Who Gets to Live Here?

 Who Gets to Live Here?

I often look at the glossy graphics used to promote redevelopment projects and wonder if we're all looking at the same city.

The renderings are beautiful. The reality is often the loss of old character homes, mature trees, affordable rental housing, and neighbourhoods that took generations to build. A minimalist box replaces a family home. A tower replaces a streetscape filled with memories.

I was born near Kitsilano and have lived here on and off since 1997. I raised my child here. This isn't just a neighbourhood to me—it's part of my life story.

When I see plans that would dramatically reshape Broadway and Kitsilano, I understand why so many residents pushed back. Whether people supported or opposed specific projects, many felt they weren't being heard. There was a sense that decisions had already been made and public consultation was simply a formality.

The neighbourhood is changing rapidly. Old homes are being demolished. New developments rise in their place. People arrive from across Canada and around the world because Vancouver is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

The truth is simple: people love it here.

Once they arrive, many don't want to leave.

But that raises an important question: who gets to stay?

As housing prices continue to rise, many long-time residents, artists, seniors, young families, and people working ordinary jobs are finding themselves pushed further away from the communities they helped build. Increasingly, it feels like Vancouver is becoming a city reserved for those with significant wealth.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I believe we need to think differently.

What if we embraced small-scale solutions alongside larger developments?

What if tiny houses were allowed on selected streets and underused land, connected to existing neighbourhood services?

What if high schools taught practical building skills and students graduated with experience in construction, sustainability, and community design?

What if every neighbourhood had shared gardens, fruit trees, and spaces where people worked together to grow food?

Previous generations understood the value of local food production. After the world wars, people planted Victory Gardens to strengthen communities and improve food security. My grandmother had a garden that could grow almost anything. Today, her modest home is gone, replaced by a much larger house that covers most of the lot.

That loss feels symbolic of what has happened throughout Vancouver over the past twenty years.

We have gained density, but have we strengthened community?

We have built wealth, but have we created belonging?

As we plan for the future, I hope we remember that a city is more than buildings. It is memory, culture, relationships, and the people who call it home.

The question isn't simply how many housing units we can build.

The question is: who gets to live here?

And what kind of city do we want to leave for the generations that follow?

And what kind of city do we want to leave for the generations that follow

Reflective Questions

1. What makes a neighbourhood feel like home?

2. How can cities balance growth with preserving local character?

3. Who benefits from redevelopment, and who may be displaced?

4. What role should community gardens and local food production play in urban planning?

5. What housing solutions would best serve future generations?

Keywords: Kitsilano, Vancouver housing, Broadway Plan, urban development, neighbourhood character, affordable housing, tiny houses, community gardens, density, gentrification, Vancouver history, city planning, local culture, redevelopment, housing affordability

Hashtags: #Kitsilano #Vancouver #BroadwayPlan #HousingCrisis #AffordableHousing #TinyHomes #UrbanPlanning #CommunityGardens #NeighbourhoodCharacter #VancouverHistory #CityBuilding #HousingJustice #KeepKitsUnique #FutureOfVancouver

Supportive Housing” Isn’t Working — Stop Ramming It Through

 💔“Supportive Housing” Isn’t Working — Stop Ramming It Through

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

They say it’s about compassion. They say it’s about helping the vulnerable. But let’s not confuse band-aid politics with real care. In Abbotsford, a 42-unit “supportive housing” complex is being forced into Martens Park—right next to a school, homes, and small businesses—despite serious community concerns. City council says they’re pushing ahead. But they’re not listening. Again.

And it’s not just Abbotsford. The same thing is happening in Kitsilano and throughout Vancouver. All over BC, this same flawed model is being fast-tracked, while the rest of us—residents, unhoused people, and frontline workers—deal with the fallout.

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🧠 This isn’t real support. It’s reactive chaos.

Let’s remember: this whole push came from COVID—not compassion. Back in 2020, officials didn’t want sick, unhoused people on the street where they might spread the virus. So they rushed to move folks into hotels, trailers, and modular buildings.

They called it “supportive housing.” But what we got was containment, not care.

There’s no long-term strategy. No exit plan. No dignity.

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🚫 What we’re seeing isn’t support — it’s warehousing trauma

Residents in these units report:

• Drug use, fires, theft, violence
• Overdose deaths right inside their rooms
• No mental health staff, barely any security
• No privacy, no rights, no plan to move on

Meanwhile, neighbours see:

• Open drug scenes
• Needles in parks
• Businesses vandalized or closed
• Fear and frustration, not because they hate the unhoused—but because they can see the system is failing.

And in places like Granville Street, the situation has spiraled. Crime, disorder, and despair are on full display. Vancouverites are told to “be patient,” while the root causes are ignored.

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💰 Who benefits? Follow the money.

Many supportive housing sites are run by non-profit agencies receiving huge government contracts. But where does the money go?

Some of these groups pay executive salaries over $200K while residents live in unsafe, undignified conditions. Others are run by private developers making profit off of poverty. And still, there's no accountability, no transparency, and no results that match the price tag.

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💡 We need healing, not hiding.

This entire model needs to be reimagined. Here’s what we really need:

🛖 1. Healing Lodges & Wellness Centres

We need Indigenous-led, trauma-informed spaces that focus on recovery, ceremony, and spiritual health. These are desperately lacking. Healing should not cost thousands of dollars. Rehab and wellness support should be free and accessible to all, just like a hospital.

🏡 2. Tiny Houses by the People, for the People

I’ve been dreaming—and sharing—this idea for years:

• Elementary kids design tiny homes as a creative school project.
• High schoolers learn trades and build the homes.
• Unhoused people help finish them and live in them—with dignity and support.
  This teaches empathy, unity, and real-world skills. It brings community together rather than tearing it apart.

