Li | | Se ee | eel Gov't action only answer to housing crisis By ALD. HARRY RANKIN Let’s talk about Vancouver’s housing needs. We all know the situation is bad, but even though it’s stressing the obvious and well-known, lets just sum it up once more. An excellent and. well documented report completed some months ago by the city planning staff under the direction of Dr. Ann McAfee revealed that: @ 40,000 households in Van- couver have a housing problem. That’s 25 percent.of the total. Their housing doesn’t meet their needs. @ Of these 40,000 about 28,750 households require additional in- come to meet high rents. They are paying more than 30 percent of their income for rent. @ The remaining 11,250 households require either new hous- ing or substantial rehabilitation of their present housing. : To this should be added the alar- ~ming fact-that. Vancouver has the lowest vacancy rate of any major ci- ty in Canada — only 2 out of every 1,000 apartments or rooms are va- cant at any time. This means that landlords, except for the limited number of apartments still under rent controls of a kind, can pretty well charge what they like — over the table and under the table. The next question is: What’s be- “ing done to Correct the situation? -Damn ‘little — in fact less and less. ~ No federal/provincial public: housing projects are now under: way. In other words, senior govern-; ments have gone out of the public housing business. Only the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) is pro- viding any public housing at reasonable prices, and that amount is pitifully small. I should know, I’m chairman of the GVRD’s hous- ing committee. You should hear the strenuous and anguished cries of some of these free enterprisers against the idea of government pro- viding affordable housing for anyone on low income — you’d think they’re getting teeth pulled without any anesthetic. The Provincial Government has gone so far as to place a limit of 600 units on the number of housing units that may be constructed in B.C. in any one year, For political and vote catching purposes, most of these are being built in smaller B.C. communities. The city of Vancouver has done something, but far too little in rela- tion to need. In 1979 some 223 apartments for senior citizen are “‘expected’’; 248 family units are “expected’’?; no units for single handicapped are either expected or ° have been built. In the Downtown East side area, thanks to the unrelenting pressure of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association led by Bruce Eriksen, Libby Davies and Jean Swanson, the city’s record is a little better — some 450 new housing units and 400 housekeeping or sleeping rooms upgraded somewhat. : Who is responsible for this shameful and appalling housing shortage so unnecessary in a pro- vince: where we have more lumber than we can sell and almost one third of our construction trades .- are unemployed? Let me first of all say that the housing shortage in Vancouver and the low vacancy rate is not just an accident, not just something that happened. It is an artificial shor- tage, deliberately created by those who profit from such a shortage —: the developers, big apartment Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada $10 one yr.; $6.00 for six months; All other countries, $12 one year. Second class mail registration number 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE— DECEMBER 19, 1979—Page 2 owners, real estate interests and the . banks and investment corporations that have put their money into one or another form of housing. A shortage enables them to charge more for housing and for rents — it’s good business. They have created a shortage in housing the same way the oil corporations deliberately create shortages of oil and gas — so they can jack up the price and get still more tax conces- sions from- the government. : The real estate and developer interests want still more tax concessions before they get back into building more housing. Secondly the responsibility rests on all levels of government that have caved in to the pressure of the developer and real estate interests and allowed this housing shortage to develop without doing anything ‘about it. For governments to complain that they are short of money and can’t afford to build public housing now is a lot of crap. The Federal Government allows big business concerns to ‘‘defer’’ part of their income tax each year, that is, to delay the payment in- definitely. The amount in arrears now has been estimated to be as high as $20 billion. Why doesn’t Ot- tawa collect this? Ottawa is currently spending $4 billion a year for an arms build-up for foreign made weapons that will become obsolete as fast as they are built, and which benefit only the arms manufacurers. Most of this is . ¥ just plain waste. The provincial government is bragging that this year it has a surplus of some $113 million. Even the city of Vancouver has come up with a surplus this year of over $6 million. But here in Van- couver our NPA city council rarely discusses the need for housing. It is concerned with business-oriented projects. What is the situation then? To wait until the private sector does the job means to wait forever and still nothing will be done. The private sector cannot and will not go into the building of low rental, or low cost housing. Its only concern is with profits, and the profits today are in expensive housing. The only way the housing shor- tage can be relieved is for senior goverments — both Ottawa and Victoria — to make money available and get into the housing business in one way or another. To bring this about will require a lot of public pressure — our pressure WILL er || | | |( COPE presses Socreds | to change voting rules | Frustrated by a rigid and nar- row Non Partisan Association majority in its efforts to democratize voting procedures in Vancouver civic elections, the Committee of Progressive Elec- tors has appealed dijrectly to the provincial government to take action. COPE president Bruce Yorke asked the minister of municipal affairs last week to amend Sec- tion 73A of the city charter to allow people left off the voter’s list to vote and have their ballot counted, provided they swear an affidavit that they are an eligible voter. The present charter allows af- fidavit ballots to be counted only if the voter’s name appears on a previous voter’s list. In the last election 1,498 ballots were not counted. COPE’s action came after council voted seven to four last { Tuesday to reject a motion from \_ alderman Harry Rankin to have the council as a whole apply for the amendment. Rankin’s mo- tion pointed out that under the terms of the Municipal Act, gov-_ erning all other municipalities in” the province, all affidavit ballots are counted. : *‘Scandalous anti-democratic” remarks were made by NPA aldermen about abusing the J” right to vote, stacking the polls, #1 etc.,’”’ Yorke said this week. “‘The NPA’s attitude is summed up by alderman Little who said | all steps should be taken to make: it as difficult as possible to a tually vote,’’ The. COPE _ president predicted that even more af- fidavit ballots will be rejected in the next election if no action is taken to~amend the charte since Little, who was then ci clerk, cut back on enumeration procedures resulting in 10,000 fewer resident voters on the li than in 1976. must be greater than that of the developer and real estate interests: who now decide government hous- ing policy — or rather its lack of any such policy. The provincial government must be pressured to increase rent allowances for the many thousands of low income people in Vancouver who pay far more than 30 percent of their net income in rent. But in- creased rent allowances must be ‘€ombinéd with strict ren? controls -—. if. not then- landlords. will, just raise rents to correspond to incréas- 138 E. Cordova .for increasing the supply of ho _to.even make.a,dent in,the h Season’s Greetings to the labor movement ; TRADE UNION | -RESEARCH BUREAU Season’s Greetings to all Tribune Readers ‘Downtown Eastside Residents Association , Suite 4-193 E. HASTINGS, VANCOUVER 682-0 to all our friends and supporters @ FULL WARD SYSTEM @ RAPID TRANSIT @ AFFORDABLE HOUSING. Committee of Progressiv Electors (COPE) ed government rent grants will all be just one more subsi the big landlords with rente! better off. ; Vancouver must set obje and take the necessary steps t that they are realized. There ! reason why Vancouver on its couldn’t initiate 2000 units a y& with the assistance, of. available from, , Victoria . an: tawa. It will take-this kind of a shortage.