Rally to stop Sequel 138 condos & mass displacement

CALL TO ACTION!
Stop Sequel 138 condos on the 100-block of East Hastings, Stop gentrification…
STOP MASS DISPLACEMENT OF THE LOW-INCOME COMMUNITY

Rally and community declaration
Tuesday April 10
11am
Carnegie Theatre
(Main floor, 401 Main St)

Representatives of DTES community, health, arts, social justice, 100-block hotels, and residents associations will issue a mass-displacement alert and a challenge to city council to act with the low-income community to avert this crisis.

Come and join with this rally of DTES community organizations and residents to raise our voices against “Sequel 138″ condos on the 100-block of East Hastings, against gentrification and displacement, and for the social housing we need!WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP SEQUEL 138 CONDOS

Thousands have already come out against sequel 138 & for nothing less than 100% social housing on the 100-block of east hastings: 40 DTES and ally organizations representing tens of thousands of people; more than 3,000 people; 74 community support workers; the ‘big-4’ DTES social housing providers (Lookout, PHS, Atira, Rain City); Every significant arts organization in the DTES. Last year the city Urban Design Panel AND the Director of Planning turned down the Sequel 138 proposal… now he’s been fired and there’s a new city council and the most unpopular condo proposal in the DTES is back… We must fight together to STOP SEQUEL 138

•    Write a letter to the city saying:
1. Amend the Vancouver Charter so council can stop Sequel 138; &
2. Buy the lot & build 100% social housing at Pantages
david.autiero@vancouver.ca
kevin.mcnaney@vancouver.ca
mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca
Include us: ddiewertt@shaw.ca

•    Come to the rally in the Carnegie Theatre on April 10 (see below) & the demonstration in front of Pantages on Tuesday April 17, 2pm

•    Join the campaign: Contact us through email at ddiewertt@shaw.ca or at 604-781-7346 and get involved in the campaign!

Organized by: DTES Not for Developers Coalition
http://dtesnotfordevelopers.wordpress.com

BACKGROUNDER (and look at the bottom to see what you can do to stop Sequel 138 condos)

CONDOS ON THE 100-BLOCK WOULD BE A GENTRIFICATION BOMB IN THE HEART OF THE DTES

The 100-block of East Hastings is the heart of the DTES low-income community. This April everything good about this community is threatened by the developer-proposal to build 79 condos called “Sequel 138” at the former Pantages theatre site, between the Regent & Brandiz Hotels. The developer says this is good for the community because he’s legally obligated to build 8 or 9 units of social housing at welfare rate to get his building permit. We know Sequel 138 is a displacement plan but… HELL NO WE WON’T GO!

WHAT SEQUEL 138 THREATENS

Low-income peoples’ housing: Close to 1,000 low-income people live on the 100-block of East Hastings. Although these rooms are nearly all cramped, unhealthly, and unsafe, they are the only homes their residents have. And until they are replaced with social housing, they beat living on the streets.

Condos cause higher property values, higher rents in SROs, and displacement of low income people from the SROs as we have seen with Woodward’s. About half of the residents of the 100-block live in privately owned hotels (Regent, Balmoral & Brandiz) where rents will go up when land values increase and low-income people get priced out.

Safe community spaces: The 100-block is our community: We depend on health and food services on the 100-block and need the community spaces that keep our community alive with cultural and hang-out spots. The low-income community fought for and made these spaces like Carnegie, Insite, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, and Aboriginal Front Door.

Gentrified spaces are for consumers not community: Expensive restaurants and boutique stores also come with condos, and with them come more private security guards and police… all pushing low-income people out of public spaces.

Invest in the current residents: The city says that the median income in the DTES is $12,000 a year and most people live on at welfare or old age pension rates. Pantages is in the Downtown Eastside Oppenheimer District (DEOD), where the most low-income people live. Laws in the DEOD keep land prices low, because 20% of any condo project must be social housing. This law protects the area for low-income people by making properties cheaper for governments to buy for social housing.

Stop real estate speculators & investor-predators: If Marc Williams can make money at Pantages it will send a signal to other developers sitting on land in the DEOD. Condos on the 100-block will open the flood gates to developments that will threaten low-income housing, shops and services in the heart of the low-income community.

WHAT IS THE SEQUEL 138 PROPOSAL?

•    79 quarter-million dollar condos
•    9 $837-$900/mth “social housing”
•    9 welfare-rate social housing units
•    A high-end shopping “breezeway” to connect Hastings to Chinatown. It will be “gated until security concerns improve”
•    To displace residents from the 100-block. The developer has openly mocked residents & drug users & compared them to rats in the demolition rubble, and;
•    A garden, bike storage & art space for the majority condo residents

—
DTES Not for Developers Coalition
http://dtesnotfordevelopers.wordpress.com

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