RE: BC Housing’s Purchase of 204 Alpha & 205 Beta Ave(s) Confederation Park Apartment Complexes – What does the future hold for the area?

On April 20, 2007, an impromptu community meeting was held at the McGill Library to address concerns about the quick purchase by BC Housing of properties at 204 Alpha and 205 Beta Ave(s), as part of an $80 million purchase of 15 properties that, according to what was released to the media, were to house single, hard to house residents mostly from the downtown east side.

After many calls to BC Housing, MLAs Richard Lee and John Nuraney, and several other BC Government offices, many local residents were left feeling nervous by the lack of concrete information available about what BC Housing's real intent was regarding exactly how these properties would be used both in the near term and closer to the Winter Olympics.

Many of us were left with an overall feeling of fear that our park, elementary school, community and seniors centers might be exposed to the crime & drug use that are generally associated with the downtown east side. A number of residents from Block Watch, The Capital Hill Community Assoc., Members from the Confederation Park Elementary school and representatives from the units themselves, formed a group called the Confederation Park Concerned Citizens Coalition, with the intent of unifying the neighborhood to fight for not only answers from BC Housing regarding their immediate and future plans for the properties, but also to ensure that our families, neighbors, children and elders are not put in harms way as a result of who may be eventually moving in to these above units.

Despite only 5 days of organization time, an estimated 450 people showed up at a meeting at McGill Library on April 20th.

Mr. Richard Lee, and 2 representatives from BC Housing, Mr. Darin Froese and Mr. Craig Crawford also showed up. While some questions were answered, many attendees were left with more unanswered questions, and the two BC housing reps agreed to attend another formal community meeting at a later date, where specific questions could be answered.

If you are feeling let down by your government due to the secrecy surrounding the purchase of these two units, now is your chance to be heard! The Olympics are coming and the general feeling is that they don’t want a “black eye” in Vancouver. WHAT IS THE REAL AGENDA?

The number of community members who showed up at the initial meeting only got the ball rolling, and now we must help continue to fight to protect the integrity of our community.

Representatives from BC Housing, the Provincial Government and The City of Burnaby have been invited and confirmed to a Public Town Meeting at Alpha Secondary High-School (Gym), at 4600 Parker Street, Burnaby, on Thursday, May 24th at 7 PM.

We would like very much for you to attend and HAVE A CHANCE TO HEAR YOUR VOICE HEARD. Residents from the area will be given a chance to have their individual questions posed and addressed by the appropriate officials. We would like everyone to attend and support the rally to PRESERVE OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD!

Sincerely, The Confederation Park Concerned Citizens Coalition.

For further information on the issue and to download petitions and other relevant information, please visit http://confedparkcoalition.blogspot.com/

CBC Radio Interview with Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and Housing Minister Rich Coleman

Tuesday April 24, 2007

Cleaning up for the Olympics: Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan is accusing the province of moving Downtown Eastside homeless problems out into the suburbs, and we get reaction from Housing Minister Rich Coleman.
Listen to this interview. (runs 9:35)

If you are having trouble listening to this clip, you may need to download RealPlayer which is available free at: http://www.real.com/R/RDX.downloadr_2.R/software-dl.real.com/2580cb2fa0ab86bc4602/windows/rdxstub/dlrhap_bb/RealPlayer10-5GOLD_bb.exe


Or Click here to start the download:

BC Housing Letter sent to Shane Ramsey

April 2007


Mr. Shane Ramsey
Chief Executive Officer
BC Housing
Suite 601 – 4555 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
V5H 4V8

Mr. Darin Froese
Regional Director
BC Housing – Fraser Region
#800 – 5945 Kathleen Ave.
Burnaby, BC
V5H 4J7

Re: 204 Alpha and 205 Beta Avenue apartment complexes, Burnaby, BC

Dear Mr. Ramsey and Froese:

The concerns addressed in this letter are being raised by a group of residents; called The Confederation Park Concerned Citizens Coalition, living in the neighbourhoods of Capital Hill and The Heights in North Burnaby. Originally these concerns arose after discovering that BC Housing has quietly purchased two rental properties in our area, as part of a large purchase of several properties by the BC Government to be used for "hard-to-house” singles of greater Vancouver's homeless population.

I, _________________________________, as a member of this community, located at _________________________________________Burnaby have a right to be part of the process for deciding what happens to these two buildings. There certainly was no transparency leading up to the Government spending millions of dollars, when suddenly these properties were purchased. As residents of both the province and the neighborhood, and taxpayers who ultimately provided the money to purchase the properties, we feel we need to have our concerns heard before any further action is taken with the apartments at 204 Alpha Ave. and 205 Beta Ave.

We are concerned about how the sale of these two properties to BC Housing will affect our neighbours currently residing in these two buildings. These residents are valued members of our community, and we worry that they may face being homeless themselves, if evicted in order to help house the homeless.

If indeed these units are intended to be used to help ease homelessness in the greater Vancouver area, purchasing and using apartments that are already fully occupied strikes us as unbelievably counter productive. It should be noted that many of the residents now residing in these properties are living on fixed and lower incomes. Many of them have lived there for 10 years or more.

There is also concern that as tenants vacate suites in the buildings in question they will be replaced by homeless persons who may have substance abuse problems, a criminal history or one of many other potential problems that are generally associated with "hard-to-house" individuals. If these properties are simply used as a “shelter” for people currently living on the streets, we fear that with some of these people may come the trappings of life usually associated with life on the streets of the downtown east side.

It should also be noted that these properties are in close proximity to Confederation Park Elementary School, Confederation Park, and a senior’s community center, places where many of our community members can come and feel safe while using these facilities and families gather on weekends. We feel turning these apartments into a defacto shelter, could seriously erode the fabric of our community, and potentially introduce elements like crime and drug use to an area so close to our schools, our park and community centers.

As a community, we would like to note we are not against helping those who need it, and we do not want to be seen as an alarmist, "not in my back yard" community. Many of us who live here actively participate in helping those less fortunate through our churches and temples, local charities and other volunteer work. Our community thrives in it's diversity, people of many different races, religious and spiritual backgrounds, and income levels currently live harmoniously in what we feel is one of the remaining neighborhoods in the city of Burnaby where one can walk down the street and not be just an anonymous stranger.

Our community has worked very hard over many years to make our neighbourhood a good place to work, live and raise children, and the Provincial government and BC Housing is jeopardizing and trying to take that away.

Therefore at a minimum, what we would like to do to ensure that these aspects of our community remain intact is to be involved in the process by which the final usage is decided upon for the properties at 204 Alpha Ave. and 205 Beta Ave.

For this we would need a commitment from BC Housing to provide, in writing, a concrete plan for what you will use these properties for both short and long term, and if such a document does not yet exist, meet with members of the community to draft such a plan so that we can be assured the current state of our neighborhood stays intact.

For these reasons and others, I and my family are opposed to this site being used for supportive housing for the homeless, it is simply the wrong location for dealing with these issues.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Your understanding and attention in this matter is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Various Politicians Addresses and Email etc.

Various Politicians Addresses and Email etc.

Premier:
MLA: Hon. Gordon Campbell
Vancouver Point Grey
E-mail: gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca or premier@gov.bc.ca
Web site: www.gordoncampbellmla.bc.ca
3615 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BCV6R 1P2
Phone: 604 660-3202
Fax: 604 660-5488

Burnaby North MLA:
Richard Lee
E-mail: richard.lee.mla@leg.bc.ca
Web site: www.richardleemla.bc.ca
1833 Willingdon Avenue
Burnaby, BCV5C 5T1
Phone: 604 775-0777
Fax: 604 775-0833

MLA – Burnaby-Willingdon:
MLA: Hon. John Nuraney
BC Liberal Party
M-5, 4277 Kingsway Ave.
Burnaby, BC V5H 3Z2
Tel: (604) 775-2414
Fax: (604) 775-2550
E-mail: john.nuraney.mla@leg.bc.ca

