped by a decades-old zoning regime that is preventing much-needed solutions. ...

Housing

Fast-Tracking Factory-Built Homes in British Columbia

British Columbia is facing a housing crisis that shows no sign of abating. As prices soar and availability plummets, politicians have scrambled to find ...

Housing

Indigenous-Led Housing Development to Transform Downtown Eastside

A major new development is set to reshape Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, bringing much-needed relief to one of the city’s most vulnerable communities. Ho’-kee-melh Kloshe ...