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Rich Coleman’s big house plans

April 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments

For my latest in Vancouver magazine, I got to spend some time with the province’s ambitious Housing Minister NOT at housing announcements. Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Coleman is pouring a lot of energy into the housing/homelessness issue.

The question for some is what the long-term consequences of his vision of housing are. You can read my story here.

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  • civicblogger

    The Subtext of this article is interesting. Especially given the near daily announcements of new social housing units being purchased by the province and the City of Vancouver.

    To me the article is implying that the model for social housing used by the province is shifting away from the standard model of mixed low income/social housing spread throughout the City, and towards larger housing projects specifically geared towards “hard to house” individuals.

    This seems worrisome to me. The concentration of social housing in this way is ghettoization. It forces all the “undesirables” to live in certain areas while protecting everyone else (and property values) from unpleasantness

    This seems the opposite of the solution to me. Neighborhoods should represent the makeup of society more broadly with social housing spread evenly throughout the City. Social Housing should not be dictated by market forces or specifically designed to protect property values and the sensitivities of rich people.

  • Mike W.

    I totally agree with this article and the point on ghettoization. Let us not forget that coleman is a former member of the rcmp. This sounds like a crackdown effort and fits the bill of prison for the poor mentality it seems the police and like industries have long been trying to implement. Compare this with coleman’s recent introduction of a bill which willl deny assistance or disability benefits to those with a warrant. This denies these rights to people charged (not convicted) of a criminal offence. Guilty until proven innocent. Maybe somebody should start questioning a governments motives when a convicted drunk driver of a party linked to cocaine smuggling (BC legislature raids) is ok but somebody who is merely accused cannot collect basic disability assistance (anybody remeber what just happened in Edmonton?). Sounds a little hypocritical to me. Whose side is this coleman on? the Canadian people who are victims of ridiculous rental costs and lack of jobs when there is unemployment and 250,000 foreign workers brought in, or his buddies at the rcmp? Elected official or retired cop? Let’s start asking the right questions.