Federal MP:
Bill Siksay
Constituency Offices
4506 Dawson Street, Burnaby, BC. V5C4C1,
Phone: 604-291-8863
Fax: 604-666-0727
Burnaby Mayor and Council
B Mayor and Councilc/o Office of the City Clerk4949 Canada Way
Burnaby, B.C. V5G 1M2
Email mayor.corrigan@burnaby.ca

Mayor -City of Burnaby:
Mayor Derek Corrigan
4949 Canada Way
Burnaby, BC V5G 1M2
Tel: (604) 294-7340
Fax: (604) 294-7724
E-mail: mayor.corrigan@burnaby.ca

Councilor – City of Burnaby:
Ms. Colleen Jordan
5463 Eglinton Street
Burnaby, BC V5G 2B4
Res: (604) 299-4249
Cel: (604) 970-8117
E-mail: cjordan@comsavings.com

Minister responsible for Housing:
Hon. Rich Coleman
BC Liberal Party
101B, 27336 Fraser Highway
Aldergrove, BC V4W 3N5
Tel: (604) 607-6200
Fax: (604) 607-6205
E-mail: rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca

Regional Director BC Housing – Fraser Region
Mr. Darin Froese
#800 – 5945 Kathleen Ave.
Burnaby, BC V5H 4J7
Tel: (604) 519-2311
Fax: (604) 525-8201
E-mail: dfroese@bchousing.org or FraserRegion@bchousing.org

BC Housing - Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Shane Ramsey
Suite 601 – 4555 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H 4V8
Tel: (604) 439-4712
Fax: (604) 439-4722
E-mail: sramsey@bchousing.org

Letter of Petition

We are petitioning Mr. Darin Froese at BC Housing (Fraser Region), Mr. Rich Coleman, Minister responsible for Housing and The Premier of BC, Mr. Gordon Campbell to reverse their collective recent announcement, of April 7, 2007, to purchase and covert 204 Alpha Ave. and 205 Beta Ave. townhouse complexes into supportive housing for the homeless.

Our neighbourhood is a predominately middle class privately owned suburban neighbourhood that enjoys a good community feel and safe atmosphere.

The proposed purchase and conversion of the above properties to house homeless people will undoubtedly bring in a very disruptive and negative element into our community.

Furthermore, the above townhouse complexes currently serve moderate-market rentals and have done so for many, many years. Taking away these market units for those in this income bracket is not a real solution for our community.

The subject properties are no more than a stone’s-throw from an elementary school and a park where children regularly play and extended families gather on weekends. Injecting our community with this arbitrary decision without community consultation and input, borders on the irresponsible. How is it that BC Housing can make such a decision, which will undoubtedly have a negative effect on so many in the North Burnaby, and the Heights area is unbelievable? We understand that local city representatives were not even consulted regarding the proposal and were only informed after the decision had been made.

It should be no surprise that persons with drug and/or alcohol addictions, in addition to people suffering from mental illness require substantial support, supervision and care. However it should also be no surprise that “hard-to-house” singles will very likely create a very unsafe and potentially deteriorating situation for people that have lived in the area for three generations or more, and as experienced in Vancouver’s East end.

Our neighbourhood will unfortunately be confronted with many of the unintended consequences that come from a facility that houses the homeless. We can expect open drug use in the park, increased crime rates for the area, via break-and-enters, graffiti and prostitution among others. We can also expect that those that “prey” on individuals with such challenges will also “set up shop” in the area and most likely in and around Confederation Park. One would think that BC Housing would use better judgment when selecting a site and indirectly exposing children and a working community to potential volatile situations both now and over the longer term.

Our community has worked very hard over many years to make our neighbourhood a good place to work, live and raise children, and the Provincial government and BC Housing is trying to take that away.

We are supportive of this kind of housing service for the homeless, but absolutely not at this location due to the many stated above reasons.

Petition:

We, the undersigned, call on the Provincial Government and BC Housing to reverse the use of 204 Alpha Ave. and 205 Beta Ave., Burnaby, as supportive living for hard-to-house (the homeless) peoples.

We DO NOT want the above units as government housing in our neighbourhood.