Back off, Tom Davidoff!
by Max Campbell
I couldn’t believe my ears. Had I just heard what I thought I did?
“The question is, should the builders be responsible both for providing the homes and transferring resources to low-income households, and the answer is no.”
That was Tom Davidoff saying that poor people should never expect to move into new homes. And Tom Davidoff is a UBC professor who gives the province advice on housing, and he also talks to the media all the time about housing too. Is this what he’s telling them?
This was last month, August 7th to be exact. I was attending an event with a panel discussion on luxury housing. Tom Davidoff was one of the panelists, and so was the Carnegie’s own Jean Swanson. I was glad when she pushed back against what he was saying. Jean pointed out that when a new building goes up and nobody can afford to live there except rich people, it can make the whole neighbourhood unfriendly to poor people. Local businesses “start catering to wealthier people, and the people who don’t live in the towers, who aren’t wealthy, who depend on businesses that have lower prices, will start to get priced out.”
You can see that happen all the time in the DTES. Maybe you remember how different the neighbourhood around Woodward’s was before they redeveloped it. When wealthier people move in, the businesses become fancier too, and suddenly security guards and cops harass people on the street to get out of sight. The message is clear: “This is our neighbourhood now, and you don’t even deserve to be seen in it.”
But Davidoff isn’t concerned with that. He replied that “the ability to buy retail at a junky retailer is [not] really what’s helping people hold on.” According to him, who cares if you can shop at the local businesses? Who cares if they see you as part of the community, or as an eyesore to be moved along? As long as you have the money you need, and a home to spent that money renting, you’ll be okay. Low income people “need more money and they need more homes,” but that’s about it.
Well, I won’t say no to more money and more homes, but if he thinks that’s the end of the list, he is wrong. I have lived in the DTES and in suburban Richmond. While the DTES has so many problems, the power of community here is so strong. In Richmond, I felt totally alone as a poor person. I looked around and all I saw were happy, middle class people in their nice homes. I felt like the fly in everyone’s soup. In the DTES I feel like I matter to people.
That’s the importance of community. This is what we’re fighting for. We need homes and money, but nobody can use that as an excuse to break our community and tear us away from each other. So back off, Tom Davidoff!
