Unaffordable housing has artists leaving Vancouver in droves

Vancouver’s artists are leaving the city, saying there’s not enough affordable housing.

“It’s really, really scary, actually, to be an artist in the city, where rent is so expensive,” Anjalica Solomon, told CityNews. “In Vancouver, it is virtually impossible to find secure housing as an artist.”

Solomon says practicing in this city means making sacrifices.

“I will not be able to pursue my career as an artist if I want to have a family and a house. What’s scary to me is I see all my friends moving out of the city, moving to places like Mission or Nanaimo, especially if they want to have a family,” they said.

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Solomon lives with their partner Brandon Wint, a poet originally from Edmonton.

Wint says that the cost of living in Vancouver is forcing artists to focus on individual payouts, instead of being a part of a sustainable arts community.

“Vancouver seems to be about funneling who it deems to be its best and brightest into a sort of industry funnel, and then projecting them to the world so that they can say, ‘we are an art city,'” they said. “But on an independent artist’s level, people are struggling out here.”

Esther Rausenberg, executive director of the Eastside Culture Crawl, keeps a painting of 901 Main St, near the Georgia Viaduct, hanging on her wall.

Once a workspace for artists in the city, the building remains empty after it was bought by a developer about 15 years ago.

“The reason I keep this hanging on my wall is because it’s a reminder of some of the ineffective policies of the City of Vancouver,” she explains. “[It’s] shameful that this should be going on, that 40 to 50 artists have been evicted from this building and it’s remained empty for essentially 12 to 15 years.”

Rausenberg’s space is currently owned by an artist, but she doesn’t believe it will be around for much longer — just like a number of spaces in the area which have been bought up by a developer.

“They’re all going to be demolished. Many of these buildings did at some point house artists, and that’s what’s happening, is that these buildings are going to be coming down and they’re going to be redeveloped,” she said.

Recently, however, the city has made some strides to bolster living spaces for artists.

In June, a new development in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood opened and added 30 new housing units for artists and their families. It also has around 4,000 square feet of production space.

However, Rausenberg claims over 40,000 square feet of artist space has been lost in the past few years, and in the last decade, at least 400,000 square feet.

Solomon and Wint say their lives as artists has influenced their votes in the municipal election.

“When I showed up at the polls today, I looked for candidates that we’re talking about rent control, affordable housing, that is so important in the city and also vibrant arts and culture in this city. That’s huge.”

-With files from Charlie Carey and Emily Marsten