Developer plans another gentrifying monstrosity in DTES

On Jan 24th the city and developer Bonnis held an open house for a massive 15 story tower, taking up three lots at the corner of Main and Union. The plan is to destroy the old Jimi Hendrix shrine, the Creekside SRO Hotel and the Brickhouse building and build 15 stories of market rental apartments in their place.

The developer has to replace the 18 SRO units they are planning to destroy but the replacement units are tiny, bed in the kitchen social housing units. Like many other social mix buildings, the development will also have one entrance for the richer market housing residents and another for the poorer social housing residents.

Beverly Ho with the Chinatown Concern Group attended the open house and according to Ho “even the retail stores are zones of exclusion, that the low-income community can’t access. These proposed retail are also bars and expensive coffee shops that the community doesn’t need.”

“We need to bring back the lost heritage of the only black community the City of Vancouver has ever had,” said Lama Mugabo with CCAP. The Carnegie Community Action Project is calling for the city to stop this development and build 100% welfare/pension rate social housing for Chinese seniors and the Black and African Descent community.