Open Collections

Kloepper, Karla

Although Vancouverism is associated with sustainability and progressive urban design, the region’s growth has been accompanied by a movement of industry and employment out of the urban core, a skyrocketing cost of living, and the displacement of many low and moderate income households. Poverty is no longer primarily an inner-city phenomenon, as the rapid suburban development and resulting dispersion of low-income residents in Metro Vancouver since 1970 suggest that affordability and security of tenure are increasingly regional problems. A local political culture that recognizes the needs of the poor has existed in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for many years. Thus, the neighbourhood has benefited from considerable investment in social housing and innovative health care initiatives. However, many of the region’s emerging low- and moderate-income areas have not had the same history of sympathetic city councils and strong community organizations that have been present in Vancouver’s inner city. At best, the varied adoption of policies to reduce poverty and secure affordable housing has caused an unequal distribution of housing and services throughout Metro Vancouver. This has resulted in highly concentrated pockets of lower-cost housing, social services, and low-income people scattered throughout the region, with higher occurrences along rapid transit lines. However, the emerging model of building transit-oriented, complete, and compact communities that catalyzes redevelopment stands to further displace low-income neighbourhoods. While the Downtown Eastside continues to be home to many low-income people, low-income neighbourhood throughout the region are increasingly vulnerable. The problems caused by regionally disparate approaches to community building are compounded as low-income people move out of the visible and heavily serviced urban core and into outlying suburban neighbourhoods that are underserved and, in some cases, at risk of displacement through transit-oriented redevelopment.

Graduating Project

eng

2018-01-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/64246

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/