Dear Editor:
I do not even recognize the North Shore of my childhood and certainly the Vancouver I once knew.
From the demolishing of fine homes and shadow flipping, to the 100 people having to live in their cars on the North Shore to the story of an 82-year-old lady having to go to a shelter because of a (rental apartment renovation) ... it’s unbelievable.
It is high time we brought back affordable rental housing and co-ops and we sent the developers and their expensive self-serving strata condos packing.
The City of Vancouver is literally at a breaking point. You do not need the Urban Development Institute’s vision of more densification by creating more stratified, extremely expensive condos. You need apartment blocks of rent-controlled housing and a Canadian citizenship requirement for all real-estate purchases. Goodbye, foreign ownership.
It is absolutely criminal that the average house price is well out of reach of Canadians and unforgivable the (provincial) budget does nothing to address this. We do not need more studies. It is painfully obvious we should act immediately. The budget announcement of a $100-million prosperity fund is disgraceful when you have those on disability worse off now than before the budget.
With food bank use on the rise and more children in poverty than ever before, you would think that money could be spent now, not set aside for a ridiculous fantasy.
Please write to your MLA and tell them how outraged you are about this. Perhaps if enough us do, we can make a difference.
Rachel McDonnell
Victoria, B.C.
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