An “outrageous” video showing people relieving themselves in public was abruptly cut off by the mayor of Richmond during Monday's committee meeting.
“Stop that video,” Mayor Malcolm Brodie told city staff. “That is a video – we don’t know who, we don’t know where, we don’t know what. It is really so outrageous that we’re going to cut it off.”
This was in the context of public feedback about extending the lease of the Alderbridge temporary modular building (TMH) to 2027.
An online speaker, Italo Araujo, who said he was a building manager at one of the condo buildings near the TMH, didn’t give any verbal information rather he just asked for the video to be played.
Araujo was just one person who had signed up to speak about the lease renewal.
While some people spoke in favour of it, several nearby residents expressed their concerns around what they perceived as increased crime and drug use after the building opened in 2019.
Some blamed people with substance-use issues for the increasing crime and “social disorder.”
One delegate, Zach Segal, claimed a safe supply of drugs – which a few people with addictions receive instead of using increasingly toxic drugs sold on the street – and decriminalization have “wreaked havoc” on B.C. and Richmond. He said “flooding the streets” with safe supply and decriminalization “helps no one.”
“People in addiction deserve treatment, recovery and therapy,” Segal said. “Any other solution simply manages their decline rather than encouraging full recovery.”
In fact, BC Coroners Service urgently called on the province last week to bring in more safe supply given the fact about six people die every day in B.C. of toxic drugs - 16 people have died in Richmond this year so far of poisoned drugs.
The coroner has noted safe supply hasn’t been related to any deaths in the toxic drug crisis.
Sheldon Starrett, a renter from the Lotus building across from the TMH, claimed “most problems” in the neighbourhood are tied to people with drug addictions.
Starrett, who ran with Au’s Richmond Community Coalition party in the last municipal election and is a wine specialist, said people living in condos are “broadbrushed” as “rich people with too much time on their hands.”
“The vast majority of residents here are working people – we are law-abiding residents of the neighbourhood,” he said.
Crime on 'downward trend' in Alderbridge area: RCMP
Richmond RCMP Chief Supt. Dave Chauhan, however, told city council at the meeting that there was a “downward trend” in calls for police service in the Alderbridge area between 2019 and 2022. In fact, call volume went from 1,940 in 2019 to 1,695 in 2022.
Chauhan explained the top three calls are wellness checks, dealing with “unwanted persons” or to assist BC Ambulance or Richmond Fire-Rescue.
Coun. Andy Hobbs commented that the “crime severity” didn’t sound like it was “on the most serious end of the spectrum of calls for service.”
Other delegates at the meeting included De Whalen, president of the Richmond Poverty Reduction Coalition (RPRC).
In a submission to city council before the meeting, she noted, while the original plan was for the building to be temporary, “in the absence of anything else, this is where people end up staying.”
In a “well-oiled housing continuum” people would move from the street, into shelters, then supportive housing and then into permanent housing.
“The gap in housing causes a backup where people in shelters cannot get into temporary supported housing because those in temporary supported housing have nowhere else to go,” RPRC said in its letter to city council.
In fact, unlike other delegates who wanted the removal of the TMH, RPRC asked city council to keep it far into the future.
She added a planned 60-unit permanent supportive housing building that is supposed to open in 2027 won’t replace the 82 units at the current TMHs, the Alderbridge one and Aster Place near Costco.
“It is vitally important that this type of housing remains open and operating as Richmond’s homeless and at-risk populations continue to grow,” reads the submission.
Michael Yang from Tapestry Church submitted a letter saying his congregation has worked with residents, made community gardens, shared meals and even held a karaoke night.
“It reveals the particular social good that is available when these residents have a more permanent place to call home. They can welcome and entertain neighbours like us,” his letter stated.
Au sole vote against lease renewal
In the end, Richmond city Coun. Chak Au was the sole opposition vote against extending the lease for a supportive housing building, saying he wanted to send a “message” to BC Housing.
The rest of city council voted to extend the lease until 2027, at which point BC Housing is expecting to open the 60-unit permanent building.
Au said until he sees funding or an agreement about the new building, he was “reluctant” to vote to extend the lease.
He said he’s seen other cases where promises of housing have been made but haven’t been delivered.
“I want to send a message to BC Housing saying ‘don’t take us for granted, we need your commitment, don’t back off,’” Au said.
- with files from Vikki Hui
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