Affordable units open at Woodwards

Friday, May 28, 2010 | The Canadian Press

A new tenant shows off his affordable apartment to news media on tour at the Woodward’s condo building Friday. (CBC)

More than 200 downtown Vancouver apartments that were built to provide affordable rental options for singles, families and people with disabilities are now officially open.

Federal Treasury Board President Stockwell Day and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell were among those on hand Friday to mark the opening inside the Woodward’s development in the city’s Downtown Eastside.

Of the 209 affordable rental units, 125 are single-occupancy suites, 75 are two- and three-bedroom apartments for families and nine are designed for people with disabilities…

Read the full story at cbc.ca.

Looking Back

The Vancouver Sun | May 25, 2010 2:09 PM

Following a concerted effort by police in August 1971 to infiltrate Vancouver’s recreational drug scene with undercover officers, a ’smoke-in’ pro-marijuana protest rally held by the Youth International Party was attacked by police officers in what would become known as The Battle of Maple Tree Square. 79 protesters were arrested as police charged civilians on horseback and beat them with riot batons. A subsequent inquiry by a Supreme Court justice would call the incident a ‘police riot’.

See all the image at vancouversun.com.

Province, business leaders to inject $200-million into Vancouver sites

Construction to begin now on projects to shelter 1,000 of poorest residents by 2013

A Vancouver housing project under construction at Abbott and West Pender Streets.
Photo: Darryl Dyck for the Globe and Mail

The province, with the help of wealthy business leaders in Vancouver, will announce on Tuesday more than $200-million for social housing that will serve almost 1,000 of the city’s poorest residents…

“It’s the single biggest commitment in Canada in housing by any regional government and it’s a testament to how the city and the provincial government are working through some difficult issues,” said a source knowledgeable about the deal. Premier Gordon Campbell, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Robertson and foundation representatives were set to announce the details on Tuesday morning, although condo marketer Bob Rennie hinted broadly at the deal in a speech to the development industry last week.

The massive funding announcement is a victory for the city in its efforts to tackle homelessness, a grand finale for what has been Mr. Coleman’s ambitious housing agenda for the past three years, and a breakthrough in Streetohome’s bid to find a major project to support…

The city has already donated the land for the sites, and has negotiated with Mr. Coleman to provide additional capital for future social-housing projects in exchange for this deal…

Homelessness has been one of Mr. Robertson’s priorities since he and his Vision Vancouver team were elected in November, 2008. The city pushed to open eight additional shelters in the past year and a half, which cut the numbers of people living on the street by half…

The push at Vancouver city hall is to move people from shelters into the new social-housing projects or, in the interim, some kind of temporary housing that’s better than a shelter.

Special to The Globe and Mail

Read the full article at theglobeandmail.com.