Protestors rally for affordable housing ahead of proposal to build more Vancouver hotel rooms

A group of hotel union members and Vancouver residents rallied at City Hall Monday to voice their opposition to a proposed policy to build more hotel rooms in the city.

Vancouver city council will hear the policy Tuesday, on the heels of a report from Destination Vancouver that says the city needs to build 10,000 hotel rooms by 2050 to keep up with demand.

Nate Holers, a campaigner with Unite Here Local 40, says the city shouldn’t spend time or money worrying about hotel rooms when residents can’t afford to live in the city.

“[The idea of] a hotel room shortage is kind of insulting when the people that live and work here are constantly being pushed out by a lack of affordable housing. And we really just think that that needs to be the priority,” Holers explained.

He adds that council should think about last week’s byelection, in which the successful candidates ran on platforms of advocating for affordable housing.

Holers says the union, which represents workers in the hotel, food service, airport, and gaming industries throughout Canada and the U.S., would like to see hotel workers be able to afford to live closer to where they work.

“Most of our members have been pushed out of the city, and it’s very hard to live when they’re commuting for two hours just to work two jobs,” said Holers.

He says the protest and the results of the byelection should serve as a message to Mayor Ken Sim and the majority ABC Party, governing city council.

“They need to start listening to what the Vancouver citizens are actually demanding. What they need is not more prosperity for housing developers and building luxury hotels and condos that aren’t actually going to make it easier to live here. I think they need to take the message from the voters and just start building affordable housing.”