Reproduced below is the text of a petition to ask BC Housing to stop their plans to transfer the ownership of Stamps Place. The full petition is available here.
Our Place, Our Home – Don’t give it away!
To: Minister of Housing Rich Coleman, BC Housing, and the BC Government
Dear Minister Coleman,
We request that you cancel plans to transfer the Stamps Place complex to a non-profit organization and ask that you instead work with residents and community partners in developing a comprehensive, place-based housing strategy for the property.
Stamps Place is the only family-oriented social housing complex in Vancouver’s inner city. At a time when the city is struggling to find solutions to house low-income families and seniors — and during Homelessness Action Week — the provincial action is confounding. The province’s Families First agenda would indicate that they should continue to support vulnerable families in this neighbourhood. Instead, BC housing is getting rid of a public asset — Federal lands which had been transferred to the Province in the last decade — without involving the residents and community affected.
Please take the time to involve the community in this decision.
**************
Explanation: Why is this important?
BC Housing posted a notice to identify non-profit housing providers interesting in purchasing the Stamps Place Housing Complex. The request as posted October 6th and closes November 3rd. Residents had no warning and will have no say in which non-profit will be selected.
“We found envelopes under our doors marked URGENT and saying that BC Housing would no longer be running our housing. I don’t think most people living here even know what this means.” said one resident, a parent of two.
Social Housing Advocates are concerned that this might the beginning of a move by the province to sell off all BC housing properties. Were the province to get out of the housing business all together, thousands of British Columbians would be impacted.
“We had no notice that this was going to happen. BC Housing is a key partner and we would expect with something this monumental, that there would be a community process. That Ray-Cam and residents and community organizations would come together with the federal, provincial and municipal partners and create a plan. That takes time. And this tender closes November 3rd” said Marilyn McKee, President of Ray-Cam Co-operative Centre’s Board of Directors.
People should be included in decisions that impact the places they call home and no one should have their home sold out from under them.
Will you sign this petition and join residents, community organizations and supporters in asking the province to cancel the November 3rd deadline to take time to consult the community before it sells the property?
leadnow.ca petition: Click here to sign.
