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LETTER - Council’s big joke: affordable housing

Dear Editor, The recent council brochure on housing reminds me of the old funnies piece from the office at Artisan Square: high on fumes but desperately short on anything of substance.

Dear Editor,

The recent council brochure on housing reminds me of the old funnies piece from the office at Artisan Square: high on fumes but desperately short on anything of substance. Housing for the on island worker on Bowen Island is at crisis point and the council prefers “Brand Bowen” or re-paving the cove.  They are doing a good impression of fiddling while Rome burns.  

It confirms my opinion that council’s overwhelming priority is to preserve and protect the quality of life and more-over the financial investment of the single home owner to the exclusion of everyone else and detriment of the island. 

The statement that an affordable unit has been made at The Ruddy Kitchen is a whopper.  Why is it you never see (your?) pants on fire? The bachelor suite is 450 s.f. and has been occupied by a local employee at an affordable rent for eight years. All council is doing is claiming credit for an initiative that is eight years old and then trying to “over” manage something that is already working. This constitutes successful policy????

There was no mention of AirBnB. The latter on its own has decimated the long term rental market to favour the short term visitor. But wait why should I be surprised? Brand Bowen was an achievement to be proud of. 

Bowen Island has to resolve its fundamental conundrum. It wants the service that businesses like the Ruddy Potato offer. It does not want the housing for the staff required to operate those businesses. It cannot have both.  It is council’s task to resolve this. I do not envy them.

Simply, I read our council’s message as: if you can’t afford $750K to live on Bowen we do not want you. I am reminded of Marie Antoinette:

Let them eat Cake.

The dismissal out of hand of the Tim Wake Foxglove proposal was in hind sight very short sighted. It was a proposal for a self funded 28 unit affordable home ownership project on Lot 3. Affordable is  $200 to $300k per unit. Lot 3 is the only site on the Community Lands that is suitable for that project, yet it appears that a new firehall and commuter parking are preferred.  Lets see now, much needed housing for on island workers or....I won’t go there but the message is clear we have to look after those islanders more likely to be able to afford a home on Bowen.  

Our OCP calls for affordable housing to go IN the Cove. It calls for a Village in the Cove. We need affordable rental and ownership housing IN the Cove. I do not see plans for this beyond a half dozen units...

I do not understand our blind devotion to the text of the OCP.  We can choose to follow the OCP or provide housing for working islanders. To rent on Bowen is frequently  to overpay for poor digs and be in constant fear of being made homeless. Do we want to be right about the OCP or be happy?   

Is this a caring community?  Not in my mind.

Murray Skeels is the perfect man for the role of mayor. Along the way he might start to rue the twenty years he spent preventing housing on Bowen Island. I wish him every success. If there is some thing I can do to help, call me.

Daniel Heald
The Ruddy Potato