The Sun has picked up the Berkeley Towers issue and placed it (metaphorically) on the front page:
Tenants at Berkeley Tower in the West End are organizing to fight their planned evictions as Reliance Properties proposes to do extensive repairs on the 16-storey building in a prime location overlooking English Bay.
The company is giving tenants a long lead time and compensation that is almost double what relocation regulations require of developers, said Reliance president Jon Stovell.
But now, especially after the civic elections, there is talk of how community opposition might be able to snarl a developer’s plans even when they meet, and even exceed, the regulations. With housing issues key to so many high-profile municipal races, observers and tenants feel there is now greater pressure on politicians to protect existing affordable rental stock for long-term tenants.
Gordon Price, a former six-term Vancouver councillor, wrote in a recent post to his blog that “a strategy for community and housing activists emerged from the fight over 105 Keefer.”
He is suggesting Berkeley Tower tenants might want to follow the strategy taken by Chinatown community groups at 105 Keefer St.
Well, not exactly “suggesting”. More observing the tactics used for 105 Keefer and then, noting its success, the likelihood that it will be used as a precedent. Which seems to be happening.
For your reading convenience, Price Tags has repositioned the previous posts on The Berkeley following this one. (Regrets that in the process, we lost the comments to the second post.)
Relocate them to where? With the gold-rush land speculation Vision Vancouver unleashed on the West End the number of affordable units seems to plunge monthly.
And as I said previously, reducing the number of units and adding to the number of parking spaces in this building doesn’t seem to fit with affordability or “greenest city” goals.
They’re not added parking spaces…more double speak on behalf of the developer. They are putting a store on 22 parking spots that are not being replaced. The 7 parking spots on the DP application are under the new store for the commercial tenants. With Tim Hortons gone, that will be the fifth new always empty luxury storefront on the same block and side of the street!
The only offer from Jon Stovell to the tenants was in June 2018. It was framed as the best to expect, double, blah blah and the city backed him up. At the time, Reliance had left many suites empty, fewer than five suites out of 58 decided to move, not for the money but because the bullying and intimidation is out of control. They didn’t even get the teeny deal offer because they didn’t stay until Reliance’s preferred eviction date. Most tenants will be living through the reno anyway per Stovell’s plan and the ground floor restaurants and retail are staying open for business the whole time. The tenants offered to negotiate a way to help by relocating themselves for a time but Stovell just wants them out. By the way, the work on the tower is only noted in the DP as new windows and rearrangement of closets to accommodate washers and dryers in each suite.
Jon Stovell’s deal included eviction without a place to go. In no way, did he cover (or double!) the most onerous of compensation by the Vancouver Tenant Relocation Policy, being RELOCATION ! The TRP demands three choices of similar homes at average rents for this neighbourhood calculated by the CMHC, including pets, parking and other material terms in the tenancy agreement. Even CMHC rates are at least 30% more than current rent there because of the renovictions aka illegal rent increases driving up the rates all over. Also, for many of the most vulnerable tenants, Reliance must find three choices of similar homes within 10% of their current rent. At no time has any comparable cash been offered to the tenants by Reliance. Please stop spreading false information about Stovell’s generosity towards these tenants. A simple check on Twitter will show he’s the city’s biggest lobbyist against rent control. The citizens of Vancouver are sick of them! For many the next step after affordable housing is the street!
Even for folks who are relocated safely, Stovell will not consider it a favour so he can triple the rent in his building or sell the entire building at a hefty profit because it’s empty. The City will pick up the tab and look to house those who need subsidized housing “in special developments” and for the vulnerable they can expect to be moved into city social housing – downtown SRO – no space there either?! ON THIS BILLIONAIRES BEHALF! Just say NO Vancouver.