Doing community-based research and organizing on issues related to social housing, income, and gentrification in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, BC. We work with residents and community organizations to secure a future for the neighbourhood that serves the needs of its residents.

Upcoming Event

Are you upset by Ken Sim’s announcement about the city pausing additional supportive housing construction in Vancouver at a time when there are 3,000 people on the waitlist? Are you annoyed with billionaires deciding who deserves to live in this city, on stolen land?

Join us to speak at city council on February 26th and let them know what they are getting wrong about the DTES and what the city’s responsibility is to the people who live here.

Want help preparing a speech? We got you ↓

In February of 2024, we released a report on a DTES call for government action to support people who are unhoused.

Priority Actions

The City of Vancouver is losing more affordable housing than is being built. If the government doesn’t act immediately to stop the loss and build housing that is actually affordable, many more working class residents will be pushed out of the city or onto the streets.

    • Implement Vacancy Control in SROs to limit the amount landlords can raise rents between tenancies.

    • Extend the leases on the Modular Housing buildings or find new sites within Vancouver so we don’t lose 816 units of deeply subsidized housing.

    • Vancouver needs at least 3,500 rental units affordable for people on Welfare, Disability, and Basic Pension now, requiring approximately $2 billion. The federal government is responsible for funding necessary housing like it used to from the ‘60s to early ‘90s.

    • Change the provincial definition of Social Housing to include deep subsidy units that are affordable for people on Welfare, Disability, and Basic Pension.

    • Open enough shelter spaces or tiny homes before winter that are appropriate for the needs of those who use them.

    • Fund Community Land Trusts to purchase private SROs to keep them affordable and opperate them with tenant governance.

The Carnegie Housing Project organizes in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood on the ancestral, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples and are deeply grateful for their stewardship and protection of this land since time immemorial.