COPE calls on city council to protect renters and cancel missing middle rezoning

Written By COPE Vancouver

September 18th, 2018

COPE is calling on Vancouver city council to protect renters and cancel its so-called missing middle rezoning scheduled for today. COPE council candidates Derrick O’Keefe, Anne Roberts, and Jean Swanson oppose the rezoning because it:

  • Puts thousands of tenants at risk of eviction and demoviction with no protection from the Tenant Protection and Relocation Policy because that policy doesn’t apply to single family houses, basement suites, and duplexes

  • Doesn’t provide housing for the people who need it most. New development would be only for people earning over about $100,000 a year, while the people who are desperate for housing earn under $50,000

  • Will trigger speculation in vast areas of Kitsilano and Cedar Cottage, increasing property prices without any means of recapturing the unearned value for desperately needed social housing.

COPE doesn’t oppose densifying, especially in neighbourhoods that have historically been exclusive and not taken their share of rental and social housing. But when the city densifies, we need to protect tenants in lower-income rentals and recapture the increased value of the rezoning to get the money to build social and affordable housing that renters can afford.

COPE Vancouver
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