Not only is ongoing development defacing Vancouver’s downtown and overcrowding many of our streets, it is driving many of us away from the city that was our home. In Vancouver, not even an above-average salary can guarantee us a place to live

   They say that we must resign ourselves to seeing our neighbourhoods razed because Canadian cities like Vancouver must be capable of housing the many who want to come here. But noting is further than the truth.

   Mass rezoning and development for profit have created a crisis of affordability which in turn has forced thousands of people out of their homes and out of the city or into homelessness. Paula Baker of Global News [Click on image to see the article] reports that “a new report finds Metro Vancouver’s sky-high housing costs are driving homelessness across the region.” This report shows that unaffordability “is both pushing people into homelessness and preventing others from exiting homelessness. It’s a double-edged sword.”