Gentrification in the Downtown Eastside Town Hall Meeting – Friday Nov 11am-1pm

November 18, 2010 ahamedia Leave a comment

“Gentrification in the Downtown Eastside” on Friday Nov 11am-1pm at Carnegie Centre in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)

Categories: AHA Media, April Smith, Carnegie Centre, Downtown Eastside, DTES, Gentrification, Vancouver, Vancouver Downtown Eastside

HOMELESSNESS AND GENTRIFICATION Walking Tour with CCAP – Carnegie Community Action Project for 7th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in Vancouver on Saturday Oct 30, 2010

October 30, 2010 ahamedia 2 comments

Walking Tour
HOMELESSNESS AND GENTRIFICATION with CCAP

Saturday October 30, 11:30am–1pm
Meet at steps of Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main
Learn for yourself how gentrification causes homelessness in the Downtown Eastside. Led by Wendy Pedersen and volunteers from the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), this walking tour will go past new market housing that is pushing up land values and rents in 100 year old hotels. Learn how low-income residents are organizing to slow gentrification and preserve the good things about their community while working for more social housing. CCAP is building consensus within the community for a vision of the Downtown Eastside that hopefully the city will adopt. Visioning reports and information on gentrification can be found on their blog: www.ccapvancouver.wordpress.com. $10 for non-residents, pay what you can for local residents

Below is a video of Terry Hunter at Homelessness and Gentrification Walking Tour for Heart of the City Festival 2010

Below is a video of Wendy Pedersen at Homelessness and Gentrification Walking Tour for Heart of the City Festival 2010

AHA MEDIA is very proud to help provide social media coverage of the 7th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in Vancouver from Pre festival events starting Wed Oct 20, 2010 through to the Main Festival during Wed Oct 27 – Sun Nov 7, 2010

http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com

AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media cameras. For a better quality version of video or for additional footage, please DM April Smith @AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms

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Categories: AHA Media, April Smith, Carnegie Community Action Project, CCAP, Clyde Wright, Community Engagement, Downtown Eastside, DTES, Gentrification, Heart of the City Festival 2010, Homelessness, Housing, Savannah Walling, Slum Landlords, Terry Hunter, Vancouver, Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Wendy Pedersen

AHA MEDIA filmed at Downtown Eastside March for Women’s Housing on Sat Oct 2, 2010

October 2, 2010 ahamedia Leave a comment

ANNUAL DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE MARCH FOR WOMEN’S HOUSING

SATURDAY OCT 2 @ 2 PM AT DTES WOMEN’S CENTRE (302 COLUMBIA)

October 1 2010, Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories- In response to the persistent violence of poverty and homelessness, women in the Power of Women Group of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre are organizing the “4th Annual March For Women’s Housing” to demand safe and long-term affordable housing.

According to Priscillia Mays, an organizer of the march “There is a perception that governments are now dealing with the homelessness crisis, but the recent solutions are all band-aid ones. All of us are someone’s sister, someone’s daughter, someone’s mother. We have the right to safe and affordable housing, not just shelter beds. Without safe and affordable housing, many women are forced into unsafe and violent situations, leading to the ongoing unacceptable tragedy of women being murdered.”

A report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Social Planning and Research Council of BC earlier in September 2010 found that, according to BC Housing’s own service plans and data, there an overall net increase of only 280 new social housing units over the past five years. Over 1550 of the so-called “new” supportive housing units are actually renovations and replacements of existing housing stock rather than additional low-income housing.

According to Beatrice Starr, an Indigenous elder and organizer of the march “We call on the municipal, provincial, and federal governments to commit to ongoing funding for new social housing; to place a moratorium on low-income housing conversions to condos in the DTES; to stop criminalizing the poor through police harassment and aggressive ticketing; and to put our needs for basic survival before corporate developer profits.”

In the midst of this housing shortage and affordability crisis, community groups are redoubling efforts to secure the promised affordable units at the Olympic Village (Millenium Water). While the initial development plan promised that 66% of the units would be affordable, that number has now been reduced to less than 10% and a majority of the promised units remain empty. In the lead-up to February 2011, the one-year anniversary of the Olympic Tent Village established at 58 West Hastings, a separate campaign will work to attain a moratorium on the sale of the promised units and will openly establish a Tent City at the Athletes’ Village under a general call to “Reclaim Housing.”

Anne-Marie Monks, a 60-year old woman with disabilities, states, “Why is it so hard to treat us as human beings? The government has the ability and the capacity—but not the political will—to ensure the elimination of poverty. I challenge any politician to switch places with me. Sleep in the alley, stand in a food line, and live off $6 a day; then perhaps you will understand our pain. No more empty talk.”

Harsha Walia and young friend

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/4749

Categories: AHA Media, April Smith, Community Engagement, David Murray, Downtown Eastside, DTES, Gastown, Gentrification, Hendrik Beune, Homelessness, Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Women

CCAP – Carnegie Community Action Project presents Community Vision for Change for Vancouver Downtown Eastside

July 21, 2010 ahamedia Leave a comment

CCAP – Carnegie Community Action Project presented their Community Vision for Change for Vancouver Downtown Eastside to a packed auditorium in Carnegie Centre

Below are livestream videos taken by a Nokia N97 mini cameraphone

http://qik.com/video/9424247

http://qik.com/video/9426283

http://qik.com/video/9425170

http://qik.com/video/9425830

http://qik.com/video/9425910

http://qik.com/video/9426315

http://qik.com/video/9426625

Below are photos of speakers and supporters who endorse the CCAP Vision of Downtown Eastside.

Please click on any of the following thumbnails to enlarge the photo 🙂

(With great thanks to Peter Oeder, Board Member of VANDU for helping out with photography)

Below is a photo of Wendy Pedersen speaking to Media about CCAP’s Community Vision for Change for Vancouver Downtown Eastside

Below is Leslie Murray and Hendrik Beune looking at the community mapping process

Below is Sid Tan speaking with brothers David and Leslie Murray

Below is Teresa Vandertuin speaking with J-Hock

Below is Terry Hunter with Sid Tan

Categories: AHA Media, April Smith, CCAP, Community Engagement, David Murray, Downtown Eastside, DTES, Gentrification, Hendrik Beune, Homelessness, Hugh Lampkin - VANDU, Jean Swanson, Peter Oeder, Sid Tan, Terry Hunter, Vancouver, Wendy Pedersen

Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) to present a VISION for Downtown Eastside future in Vancouver – Tuesday, July 20 at 10 AM

July 20, 2010 ahamedia Leave a comment

Low-income residents to launch Vision for Downtown Eastside future

What are the good things about the Downtown Eastside community?

How would residents solve problems in the Downtown Eastside?

How could Vancouver lead the world in treating its lowest income community with respect?

What is the Vision that residents have for the future of their community?

What are the Values and what Actions will help improve the Downtown Eastside?

Who supports this Vision?

Find out at a news conference:

Tuesday, July 20 at 10 AM

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main St.

The Carnegie Community Action Project will present a Vision that is the results of two years of work and consultation with 1200 Downtown Eastside residents about what they want for their community and how to get it.

–30—

Contact: Wendy Pedersen (604 839-0379

Jean Swanson (604 729-2380)

See livestream video of CCAP news conference at http://www.qik.com/ahamedia from a Nokia N97 mini cameraphone