government to help." Earlier this year,
Latif submitted a proposal to both the
province and the feds to help develop
20 city-owned sites; the city, which has
announced a target of 2,500 a‚ordable
new homes by 2021, rezoned four of
them this summer.
Earlier this year, the province also
stepped up—matching a $150-million
federal contribution as part of a program
to create new affordable housing and
renovate existing housing; it has also
committed $350 million to
the Provincial Investment
in A‚ordable Housing pro-
gram to create 2,000 rental
units throughout B.C. On
the federal side, the 2016
budget included $200.7
million over two years for 5,000 low-
income seniors housing units. The feds
have also started an A‚ordable Renting
Housing Innovation Fund to encourage
the construction of a‚ordable housing
and are o‚ering $500 million in loans to
developers and municipalities over the
next "ve years.
But in both governments' case, holding
onto public land seems a less important
part of that overall housing strate¯y. Nei-
ther the provincial minister responsible
for housing, Rich Coleman, nor the fed-
eral minister in charge of housing, Jean-
Yves Duclos, agreed to be interviewed for
this story. A federal spokesperson, when
asked about the government developing
federally owned land, said: "The minis-
ter will be working with the minister of
public services and procure-
ment to conduct an inventory
of all available federal lands
and buildings that could be
repurposed, and making some
of these lands available at low
cost, or no cost, for a‚ordable
housing."
Meanwhile a provincial
spokesperson, on the sale of public land,
wrote: "Non-pro"ts have asked the prov-
ince to transfer housing assets to them for
many years because owning the land will
help them to improve long-term planning
co-op creeK The
multi-family housing of
False Creek South was
considered edgy and
progressive in the '70s
Education grad student, Mike Irvine, presented his master's project underwater and started the Fish Eye Project,
an organization that brings marine research to classrooms and the world through interactive livestream shows.
DaviD
Drucker
