Dear Editor,
On Nov. 19, Richmond city council will be hosting a public hearing on approving the Richmond Centre redevelopment. The Lansdowne Centre redevelopment and other nearby major developments on No. 3 Road will follow shortly. They will create thousands of new housing units for sale to investors unless Richmond council sets a new course for affordable housing.
John Roston has been advocating for 60 per cent of the new units to be market rental housing. This demand of developers would change the future of our city. We wouldn’t be looking at towers of empty units in our downtown core, we’d see young people, older adults and families enlivening our city centre.
We’d be appropriately housing the people of Richmond. We’d likely see a resurgence in jobs being filled that have been sitting unfilled: teachers on call, learning assistance teachers, service and clerk positions, etc. We wouldn’t lose our young brilliant minds to other cities if we work on developing the supply of market rental housing now.
I’m so tired of years of uninspiring council meetings at city hall. Councillors have said that our city is unaffordable, so “go elsewhere like others,” or “get used to it,” or “we can’t do anything about it.” I am sure that that is why the people of Richmond voted differently this time around.
We need creative solutions, we need real action on housing, we need change now because even taking steps such as this will still be years in the making. I would love for my children to know that we did everything we could to keep them here — they deserve to be able to live in the city they grew up in.
I don’t buy into the mindset that we can’t do anything, or that developers won’t build it. If it is the cost of doing business in Richmond, they will do it.
We need action on affordable housing for all residents and I urge new and existing councillors to do something inspiring for the future of Richmond. Richmond residents, I urge you to email council at mayorandcouncillors@richmond.ca and ask them to make sure that developers are required to build a significant portion of market rental housing into their developments.
Michelle Li
RICHMOND
