What Vancouver can do about Planning—Part 2
City Conversation #73: A neighbourhood-based approach for mental health, homelessness and housing insecurity
August 21st —seventh in a series of eight conversations about homelessness, housing insecurity, affordability and planning.
The Vancouver Plan with our existing 23 Neighbourhoods superimposed by me in red—why should I have to do that?
“You’ve not mentioned how the neighbourhood offices would support the homeless and those suffering housing insecurity. What’s that about?” I could sense his interest flagging and we were running out of beer anyway, so I pressed on.
“This might be my most aspirational thought so far,” I started. He gave me a and the others aren’t? look but I carried on regardless.
“So I propose that we have this network of 23 or more neighbourhood storefront offices around the city—places where folks can come for advice and assistance with their housing and development needs.” He nodded understanding. “So let’s say an individual, couple or family present themselves with more urgent needs—they are about to be evicted and have nowhere to go, or they are having mental health issues, for example.”
“Right now, city hall does that thing where they tell you to call 311, or 911 if it’s more urgent. Although the 311 responders are usually friendly and the 911 folks are trained to manage emergencies, they are remote. They can’t visually assess your situation and once they’ve handed you off to who they hope are the appropriate authorities, they go on to the next call.” He nodded, having read about that reality.
“Every time there’s a handoff like that, the individuals affected are essentially at the back of yet another line, that may be being managed by someone else at city hall, or a paramedic, or a addiction counsellor, or BC Housing, etc. Each time, the communication becomes more remote and the chances of a miscommunication increase. Not to mention how disheartening that is for the persons in need.” I paused until he gave me his continue nod.
“Here’s where my thoughts stray furthest from the existing models. What if the neighbourhood offices each had all those folks to hand, with the neighbourhoods as their home base? What if each had an assigned paramedic team, mental health counsellor, tenant advocate, etc?”
“But that’s so different than the existing model!” he responded.
“Perhaps,” I continued, “but how well is that working for us? If there’s one thing the pandemic should have taught us, it’s how seamless distributed systems can be and how well they can work. Perhaps, in addition to more robust local staffing, each neighbourhood office has a few terminals where residents can be assisted in connecting with helpers, perhaps in the next adjacent neighbourhood office, perhaps at city hall, perhaps at the nearest health clinic or hospital—it’s not rocket science!”
“So then,” he interjected, “to use your words, the foundational principle here is that all community services that folks typically need should be located in or accessed from neighbourhood offices.”
I smiled at his adopting my words. This time, he continued. “But won’t this create a huge additional bureaucracy? 23 neighbourhood offices with planners, building plan checkers, paramedics, counsellors?”
“Not really,” I answered. “In most cases, existing staff would be relocated from city hall or other centralized locations to the neighbourhood offices. Depending upon demand, some offices might have, for example, a tenant advocate present mornings only, or afternoons. Paramedics and Car 87 teams would most often be out and about, but their base would be a neighbourhood office—I think citizens would appreciate that proximity. And when these folks weren’t dealing with in your face situations, they’d be on the phone or computer or in their vehicles assisting with excess work loads elsewhere. We can do this!”
“I like it,” he answered. I’ve been keeping a few notes, maybe it’s time to summarize so we can get some food!” I was happy to have him wrap up.
The Time for Action is Here and Now
The additional What Vancouver can do about… conversation that follows is my summary take on actionable affordability, homelessness, housing insecurity, neighbourhood planning and related policies that I believe our next civic government should focus on—what we can actually achieve versus what we might aspire to (and waste taxpayer money on). They may or may not be the detailed policies of any civic party, but are most closely aligned to TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
Vancouver’s civic election is October 15th of this year. Lots more damage can still be done to our city before that date—and it will continue, and worsen, unless TEAM elects the next Mayor and a majority (6 of 10) City Councillors—less than 6 and not much will change for the better. If you are concerned that the City Conversations you’ve been reading are examples of what’s wrong with our city, feel some affinity to my What Vancouver can do about… conversations and want to bring back Vancouver’s livability, join TEAM and work with us to restore Vancouver as a place we can all afford to call home.
And please let me know what other subjects you are passionate about so we can have that conversation before election day, October 15th.
Today’s questions: Do you think these foundational principles can work? Are they worth trying? What aspects do you like/dislike? Where do you think I have missed or hit the mark?
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I am a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). I am semi-retired for the moment, still teaching and writing, so not beholden to any client or city hall. City Conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on my 40+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project. I am the author of the award winning Amazon best seller “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” I am also a member of TEAM for a livable Vancouver, a new political party dedicated to restoring a livable Vancouver starting with the 2022 civic election. Although I am not a candidate for TEAM or any other civic party, City Conversations are generally congruent with TEAM policy, so if you like the ideas that I’m writing about, please consider joining TEAM.