Your Nov. 2 editorial, Opposition deals blow to affordable housing, notes that neighbours of Townley Lodge oppose the size and height of the Greater Victoria Housing Society’s redevelopment plan for this seniors’ rental building.
What nobody is noting is the opposition of those currently living in Townley Lodge, several dozen people who will be unhoused by this housing scheme, although they find the building perfectly adequate and comfortable – and consider it home.
The current renters are being told to find somewhere else to live. They’re being treated by GVHS as so many inconvenient objects getting in the way of grandiose plans, and are being ignored by media and Saanich council alike.
The tenants don’t know why they are being evicted from good cheap housing to make way for expensive (and overcrowded) housing which the surrounding community does not want in their midst. The tenants are people, not statistics in the affordable housing crisis debate. Maybe you should write an editorial from their point of view, or at least in your news coverage acknowledge they exist.
B and L Grey
Saanich