DTES Community Land Trust Voted Top Priority for 2024 BC Budget at Carnegie Housing Project Town Hall #3
by Devin O’Leary
On November 15th, the Carnegie Housing Project hosted its 3rd town hall to discuss recommendations for the Province’s 2024 budget to support unhoused people in the DTES. Around 60 DTES residents and advocates joined for a lively discussion about the recommendations, resulting in a vote for the top priorities.
The leading choice with 30 votes was for the Province to fund the DTES Community Land Trust to purchase and operate 10 DTES SROs. Kathy Shimizu, a community organizer working with the Powell Street Festival and the land trust was present to explain the model. She described the unique governance structure that puts tenants in the driver’s seat to make decisions on how the building is managed. The land trust would also own the building for the benefit of the community, keeping the rent as cheap as possible and investing it directly into the operation of the building rather than trying to maximize profit like many private landlords. The land trust owning the building and land would also remove it from the private market, preventing investor speculation or sale to profit-seeking developers. The Provincial government purchased the Keefer Rooms in October to be operated by the DTES Community Land Trust, the first SRO to be run under this model. Kathy’s explanation sparked resounding applause.
Rounding out the top 5 recommendations were the requests to find sites for the 3 modular housing buildings whose leases have expired, fund enough low-barrier shelter spaces for everyone who needs them, require and fund all social housing to be 100% shelter rate, and to fund and speed up building self-contained 100% shelter rate housing at the Regent, Balmoral, and Gore and Hastings temple sites.
These recommendations will now be shared with groups around the DTES to give feedback before they are sent to the Premier and Housing Minister early in December. We expect the Province will announce their budget in March of next year.
If you would like to support these recommendations or advocate for your own, Premier David Eby has a phone line dedicated to housing concerns. Call him at 1.236.478.0431 and let him know what you want done to support our unhoused neighbours!
We will be hosting a 4th town hall early in the new year to talk about long-term recommendations. Updates will be posted in the Carnegie Newsletter and posters will be up along Hastings to let folks know when the town hall will take place.
As always, if you have any questions, email us at carnegiehousingproject@gmail.com, or come to our Friday housing lunch sessions from noon-1:30 at Carnegie. December 1st, we will be meeting in the 3rd floor classroom II. December 8th, we will be meeting in the Carnegie Theatre.
