Thread by @RevvieC

I'mma break this down in a thread 🧵rather than responding at @j_mcelroy and @JenStDen. Jen has been super supportive of First, and I don't want this to be perceived as an attack. The only fangirl moment I had in 2021 was seeing Justin on Clark Dr in an absolutely fab CBC shirt

https://twitter.com/j_mcelroy/status/1494521610052648962

That being said, I think we need to stop thinking of Atira's response to Jen as a denigration, and more like a correction. Reporters cover the news. Fair. Mostly the 'news' consists of one-off events. Fair. There are a lot of of one-off events in the DTES - many of them...

connect to the systemic issues that also show up in the news: e.g. the toxic drug supply and overdose crisis, lack of affordable housing, housing insecurity, homelessness, mental illness, policing/surveilance issues, sex work. Fair. But it hasn't gone unnoticed that Jen's focus

specifically on Atira when ALL housing societies in the DTES face the same challenges, the same financial pressures, the same violence, the same deferred maintenance, the same issues with tenants going to the RTB feels pointed. Atira is big, and also easy to target because of

who their CEO is married to. They also prioritize hiring people with lived experience in this neighbourhood which can present its own challenges even though it comes from a strengths-based model. But I can tell you from experience that there is not a housing building or society

that operates in the DTES who couldn't have been the subject of Jen's investigations. Especially if their buildings are older than 20 yrs old. So why focus almost solely on Atira? Why not report on the good that Atira does alongside their challenges? Why not investigate the

dynamics that are creating these challenges? Like the fact that the shelter rate is still $375 like is was during Expo f'ing 86? Like the fact that CERB was set at 80% of the bare minimum of what was determined to be a living wage, but that's over double what someone on basic

income assistance is expected to live on? Like the fact BC and Canada like to tout the "housing first" policies that were envisioned in the DTES which have turned into "housing only" policies. There are no adequate medical, psychiatric, psychological, social or employment

supports that would actually allow people to stabilize in their housing. Like the fact that our governments know that monetary policy is the thing that can stabilize housing affordability but they still allow real estate to be raped and pillaged by financial instruments that is

driving housing unaffordability globally - and they will say point blank that monetary policy reform is off the table - so that as more and more people get squeezed out of the housing market (whether ownership or rental), there is more pressure on already inadequate social

housing supports. Real estate is treated as a resource that can be extracted for any speck of profit for financial institutions regardless of the consequences on the lives of real people and households. All of this combined with the inability of society or any of our systems to

deal with trauma (whether physical, economic, social, sexual, or relational) means that with increasing economic inequity and housing unaffordability, you have an increasingly traumatized and increasingly poor population with increasingly less resources putting more pressure on

housing systems that are already inadequately resourced, creating a constant pipeline of misery that leads to a sub-human and stigmatized existence on the DTES. That's without talking in depth about drug policy reform or policing issues - about which I'll digress tonight.

This is not an issue about Jen v. Atira or vice versa. This is Atira asking Jen and the Tyee to hold SOCIETY and our governments to account for the fact that social housing is at best a zero sum game, and at worst is a demoralizing slog that those of us who work in the DTES

continue to prioritize DESPITE all those challenges because the people we serve are human and we love them and the alternatives are so so so much worse. You want to come for Atira - come for us all. I hope that when @Dave_Eby does his review of BC Housing he does it through the

lens of what systems change needs to happen in order for BC housing to actually deliver on its mandate collectively through all its partners. Because it can't - not without a massive restructuring of our poverty reduction strategies, children & family services, and medical

systems. If it's true that the province has engaged @MazzucatoM to help with the BC Economic Recovery strategy, mission map how you want to see this province do better, and engage constituents like @BCNPHA and all the social housing providers to help you envision the future

you want. If you keep looking at these issues as problems all you will see or create in the future is failure. I love you both, Justin & Jen, but don't double down on your position - stop and LISTEN to what Atira is trying to tell you. This isn't war. #EndRant