Civic land use policies that support social and low income housing

Protect the remaining neighbourhoods that have low or middle-income housing by enacting a moratorium on the conversion or demolition of housing units until homelessness is ended and the vacancy rate is above 3%.

Public land should be used for public purposes, especially public housing. Public land should not be sold to private interests, no matter what "public benefits" are promised for the future. Private developers are in business for themselves and they must put their own interest first, the public second. The sale of so much of Vancouver's land base to VLC/Greystone Properties, Concord Pacific, Bosa Brothers, and Marathon Realty must not be repeated... in particular the still-pending (Nov 08) sale of the 15-acre site of Little Mountain public housing.


Two reasons why there is so little affordable housing.

• Developers are not building affordable housing because it is not profitable.
• Developers cite the cost of land as one of the major factors in the escalating price of housing.

Yet our government keeps relying on the market and developers to address the housing crisis. We must insist that our government retain public land for affordable housing now and in the future. We must insist that our government invest in a comprehensive housing program that will build homes for the homeless and provide affordable housing for low and modest income families. The government will need public land to accomplish this. The selling of public land is a permanent loss of a public asset and gambles that it will never be needed by future generations