City of Vancouver proposes major changes to housing policy in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood

The City of Vancouver is asking residents to consider a dramatic change in the kind of development that will be allowed in one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods, proposing towers of up to 32 storeys and loosening restrictions on the amount of market housing allowed.City planners are positioning their proposed changes as a way to provide more social housing and more “housing options” by encouraging new development in the Downtown Eastside.