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,