CTV News
Richmond is terminating a supportive housing project after widespread community backlash.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie and several councillors told reporters that the city is scrapping plans for a 90-unit supportive housing building proposed for the city-owned lot at the intersection of Cambie and Sexsmith roads.
The mayor explained that the decision to end the government-funded project follows a recent announcement by the minister of housing that the province would relaunch the project, after placing it on hold prior to the last provincial election while it examined alternative locations.
“Council heard loud and clear from the community that it had concerns with this location and that the provincial government alarmed residents when it suspended the process before reinstating it,” said Brodie.
He says the recent flip-flops by the provincial government made the project untenable. He pointed to a lack of transparency about five other possible sites, which he says the province apparently reviewed prior to returning to the Cambie and Sexsmith location.
“Neither council nor city staff have been told the location of those five sites, nor how they were supposedly evaluated,” wrote Brodie in a statement. …