🏘️ 3. Local, small-scale housing with dignity

We need co-ops, community gardens, and low-rise housing where people feel safe—not packed into mega-shelters or forgotten in warehouse-style units. And they should be close to family, nature, jobs, and support, not shoved behind warehouses or beside schools with no input.

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❗ Don't ram through more failures.

It’s not heartless to say this model isn’t working. What’s heartless is pretending it is.
We all want people housed — but this system is harming the very people it claims to protect.

Stop fast-tracking projects that ignore:

• Residents’ voices
• Neighbours’ concerns
• The lived experience of people who’ve been through it

BC needs true care, not crisis management. Real community, not isolation.
Let’s build something better — together.

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From Towers to Tiny Homes: A Better Vision for Real Social Housing

🌿 From Towers to Tiny Homes: A Better Vision for Real Social Housing

by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

“We’re not cars. We’re people. We need roots, not just roofs.”

For nearly 30 years, I’ve lived in and around Vancouver, often on the edge of housing — sometimes pushed out, sometimes finding a way back. I’ve seen it all: renovictions, supportive housing that doesn’t support, and neighbours who didn’t make it through.

I’ve also seen community. The kind that grows in shared gardens, on balconies covered in flowers, where neighbours knock on each other’s doors and remember each other’s names.

So when I hear about proposals to build 21-storey “social housing” towers — like the one in Kitsilano — I worry. Not because I don’t want people to be housed. I absolutely do.

But I want it done right.

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🏗️ The Problem With Tower Solutions

A tower can hold 200 people. But does it build community?

• Will you know your neighbour?
• Will there be a place to plant a tomato?
• Will the hallway smell like smoke?
• Will you feel like a person — or just another body that needed to be "off the street"?

And will it be like the place in Surrey — where a woman died and no one noticed, because staff mistook her for someone else?

That’s not social housing. That’s institutional neglect.

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🛖 The Tiny Home Alternative — With a Green Heart

Tiny homes work — but not when they’re treated like trailers in a storage yard.

We need tiny homes in real neighborhoods. Down every third street. On church land. On co-op green space. In parking lots that are turned into gardens first, with homes built into them — not the other way around.

• Not just boxes — but beautiful, creative, nature-connected homes.
• Trees, flowers, bees, art, and space to breathe.
• Car-free zones. Community kitchens. Shared bike racks. Murals. Medicine gardens.
• The kind of place where you don’t just live — you heal.

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🌻 Real Social Housing Is About Belonging

Right now, we build towers to keep people away from us — not to welcome them.

Let’s turn that around.

• Let’s build villages, not warehouses.
• Let’s re-integrate, not isolate.
• Let’s make sure elders, artists, people with challenges, single parents, and anyone struggling can live in the neighborhood — not stacked above it or pushed out of it.

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🗣️ Reflective Questions for You & Your Neighbours

• Would you feel safe and happy living in a 21-storey building where most people are dealing with trauma?
• Would you support tiny homes on your block — if they came with gardens and a community space?
• Do you know anyone who’s been displaced by renoviction or housing costs?
• What kind of community do you want to build — and who gets to belong there?

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✨ Let’s Dream Differently

I’m not against helping people. I’m for helping people better.

Let’s stop thinking in terms of “how many bodies can we fit in a building?” and start asking, “How many people can we help grow in a community?”

That’s the kind of social housing I’d want to live next to.
That’s the kind I’d be proud to call my own.

— Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
Artist, advocate, and Vancouver resident since the ‘90s
tinawinterlik.blogspot.com | @zipolita

From Dot-Com Crash to AI Layoffs:

From Dot-Com Crash to AI Layoffs: What’s Really Happening in Vancouver?

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

History is repeating itself — and this time, it's hitting Vancouver hard.

The Dot-Com Crash 2.0?

In the early 2000s, the dot-com bubble burst after a frenzy of overinvestment in tech startups. Thousands of workers lost jobs as companies folded overnight.

Fast forward to 2024–2025, and we're seeing the same cycle — but with AI leading the charge. Massive tech layoffs at companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have affected tens of thousands of workers globally. Even software engineers, once considered “safe,” are being let go.

Vancouver’s Tech Scene Feels the Impact

As Canada's “Silicon Valley North,” Vancouver is caught in this tech quake. Companies like Thinkific and Appnovation have laid off significant portions of their staff. Local engineers, developers, and creative professionals are feeling anxious, especially within Vancouver’s highly diverse tech workforce, which includes many South Asian, East Asian, and international professionals.

What’s worse? It’s not just tech. Universities, retail stores, and community programs are also facing cuts, painting a wider picture of economic instability.

What This Means: Prepare, Reflect, Rebuild

This moment is about more than just job losses — it’s a wake-up call. Many people are realizing that chasing corporate stability may not offer the security it once promised. So what can we do?

• Build Local Resilience: Strengthen community ties, share resources, and support one another.
• Return to the Land: Create gardens, learn to grow food, build with natural materials — think Indigenous Green, not Corporate Green.
• Rethink Our Values: Ask yourself — what do I really need to live well? Is the endless hustle worth it?
• Prepare for Change: Diversify skills, learn to live with less, and stay informed.

The Big Picture

These layoffs and economic shifts are not just temporary hiccups — they’re signals. We’re entering a time of transformation, where people must look beyond money and tech for stability. We can draw inspiration from Indigenous wisdom, regenerative practices, and community-driven solutions.

Let’s support each other and choose a path that respects people, the Earth, and future generations.

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If you found this post helpful, please share it. Let’s start the conversation about how we rebuild smarter, stronger, and more connected than before.

#VancouverLayoffs #DotComCrash #AILayoffs #CommunityResilience #TinyHouses #GrowYourOwnFood #IndigenousWisdom #Zipolita