BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:NingEventWidget-v1 VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:4670368:Event:109546 DTSTAMP:20260427T231843Z SUMMARY:Speakers needed for Heather Place Public Hearing DESCRIPTION:On April 15th, Vancouver city councillors will be voting o n the redevelopment of Heather Place, 86 units of truly affordable fam ily housing in central Vancouver. Many tenants of Heather Place are at risk of losing their housing forever – I, Karen Gilchrist, am curre ntly one of those tenants.\nMyself, a single mother of Nadia Kim (Age 8) and a Social Worker at the Burnaby Hospital would not be where I am today without the support of our Heather Place Community & this affor dable housing provided by Heather Place. Today 46 % of single mothers in BC live below the poverty line. We need more affordable housing to support more families raising their children out of the current povert y cycle.\nToday’s Heather Place has a total of 86 units of truly aff ordable family housing. 22 units are subsidize and geared to income fo r low-income people; the rest of the units are affordable rental at $9 00 for a one-bedroom and $1,100 for a two-bedroom apartment. These rat es are expected to increase by 70% in the new Heather Place redevelopm ent, starting $1,800 for a two-bedroom apartment. These rates are just not affordable.\nAfter years of pressure from tenants, Vancouver coun cillors and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation have made a promis e of conditional financial support for the displaced tenants of Heathe r Place. But these promises are both vague and full of loopholes. Inst ead of attaching affordability to the unit, the city is offering a fla wed model of uncertain, conditional financial support. Because of its numerous loopholes, the current plan makes it so that a one-for-one re placement of affordable housing is impossible.\nThis loss of affordabl e housing is a serious concern for myself and my daughter. BC has the highest child poverty rate in Canada, nine years running. In order to escape from the cycle of poverty and disadvantage, BC’s children nee d truly affordable housing. Rent is the largest expenditure of a famil y household's budget and truly affordable rent can make the difference in a child’s life.\nPlease join us to send a strong message to coun cil that affordable housing matters.\nPlease call to be added to the s peakers list. You will be allowed to speak for five minutes directly t o city council. 604-829-4238 or email publichearing@vancouver.ca or ca ll Laura Kazakoff, Meeting Coordinator, at 604.871.6353 or email laura .kazakoff@vancouver.ca\nPlease request your number in line to speak wh en you sign up.\nWhen you speak to council, please tell them that this is an opportunity to decrease the child poverty in BC by increasing t he truly affordable housing stock in Vancouver. The only way to do tha t at Heather Place would be to replace all 86 units of truly affordabl e rental units, not just 26 units they state they will replace in thei r proposal. Vancouverites can and should take the opportunity to reque st that Metro Vancouver and the City of Vancouver either renovate the existing affordable units at Heather Place, or build the full 230 unit s of housing proposed for the Heather Place site as truly affordable r ental.\nThank you!\nKaren Gilchrist and the Save Heather Place campaig n\n\nFor more information visit http://villagevancouver.org/events/spe akers-needed-for-heather-place-public-hearing DTSTART:20140325T190000Z DTEND:20140416T070000Z CATEGORIES:community, engagament LOCATION:Council Chamber Third Floor, City Hall WEBSITE: URL: CONTACT:7788475695 ORGANIZER;CN="Karen Elaine Gilchrist":http://villagevancouver.org/prof ile/KarenElaineGilchrist ATTACH;FMTTYPE="image/jpeg":http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/ file/get/2051091320?profile=original ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE;CN="Randy Ch atterjee":http://villagevancouver.org/profile/RandyChatterjee ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE;CN="Karen El aine Gilchrist":http://villagevancouver.org/profile/KarenElaineGilchri st END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR