The Editor,
Re. “Rents on rise in region” (The Tri-City News, Dec. 15).
Right now, six buildings containing 72 two- and three-bedroom affordable rental suites stand empty at Whitgift Gardens on Cottonwood Avenue in Coquitlam. There are probably more single empty suites in the further 10 or so buildings remaining at the complex as the owner, in collaboration with the city, applies a no re-rent strategy to allow gradual emptying of all the buildings. These are to be demolished starting in about half a year, in favour of the park extension planned for the adjacent Cottonwood Park.
Also right now, thousands of homeless persons, many of whom cite inability to afford the higher rents charged by their landlords as the cause of their misfortune, continue to survive in parks and other undesirable lots, some in cars, across the Lower Mainland.
Could the city and Concert Realty, the owner of the Whitgift complex, not delay their plans for the park expansion and contribute to alleviating homelessness by making these suites — getting older at 50 and not conforming to the latest structural requirements, but still perfectly habitable — available to qualifying homeless people?
I recall how last year Concert generously made 10 suites available to Syrian refugee families.
If the city insists on the demolition of these buildings, these people, if delay is granted, could then be re-housed with priority in 2019 — when, as Andrew Merrill optimistically predicts, rental supply in Coquitlam will at last outstrip demand.
That lofty goal could be achieved much sooner if the city stopped building new rentals (or parks) on lots where existing rentals must first be destroyed. Hundreds of older affordable suites are already targeted or will be in the near future. In the ongoing, still worsening housing crisis, it makes no sense to build up your affordable housing supply by first destroying the affordable housing you already have, just because it’s older and near transit. Moreover, the city is contravening its own policy to protect and upgrade older rentals.
Surely, other sites for development can be found and, surely, we have now built enough towers for investor buyers?
How about it, Santa? Or should we send city council a big bag of coal come election time next fall?
Felix Thijssen, Coquitlam
