TEAM on Council will Listen to the Community on the 7th/8th & Arbutus Project

The project at 7th/8th & Arbutus is a classic example of what is wrong with how Council has run the City. Communities are ignored and poor planning practices are the norm. Vancouver citizens deserve better and TEAM for a Livable Vancouver will prioritize better process and outcomes by listening to local communities' valid concerns. Citizens should not have to take the government to court to be heard.

TEAM's candidate Colleen Hardwick has consistently listened to the community, and she has been opposed to this project since inception when she was on Council between 2018 - 2022.

As the Kitsilano Coalition has said, "The 7th/8th & Arbutus project, as proposed, would have placed 129 units of low-barrier supportive housing, including an in-house drug consumption room, a mere 17 metres from an elementary school with 450 children, a successful women's recovery home, and a toddler park. This is simply not a recipe for success."

Local context is important.

While social and supportive housing is essential, there needs to be a move away from large concentrations of low-barrier housing that just warehouse people in large projects that are beyond support capacity. This is not a model that works for the wellbeing of occupying residents or the broader community.

This all needs to be reconsidered for a better model that more humanely supports wellbeing and recovery for a better life. TEAM would not proceed with this project at 7th/8th & Arbutus as proposed and instead would reconsider the whole failed model.

TEAM strongly supports the co-op model of housing for families, like in South False Creek on City owned lease land. Colleen Hardwick's father, councillor and UBC professor Walter Hardwick, successfully planned and established that area under the original T.E.A.M. that the current TEAM for a Livable Vancouver is inspired by.

If elected, Colleen Hardwick and Theodore Abbott will listen to the community and work for better outcomes for all.