About 300 people gathered at city hall to protest the proposed temporary modular housing (TMH) project at 7300 Elmbridge Way Monday night before a city council meeting.
“We hope to convey the concerns and anxiety of the community to the city. Our message, however, has been misconstrued in public as being simply uncompassionate,” said Ivan Pak from 7300 Group.
“We are worried about the safety risks the temporary modular housing might pose to our neighbourhood, and we believe that the $5.9 million project is a massively inefficient solution for homelessnessness in Richmond.”
However, towards the end of the rally a man from the crowd called for people to shout their slogan, “No TMH,” then made a statement about how the project would decrease property values.
But the man was immediately stopped by the 7300 Group’s organizers.
“He is not from our group. Don’t listen to him. We care about public safety, not property values,” shouted an upset organizer.
De Whalen, from the support group RUSH, made an appearance at the rally along with a homeless outreach worker.
“Their slogan is, ‘TMH is not the solution to homelessness in Richmond,’ but when I asked them what the solution was, they didn’t know,” said Whalen.
One rally participant said it’s the government’s job to figure that out.
The City of Richmond will host a series of forums on the project between April 17 to May 1.
Instead of simply publicizing the dates, the city is requiring residents to pre-register for particular sessions and will set limits to the number allowed in.
Register the forums at Richmond.ca/RapidResponsetoHomelessness.
