Sale of Little Mountain housing complex to private developer demonstrates need for a national housing strategy
Vancouver, B.C. - The provincial government's sale of the Little Mountain housing
complex to a private developer demonstrates the urgent need for a national housing strategy,
Don Davies, federal NDP candidate in Vancouver - Kingsway, said today.
"We need to ensure that social housing initiatives are designed to put people in
affordable homes, not to put more profit in the pockets of property developers," said Davies.
Last week, the province announced that it had sold Vancouver's oldest social housing
complex, a six hectare site between 33rd and 37th Avenues on Main Street, to Holborn
Properties. Most of the residents have been relocated to make way for a high density
development with an imbalanced mix of market and social housing.
"Vancouver already has sky-high housing prices. Families are struggling to pay the rent
or the mortgage. Governments should be leading the way to build affordable housing,
not selling off public property for private profit-oriented development," said Davies.
"This site should be dedicated exclusively to social and affordable housing," he said.
Davies said a growing number of people are homeless, spending too much on rent, or unable
to find an adequate home they can afford.
"In February, the federal housing minister Monte Solberg thumbed his nose at all those
people by boycotting a summit of provincial and territorial housing ministers.
Along with the continuing lack of funding, that underlines the Harper government's
complete disinterest in finding a solution to the housing crisis."
"It's long past time for federal, provincial and local governments to work together
to find solutions. We need an approach that's designed to create affordable housing,
not one that's driven by private profit," he said.
