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T he units were spacious and bright, with funky 1950s-style kitchens and hardwood f loors. Steenhuisen's dad worked on the railway when her family moved into their unit in 1957. By 1979, he was on disability insur- ance due to a series of strokes, and by then, he had "ve kids. But the family had the support of a tightknit community. On a sunny afternoon stroll through the empty grounds this past summer, the only evidence that hundreds of people used to live there are the old concrete sidewalks. The crown corpo- ration BC Housing, whose mandate is to provide a‚ordable housing for the province, took over the property in 2007 and immediately made plans to sell it o‚. After putting out a call for bids, BC Housing entered into a cash-and- property deal in 2008 with Holborn, a Malaysian development company that is a subsidiary of a charter bank, sell- ing 6.2 hectares for $300 million plus 234 non-market housing units. The resi- dents were evicted, but a handful fought hard to stay; by the fall of 2009, only 10 remained, including Steenhuisen and her mother. In an e‚ort to appease a riled com- munity, Holborn built a 53-unit seniors residence o‚ to the south side of the property while they waited for rezoning of the full property. That "nally came in July of this year, when the City of Vancouver approved rezoning for 1,400 units of market housing and 282 units of social housing, with Phase 1 to begin in 2017. Holborn's Vancouver- based CEO Joo Kim Tiah says the contro- versy surrounding Little Mountain, plus a lengthy public consultation process, is responsible for the lengthy delays (they started the approvals process in 2010). He adds that he was never forced to deliver the one social housing building that was completed in 2015—the one that Steenhuisen lives in today. "I did it out of goodwill—I didn't have to [build it]," says Tiah. "Because it was a tough situation, politically. Everyone was going to look bad. The city was going to look bad. The province was going to look bad. I just said, 'I'll do it then.' People always paint developers as evil. I am here for the long term, and I want to build a good brand. I sympa- thize with the situation." Still, for almost a decade the prop- erty once home to about 600 people will have sat largely empty—this at a time when the need for a‚ordable hous- ing has become more urgent by the day. Home prices have soared in the past decade: in 2006, only 19 per cent of Vancouver houses were over the $1 million mark, compared to 91 per cent in 2016. Average rental rates are also way up— UBC economist Tom Davido‚ forecasts a 20 per cent increase this year alone—while the vacancy rate approaches zero. And now the future of a‚ordable housing in Little Mountain's central, highly walk- able Mount Pleasant neighbourhood rests with an o‚shore corporation instead of the provincial government. "I'll be honest with you, I would have hoped we got this rezoning a lot earlier," says Tiah. "But thank God the market worked in our favour." As to whether the condos will be priced as a‚ordable for local incomes—which average $76,000 per household—it doesn't look promis- ing. "The market housing will be priced to where the market is," he says. "That's all I can say." Steenhuisen, now 59 and on dis- ability insurance, lives with her in"rm mother in the new seniors facility. The home, run by the More Than a Roof non- pro"t, can't compare to what she once had at the original Little Mountain, says Steenhuisen. She misses the camarade- rie of co‚ee with her long-time neigh- bours. More importantly, she wonders what, exactly, is the point of selling o‚ what you could never a‚ord to buy in today's market. "If we can't meet cur- rent housing needs with public lands that we have that are fully paid for, then how on earth do we meet the future housing needs if we sell it all o‚?'" W hat happened at L it t le Mountain is not unique: all across the Lower Mainland, various levels of government have been dumping public land—land ideally suited for a‚ordable housing—to make a quick buck. A year ago, the province dispensed 74 BCBusiness OctOber 2016 nik west

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