Vancouver councillors debate mayor's controversial motion to freeze new supportive housing
Mayor Ken Sim says other Metro Vancouver cities aren't carrying their weight in supporting homeless population
Vancouver city councillors are debating a controversial motion from Mayor Ken Sim to freeze net-new supportive housing as part of his broader plan to revitalize the Downtown Eastside.
The mayor says Vancouver has 77 per cent of Metro Vancouver's supportive services, including housing and shelters, yet only about 25 per cent of the region's population, and that pausing construction would allow the city to "focus on renewing and revitalizing the current aging housing stock."
Supportive housing refers to low-barrier housing for individuals experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness and with severe mental health challenges and/or substance use disorders, including 24/7 on-site support services, according to city documents.
Sim says an updated area plan for the Downtown Eastside, once described as Canada's poorest postal code, would "encourage a mix of housing, businesses, and services" to break the cycle of hyper-concentrated social services in the neighbourhood.
Sim's motion also calls for the mayor to write to the provincial and federal governments to urge them to "increase investments in mental health care, addiction recovery, to address the root causes of homelessness and suffering."
Advocates have opposed Sim's motion, saying it comes at a time of increased homelessness in Metro Vancouver. Last month, 150 residents and advocates gathered at a town hall to voice their concerns, and the motion took centre stage at a fundraising event this past weekend.
Ninety-five people registered to speak to the motion at the city standing committee on Wednesday, while hundreds gathered outside of city hall to protest the motion while the meeting was underway.
Speaking to CBC News Wednesday morning, Sim defended his plan.
"I think we can all agree, if anyone's walked through the Downtown Eastside or if anyone's walked through an SRO that's crumbling — which, is they're unlivable, they're rodent-infested, garbage and feces thrown across the place, they're not safe — I think they'd agree that we need to do something."
He said the city will continue to build supportive housing that is set to be ready in the next six months, but "we're going to put a pause on any net new housing because we need the region to step up."
Amanda Burrows, executive director of the Vancouver non-profit First United, said while Vancouver has a large share of Metro Vancouver's supportive services, those services are not enough overall.
She also said a majority of Vancouver's homeless population are Vancouver residents.
"I think we have an obligation to respond to this crisis with more supportive housing," she told CBC's The Early Edition.
Coun. Rebecca Bligh, who was recently kicked out of Sim's ABC Vancouver caucus, was unsuccessful with her own motion on Wednesday, which called on council to hear from the province about the implications of a freeze on net-new supportive housing.
It argued that Sim's motion overlapped and contradicted direction with a previous motion from 2023, called Uplifting the Downtown Eastside and Building Inclusive Communities that Work for All Residents.
Staff provided a progress report on Tuesday, which said 3,915 supportive units are needed across the region to address the population of people with no housing.
The report said supportive housing units required from other municipalities, based on regional population distribution, was 1,694 for Surrey, 142 for Burnaby and 208 for New Westminster as examples, while Vancouver already had a "proportional surplus," with 6,264.
Between 2017 and 2024, Vancouver committed over 50 sites to enable the creation of approximately 1,400 supportive housing units. In the current capital plan, $600 million has been allocated to support affordable housing development.
Sim responds to leaked memo
As revealed in a leaked draft city memo from last October, first reported by The Globe and Mail, Sim has a broader plan to change the Downtown Eastside.
The memo called for fast-tracking private development approvals in the neighbourhood, including using "spot rezoning" when necessary — a process that allows individual properties to be rezoned outside the city's broader planning strategy.
But Sim said on Wednesday that the city would not support spot rezoning. He said the memo included various ideas, and spot rezoning "didn't make the cut."
The memo also proposed a "re-unification roundtable" to explore ways to return Indigenous residents to their home nations, stating that "many members of the Indigenous community have expressed a desire to live in their home Nations."
Margaret Pfoh, CEO of the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, said nearly half of Vancouver's homeless population is Indigenous. She said reunification may not be possible for everyone and that the plan doesn't absolve municipalities from their responsibilities.
Sim said the city would consider helping both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people return to their original communities, but insisted that this is not about moving people out of the Downtown Eastside.
"Health outcomes are better when you are in your community," he said.
"If someone expresses an interest in returning to their home community, we'll do what we can on a case-by-case basis to help that person out based on what they want to do. And so, unfortunately, people mischaracterize this as we're forcing people out. Nothing could be further from the truth."
With files from Shaurya Kshatri,and the Early Edition.