Modular housing plan on city-owned land currently used as an off-leash dog park in the Oval Village neighbourhood
Some cite property values, safety concerns over three-storey project to house the homeless
Cheryl Chan
The Province
The City of Richmond’s proposal to build its first modular housing project for homeless people is already facing opposition.
Hundreds of people packed an open house Wednesday to get more information about the project slated for 7300 Elmbridge Way.
Adjacent to an ICBC Claim Centre and across the street from a hardware store, the lot is surrounded by about a dozen condo towers that lie within a two-block radius, with more market housing developments on the way.
Rautenberg said the project site was chosen because it’s close to transit, health agencies and other support services. Spaces will be given to Richmond residents first.
Operator RainCity Housing said there will be a minimum of two staff on-site round the clock every day.
“People don’t choose to be homeless or unwell,” said Catherine Hume of Raincity. “By providing support and services, we allow people to be integrated back into communities.”
But some residents are not happy with the project’s location.
Yi Lu, a resident who lives in a building across the street, said the neighbourhood is one of the densest residential areas in Richmond yet there is only one dog park that serves as green space for residents.
“It is not fair to build modular housing in this area,” she said, noting the last Metro Vancouver homeless count only found 29 unsheltered homeless out of the 70. “If you build this here, it might attract homeless from other cities to come here.”
Rautenberg said the site design will incorporate a shared dog park on the north end of the property.
Outside the library where the open house was held, a woman was busy collecting signatures for a petition against the project. Some people expressed concern about safety, while others felt the project could hurt property values.
An online petition by a group called Oval Village Residents is urging mayor and council to reject the project over safety concerns and what it feels is a lack of transparency from the city.
The proposed project would be within a 10-minute walk from six daycares and about a kilometre away from an elementary school, it said.
Across B.C., the prefabricated dwellings are increasingly being used as an option to ease homelessness. Last year, the NDP government announced a $291 million modular housing plan to put u[ 2,000 such units across the province over two years.
It is providing about $5.9 million toward the Richmond project.
Resident Stella Kai said modular housing is just a temporary Band-aid for a larger problem.
“They should find a more permanent site and do a better job than just five years,” she said. “It’s such a waste of money from the provincial government.”
Ruth Goodchild welcomed the project, although she was careful to say she doesn’t live near the site.
“It sounds like it’s very much needed … and that a lot of the people who are vulnerable aren’t necessarily people who would have hazardous kinds of behaviour,” she said.
Vancouver has completed two modular housing projects, with three other sites identified.
The 78-unit complex in Marpole was particularly contentious, upsetting residents concerned about its proximity to schools and the tenant mix, which required 20 per cent of units be provided to harder-to-house “service level 3” tenants.
Brenda Prosken, regional director of B.C. Housing in Vancouver and Richmond, said all modular housing projects will be required to offer housing to individuals across the spectrum of need.
“We are trying to make sure we are offering this housing to those individuals who are extremely challenged and vulnerable as well as those who just need to come indoors and get connected to services,” she said.
There is no set percentage requirement as that would depend on the community, the need, and the housing operator, said Prosken.
The project is expected to go before council for final approval in the spring. If approved, construction will start by the fall with occupancy in late 2018 or early 2019.
“We’ve been getting a diverse range of viewpoints,” said Joyce Rautenberg, the city’s affordable housing co-ordinator.
If approved, the 40-unit three-storey project could make a serious dent in Richmond’s homeless figures, which grew 84 per cent to 70 people in 2017 from 38 in 2014, although homeless advocates believe the real number is close to 120.
The building will be erected on city-owned land currently used as an off-leash dog park in the Oval Village neighbourhood and would be in place for five years.
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