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South Vancouver residents have poorer access to services, with social spending per capita over five years almost 10 times less in some areas.
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There are fewer parks, transit, child care options — even tree cover — in South Vancouver’s working-class neighbourhoods, but a community movement is seeking to change that.
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After years of study and conversations, a motion set to go before Vancouver council outlines “inequities” that have developed over time in the neighbourhoods above the Fraser River near Southeast Marine Drive, and sets out a plan to ensure the area gets its “fair share.”
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“It’s time they got the attention and support that they are due,” said Vancouver Coun. Christine Boyle, who introduced the motion.
The area, which includes the Killarney, Sunset and Victoria-Fraserview neighbourhoods, has the highest non-English first language speakers in Vancouver, with over half of residents identifying as immigrants. Households are larger than the city average, while incomes are lower. One-fifth of Vancouver’s kids live in South Vancouver.
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“There’s a feeling that the neighbourhood doesn’t get as much support,” said Boyle. “And that’s backed up by data.”
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, some of those inequities became glaringly obvious as food banks shut down and some residents struggled to find support. The South Vancouver Neighbourhood House reached out to a Simon Fraser University program that studies communities to help quantify the disparities.
The resulting study by SFU urban studies professor Meg Holden and researchers Farina Fassihi and Caislin Firth showed South Vancouver lags far behind the rest of Vancouver on social spending, said Holden.
Residents have poorer access to transit, health care and child care facilities, as well as parks, community centres and arts and cultural opportunities, with spending per capita over five years almost 10 times less in some areas.
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“The data shows the area is getting less well off,” said Holden. “It used to be an average middle-class neighbourhood, but it’s falling further behind.”
The neighbourhood house followed up with conversations with more than 2,000 South Vancouver residents to show the human impacts. Residents shared stories about the lack of programs for kids and seniors, transportation woes — such as a mother who had to take two buses and walk up a steep hill with a stroller to get to a community centre for a children’s program — and safety issues caused by poor sidewalks and a lack of crosswalks.
South Vancouver Neighbourhood House executive director Mimi Rennie said the city hasn’t done enough to seek the opinion of residents who might have barriers to engagement, like speaking a different language or lack of transportation.
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“Their voices have been silent,” she said. “The resources we have don’t meet the needs of the community. On the whole, what we’re asking for is more equity.”
Pall Beesla, cofounder of the Punjabi Market Collective, said it’s easier for a government to neglect a demographic and a neighbourhood that is racialized rather than to find way to hear their voices. That neglect has been compounded over many decades to reach the current situation.
He wants the city to join with grassroots cultural groups to create more safe spaces for people to gather and support each other. That in turn can creates innovation and entrepreneurship, as well community connection, he said.
Boyle called the underfunding of South Vancouver a “tragic reality” under several councils. “Residents in South Vancouver have been advocating for updated parks and public space, for better public and active transportation … It is time for South Vancouver to get its fair share.”
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If passed Wednesday, the motion directs staff to bring recommendations to council to “address the historic under-resourcing of neighbourhoods across South Vancouver and Marpole.”
That includes budget investments in food security, increasing parks, including water parks, skateboarding parks, public washrooms, covered areas and green space, as well as lighting, flowers and gardens, and quiet spaces to retreat off the main or noisy streets. It also asks for better access to warming and cooling spaces during extreme weather events, improved public transit, traffic calming, and safe pedestrian infrastructure.
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