Mayor Sim announces plan to transform Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

As part of a plan designed to revitalize Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Mayor Ken Sim announced Thursday that the city will pause the construction of net new supportive housing units.

Speaking at a forum held by the Save Our Streets B.C. Coalition, Sim announced his plan to transform the neighbourhood by breaking up supportive housing, shelter services, and social services to encourage a mix of housing and businesses.

Sim claims the current state of the Downtown Eastside has led to a “cycle of instability and decline,” weighing unfairly on Vancouver.

“For too long, multiple levels of government have been able and encouraged the concentration of supportive housing, shelter spaces, and dozens of social service nonprofit organizations in this small, four-square-kilometre neighbourhood. The results have been the Downtown Eastside becoming the epicentre of intersecting proceeds, mental health, poverty, and homelessness, not just for Vancouver, but for the entire region and the province,” said Sim.

A statement from the city says Vancouver currently houses 77 per cent of the region’s supportive housing, despite comprising only 25 per cent of the region’s population.

“By pausing the construction of net new supportive housing units in Vancouver, the city can focus on renewing and revitalizing the current aging housing stock to better meet residents’ needs until supportive housing availability increases across the region,” it explained.

Ever focused on business, Sim says his plan will help open “vacant storefronts” in the neighbourhood and allow local businesses to thrive. Referring to the Downtown Eastside as a “poverty industrial complex,” Sim says it attracts “predatory criminals” who victimize residents and businesses.

“This sucks,” said Sim, adding that his plan also includes unspecified additional support given to police.

“We’ll support the Vancouver Police Department in launching a citywide crackdown on gangs, equipping law enforcement with the tools to target these criminal networks that prey on our most vulnerable residents.”

Sim referenced a VPD report released on Dec. 23 that shows that crime continues to decline in the city.

“Total crime has decreased by 7.4 per cent; violent crime is down 7 per cent; and property crime has dropped by 10.3 per cent,” Sim explained.

He argued that his plan was justified by recent instances of random stranger assaults, which he says “have had a devastating impact.”

“These tragic incidents often involve individuals facing severe mental health and/or severe substance use disorder — people who are deeply unwell and in desperate need of care,” said Sim as part of his announcement to break up those means of care in the area.

He advocated for “secure facilities and a compassionate mandatory care program,” expressing hope that B.C. Premier David Eby lives up to his October election promise to implement mandatory care and provide 400 new mental health beds across the province.

Reaction to the mayor’s plan is mixed

The reaction to Sim’s plan to stop building supportive housing in Vancouver is mixed.

Co-founder of Save Our Street Clint Mahlman believes the mayor is taking action to “make a difference.”

“We’re at a crisis point right now in the province, and at least one politician is moving,” Mahlman told the forum by phone.

---

---

Other groups are staunchly opposed to Sim’s move, including some who work with homeless people. They say the move will have a severe and damaging effect.

“We will have more people who are homeless. More people who are homeless sleeping on the streets. More people who are homeless sleeping in front of businesses. More people who are homeless dying on the street,” said Jean Swanson, former city councillor and part of the Carnegie Housing Project.

Without new supportive housing, it isn’t clear where people without homes will end up.

“It’s just cruel,” Swanson shared.

Another housing advocate believes Sim didn’t give the plan a lot of thought, saying it “really seems almost like a publicity stunt.”

“For example, the mayor says that they won’t allow any net new supportive housing, which is hard to quantify. He hasn’t given us any information about how he quantifies that,” said Peter Waldkirch of Abundant Housing Vancouver.

The plan to build less housing will just result in more homelessness, he adds.

“To put a freeze on supportive housing to us is really a shocking move that really suggests the mayor is not serious about addressing our housing crisis,” Waldkirch said.

“Because you build less housing doesn’t mean you’re going to have more resources for something else. It’s just not how this works. We know from the example of other cities that the solution to homelessness is housing. We need to build housing, especially where people want to live.”

With files from Michael Williams and Charlie Carey.