In a crackpot utopian scheme that could only be hatched in Vancouver - and which I in part predicted - the city is planning to redevelop an abandoned, now-government-owned department store into housing for addicts, homeless and yuppies. This Canadian Press (CP) account fails to mention several key points reported in January, 2005 by the local alternative weekly, The Vancouver Courier.

First, the provincial and national governments will be subsidizing this lunacy to the tune of at least $27 million; the city will likely be on the hook for an additional government subsidy. (Private developers are also involved).

Second, one of the non-profits to be operating the low-income housing units also runs the famed, nearby "safe injection site" for chronic needle-using drug addicts.

Third, when the Woodward's store closed (in 1993) the provincial government bought the building. Then the city bought it from the province.

As noted here, the province even turned down a private developer's offer of 8$ million for the property. It wasn't the $18 million they had been expecting (did they overpay?), and the building, as noted above, was later sold to the city.

Here's more from the CP story (second link) above.

VANCOUVER -- A building project bigger than any Vancouver has ever seen hopes to integrate drug addicts, businesses and middle-income earners in one of Canada's most disturbed neighbourhoods....The complex will be truly of mixed use, with low-income housing beside tony market-priced lofts and condos.

The site is being prepared and construction is slated to be finished in 2009, but planners are already thinking about the need for awareness courses to teach neighbours how to live together. Hipsters buying into the more affordable Woodward's condos are going to enjoy the neighbourhood more if they learn about the different mental health issues many residents struggle with and the effects of street drugs, says Cameron Gray, a director of housing for the city of Vancouver.

Sure. I can see it already. Friday gatherings in the community room. Over appletinis and salmon roe canapes, Web designer and arbitrageur loft owners will attend workshops on bi-polar disorders, schizophrenia, and how the inherently classist, sexist, racist biases of capitalism have been linked to addiction and mental illness, according to a new study by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. Additional seminars will cover differences between meth-heads and heroin addicts; euphemisms for street drugs; and pustule analysis. Low-income residents including addicts and those engaged in "sex work" will declaim in free verse to their guilty upper-income neighbors, as cable access and later, CBC film crews capture every word.

The downscale tenants will be enrolled in classes to learn life skills and Web design. Some portion will be given jobs doing building maintenance at the development; a lucky few will be given government jobs serving as "liaisons" between the development's low- and no-income tenants on the one hand, and the monied residents, on the other. A university may locate a branch on site, and sociologists will do studies, with low-income residents paid to answer surveys and keep diaries of their experiences.

Nearly all low-income residents of the Woodward's development will remain on the public teat essentially until they die. In time, Victoria, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal will each replicate the project. In other words, it will be a smashing success.

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 8, 2005 11:38 AM