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.
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