This coming Monday, District of North Vancouver council will vote on a 65-unit supportive housing project on Keith Road for people facing homelessness. It follows the longest and likely most controversial public hearing in the municipality’s history.
We acknowledge the neighbours’ anxiety over the proposal and even sympathize to some extent.
But since the time the district began its record-breaking, five-night public hearing, we’ve seen temperatures drop to -19 C, dumps of snow and torrents of rain. None of the social ills that residents fear the project will bring to their neighbourhood can be addressed by making people sleep in tents and vehicles in those conditions. On the contrary, we know very well that stable housing is the critical first step for anyone who wants to get better.
And sadly, even if this is approved, it will only make a small dent in the overall problem.
Our community is not without compassion, but if it were up to the majority of those who spoke at the public hearing, the project would be built somewhere else – anywhere else. If affordable housing is to be built, it needs to have funding commitments and it needs land. This has both. All that remains is our will to get it built and bring people in from the cold.
On paper, the question before council is about zoning. But the outcome is a test of their and our humanitarian nature. There is only one correct decision and we look forward to seeing council make it on Monday.
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