This Week at City Council: unbanning supportive housing, sro upgrades, & protecting human rights during fifa
Council is meeting on March 31st and April 1st. Here are four agenda items we want to highlight. Scroll down to see how you can take action.
What's On At Council
On the March 31st Council Meeting
Single Room Accommodation (SRO) Upgrading and SRO Cooling and Warming Retrofit Grants
Residents of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) buildings are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather like heat waves. Council will consider a grant to upgrade several SROs with cooling rooms and other features to keep residents safe during increasingly frequent heat events.
Good to know: The mayor and all city councillors committed to our Hot Pink Paper Campaign ask of “Protecting Tenants from Heat Waves.”
On the April 1st Standing Committee Meeting
Agenda Item: "Reversing the Costly Ban on Supportive Housing"
Last Spring, WTC organized against a motion to end city contributions (i.e. land and funding) to housing for people who would otherwise be homeless. Despite overwhelming opposition from community organizations, residents, housing providers, health professionals, and the provincial government, a majority of councillors voted in favour of the supportive housing ban. One year later, council will consider a new motion to end the ban––and once again allow the city to contribute to the most effective solution to homelessness.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because a similar motion was included in our last Watch Council alert. However, after Councillor Zhou spread misinformation about the motion (and about his fellow city councillors) on WeChat, it was withdrawn from the agenda due to concerns that tabling it amid misinformation and divisive tactics would ultimately do more harm than good.
This is one example of how misinformation prevents meaningful action. We’re glad to see it back on the agenda.
Read this: It turns out the source of the misinformation spread by Councillor Zhou was Mayor Ken Sim himself. You can read all about that ongoing saga here or here.
Agenda Item: "Creating a City of Vancouver Festival Support Fund"
A few weeks ago, council approved an emergency motion to save Car Free Days. Last month, it was a $2 million grant for a night of fireworks. This week, they're considering a similar one-off grant to support a budget shortfall for the Vaisakhi Parade. Many street festivals and cultural events are struggling to operate due to rising costs (many of which are imposed by the city itself) and a stagnant or declining funding environment (including the city’s own grants and Arts and Culture funding).
Instead of one-off support for festivals when they’re at a crisis point, this motion proposes a proactive and systemic solution: A festival support fund to “provide stable, transparent, multi-year financial support for qualifying cultural festivals, community celebrations, and major public events.”
Community advocates have been warning for years that the City of Vancouver needs to do more to protect vulnerable residents during the FIFA Men’s World Cup. Large-scale events like FIFA bring in millions of people, and with it, the potential for harmful impacts and human rights violations, particularly on unhoused populations and people who use drugs.
At a town hall last month, groups like BC Civil Liberties Association, BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, Pivot Legal Society, SWAN, and more came together to discuss anticipated issues during FIFA, including where the current Human Rights Action Plan falls far short.
This motion asks the Vancouver FIFA Host City Committee to provide an updated Human Rights Action Plan that offers greater clarity, measurable outcomes, and accountability mechanisms. It explicitly asks the Committee to commit to no displacement of people and their belongings, and to expand drop-in spaces and shelters.
How to Take Action
Speak to Council. A unique aspect of local government is that you can speak directly to elected officials about a specific issue. You don't need to be an "expert" to do so—it's critical that they hear from residents like you who ultimately experience the impacts of their decisions.WTC's resource on how to speak to council and our speech template tool can help you get started.
Deadlines: For the March 31st Council Meeting, the speaker registration deadline is Monday at 5pm. For the April 1st Standing Committee Meeting, it’s Tuesday at 5pm. If you’re interested in speaking to council but aren’t sure about the timing, we encourage you to register—you can always withdraw your request if it doesn’t work with your schedule.
Council’s Email Addresses
Write to Council. A brief email to city councillors is a great reminder of what's important to the people they represent. Here are some quick tips:
State clearly at the beginning whether you support or oppose the agenda item.
Share a sentence or two on why this issue matters to you—what's your personal connection or experience?
Don't overthink it. Done is better than perfect, so keep it short and simple.
There's no deadline, but we recommend sending your email as soon as possible.
Join a Watch Council Drop-In Session. Let's chat about these important decisions at our upcoming Drop-In Session on Mon, Mar. 30th at 6pm.
Drop-in sessions offer a chance to connect with the WTC team for informal conversations and personalized support on local government advocacy, organizing, and engagement. We can go over things like:
How to read a motion and how it may impact your community
What to expect and how to prepare when speaking to council
Strategies for organizing and advocating to city council on one of these decisions, or other issues that are important to you!
