Friends,

Thank you for joining us in rallying an opposing response city-wide to the Minimal Barrier Shelter proposed for Arbutus and 8th Avenue.

Our focus firmly stands on repairing the disregard for children, vulnerable women and families.

At its surface, the Proposed Building of concern in the middle of the seven-school zone at Arbutus and 7/8th Avenues and neighbours a women’s supportive recovery home.  The proposal allows for the development of a 13-storey Low Barrier building (aka Minimal-barrier shelter: An emergency shelter that has few requirements for entry.) The zoning would change from RM-4 (Residential 3-4 storeys) District to CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) District. This proposal includes:

• 129 single room occupancy units
• A floor space ratio (FSR) of 4.42
• A net floor area of 7,948 sq. m (85,551 sq. ft.)
• A building height of 50 m (164 ft.) or the equivalent to 18 standard storeys (6X zoning)
• 6 vehicle parking spaces and 154 bicycle parking spaces

Due to the lack of transparency and process and also due to the exclusion and misrepresentation of community and stakeholder feedback on the part of City Planning Staff and BC Housing, the community has banded together to research, rally and gain understanding of its complexity and potential impacts, for both dwellers and those that surround it - children, elders and vulnerable women in recovery.

For more details beyond the information to follow visit:

www.kitsilanocoalition.org

https://shapeyourcity.ca/2086-2098-w-7th-ave-and-2091-w-8th-ave

How you and yours can help.

As the matter is pressing, below we have prepared a series of arguments intended to counter the blatant disregard children, youth and families are experiencing with the announcement of the Building Proposal for Arbutus/8th.

We would ask on behalf of children, families and vulnerable women in recovery that you consider doing the following urgently:

1. Echo the arguments outlined below within your comments to Council prior to June 28 saying you are OPPOSED to CD-1 Rezoning: 2086-2098 West 7th Avenue, and 2091 West 8th Avenue
2. Follow this link to comment: https://vancouver.ca/your-government/contact-council-public-hearing.aspx
3. Use this Subject: CD-1 Rezoning: 2086-2098 West 7th Avenue, and 2091 West 8th Avenue
4. Enter Position: Opposed
5. Provide Comment: You are welcome to use the arguments outlined below or follow the www.KitsilanoCoalition.org  for more arguments pertaining to FOI request, the VPD, medical and architecture consultants and much more.
6. Sign up as early as June 17 to SPEAK at the Public Hearing on June 28 + present the content of your letter in person or on the phone at the pending Public Hearing.
7. Send this to everyone you know that care about children, elders, women in recovery, vulnerable families.

Arguments Opposing the Proposal:

1. It appears that the City of Vancouver Child, Youth And Family Committee is left out of planning matters that impact the lives of children and women-led families. The City of Vancouver’s own CYF Committee was not asked to review nor to provide comment given its location within a 7-school zone impacting more than 1,500 students and within 20 metres of a 500-child elementary school, preschool, toddler park and Women’s Supportive Recovery Home for women and women-led families. Never before has a low-barrier project of this magnitude or model been proposed for less than 20 metres from a 500 child preschool, elementary school complex and toddler park.
2. City Planners and BC Housing do not consider children or the need for safe housing and environments for vulnerable women-led families in site selection criteria for Minimal Barrier Shelters. Freedom of Information requests have revealed that neither the 500-child school, nor the Women’s Supportive Recovery Home were included as part of the site selection criteria by neither City Planners nor by BC Housing.
3. The Proposed Building will contain 129 studio units, suitable only for single adults. This means that some of the most vulnerable people in our society: single mothers with children and families (including single fathers) who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness or battery, will be excluded from accessing any housing or other services in the Proposed Building. The City of Vancouver’s 2020 Homelessness Count report3 shows that 21% of the people who were counted as homeless identified as women. The report also indicates that it is believed that women are undercounted in the Point In-Time Count and often live in unsafe situations where they are not encountered by count volunteers (i.e., the “hidden homeless”).
4. Single residency only buildings also disregard the importance of families and preclude companionship. Individuals who may want to be reunited with their children cannot within the congregate, single room only formats. It is known that 25% living in SROs and Supportive Housing with single occupancy rooms having children under someone else's care which means 1 in 4 dwellers have had to be separated from children in order to accept accommodation.
5. Today, Women and Women-led families at risk of battery are at considerably more risk given the May 2022 ruling at the Supreme Court of Canada saying voluntary extreme intoxication is a defense in violent crimes. https://globalnews.ca/news/8832723/supreme-court-canada-extreme-intoxication/
6. BC Housing and City of Vancouver Planning Staff show disregard for the safety and well-being of vulnerable women. The Sancta Maria Home, a Women’s Supportive Recovery Centre, was asked at the 11th hour by BC Housing if they could “work together” to provide the next step of housing to their women graduating recovered. However, the Executive Director of the Sancta Maria Home, declined the offer, citing it would be detrimental given the women will have just recovered from within a “dry” facility and/or reunited with their families only to be then separated from their children and housed in a “wet” facility with those still fighting their addictions.
7. Not all children are considered equal. The proposed height equal to 18 storeys is a significant departure from current 3-4 storey zoning and will cause shadow casting upon the school and play space for more than half of each learning day, including both recess and lunch recess for the children for the majority of the year when incorporating the Daylight Savings Time removal in the fall of 2023 (which neither the applicant or city staff have incorporated into their shadow studies for Council). Community volunteers corrected the applicants falsely prepared shadow studies in time for the Urban Design Panel discussion. The error was glaring and they intended to present it to the UDP and to Council as such. Planners responded that private schools (though partially publicly funded) are not considered when watching for shadow impacts. The only consideration given was to the neighbouring Delamont toddler park. If these 500 children are not considered equal to their counterparts at fully public funded schools, it could be considered discrimination and for what reason?
8. A decision by BC Housing and the City to create only studio apartments for adults in the Proposed Building will not only fail single at-risk mothers with children but will also not comply with the City of Vancouver’s Women’s Equity Strategy. The City’s Equity Strategy is aimed at making Vancouver a place where all women have full access to the resources provided in the City and have opportunities to fully participate in the political, economic, cultural, and social life of Vancouver. Particularly, by applying an intersectional lens to strengthen City processes, and inform City decision-making, addressing violence against women, and by providing accessible quality childcare and safe and affordable housing to woman in this City. 
9. The Proposed Building misses Housing Strategy Objectives by a long shot whereby 45% of housing should be built for families, the Proposed must contain a mix of different sized units, including family units, to ensure a mix and diversity of tenants, including parents with children.
10. The proposed model; a wet Minimal Barrier shelter with on site injection, housing 129 with addiction and mental health issues, woefully and admittedly understaffed takes aim at and weakens the independent mobility of more than 1,500 students within 7 schools all within 450 meters of the site including;
    - Kitsilano Area Child Care Society (KACCS) at 2041 W 6th Ave
    - Bumblebear Daycare at 2305 West 7th Ave
    - Lord Tennyson Elementary School at 2650 Maple St
    - St. John’s School at 2215 W 10th
    - Madrona School Society at 2064 W.10th Ave
    - Fraser Academy at 2294 W10th Ave.
    - St Augustine School 2154 W 7th Ave
11. We feel strongly that any new publicly funded programs and housing services for this area, including the Proposed Building, must include housing and other services for parents with children, including single mothers and fathers, who at risk or experiencing homelessness, to help them overcome their personal challenges (e.g., homelessness, family break up or -violence, mental health or substance use, loss of employment) as well structural factors (i.e., growing income inequality, lack of affordable housing, discrimination, low social assistance rates) while promoting and enriching a secure environment for their children. 
12. The Proposed Building size and facade is institutional, hostile architecture and works to further stigmatize the dwellers counterintuitive to its intention. We would like to see that the Proposed Building has an Innovative design with a unique, human-scale visual expression, in line with paragraph 3 of the City’s Temporary Modular Housing Design Guidelines that would work both to lessen the stigma associated with Social Housing projects and enhance its integration into the child-centric community. Examples of this include: 1) BC Housing’s proposed supportive housing project for single women and women-led families at the corner of Lloyd Avenue and West 16th Street, North Vancouver: a proposed five storey, 60-unit building that provides homes for single women and women-led families who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness https://www.dnv.org/news/supportive-housing-women-and-families-proposed-district-north-vancouver%C2%A0 2) BC Housing’s Project at 330 Coldstream Avenue Victoria: the project is for a six-storey wood frame building that accommodates a range of unit sizes - 50 studios, 39 one- bedrooms, one two-bedroom, and 12 three-bedrooms. According to BC Housing, “the six-storey wood frame structure was selected for its flexibility, efficiency, and affordability” https://greatervichousing.org/buildings/330-goldstream-ave/ 3) Non-profit housing developer M’akola’s housing development on 1766 Frances Street, Vancouver: this is a First Nations Wooden Basket Weave Passive House designed building approved by the City Council on February 11, 2021. It contains 40 studios, nine one-bedroom units, five one-bedroom accessible units, 14 two-bedroom units, six three-bedroom units and 10 four-bedroom units  (35% of units accommodate larger families). https://makoladevelopment.com/1766-frances-street/
13. To lift protection constraints for the 1,500 children affected, we recommend that the City of Vancouver avoid creating Arbutus and 7th into a public hotspot for violence and follow the precedent BC Housing and its housing operator, the Victoria Cool Aid Society set when BC Housing previously opened a supportive housing project across from a school by ensuring that only those with no known history of violence and no current substance abuse issues will be housed in the Proposed Building. While it may not normally be necessary for building operators to conduct criminal or other background checks on prospective tenants, because the Proposed Building will be a government funded and/or operated building that will be used to house persons within 20 meters of a school and a public playground, it is necessary to do so in this particular case to avoid facilitating breaches of Court orders including Sexual Offences against children, Probation and Release Orders, and also Family Court Protection Orders, and any potential liability that may arise from a failure to do so.

Thank you. We sincerely appreciate your time and attention you give to this matter and welcome you to also follow and join with the Kitsilano Coalition www.kitsilanocoalition.org in order to receive more important and timely information.

Best,

Your Parents for Thoughtful City Planning