Tenants are artists. What makes some forms of culture attractive to real estate and developer interests? Does the support of art by real estate make Vancouver a culturally vibrant city?

First, we hear from Alice, an artist and tenant at The Belvedere building in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, who organized with her neighbours to fight round after round of profit motivated evictions.

If you live or work in Mount Pleasant, you’ve probably noticed the large amount of murals going up around the neighbourhood — there’s even one on the Belvedere. Mural Fest is one of many art projects backed by developers. Helena and Sydney talk a little bit about the organization and some other protests that artists and anti-displacement activists have had against Mural Fest donor and large scale developer Westbank.

We then play footage from a radio segment that aired on Coop Radio 100.5 FM covering the Rave Against Renovictions, where artists held a rally outside Mural Fest donor, developer and Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s house. These were in response to recent evictions of artist spaces by Wilson’s company Low Tide Properties. Helena speaks with artist and organizer Tascha Speck about the event.

Episode Credits:
Produced by Helena Krobath and Sydney Ball. “Rave Against Renovictions” originally aired on Vancouver Co-op Radio. Thanks to VIVO Media Arts Centre, BC Arts Council, Vancouver Tenants Union organizers, and tenants who shared their stories

Episode 5: Art Vs Art Washing

This is an original radio news story about new data about empty homes in Vancouver, which was released on March 8 in Vancouver city council.

Alexandra Lamb, BCIT Broadcast and Online Journalism
Vancouver, BC
February 2016

Radio News Stories - Empty Housing Research Report

SFU Student on the shortage of campus housing

Talk a walk with me, to landlord-tenant court in Newark, where poor renters often lose their homes.

In housing court in Newark, the poor go it alone.

This a story of support and resistance in Marpole, as temporary modular housing units are being built to shelter the homeless. This story is brought to you by News Collective members Ryan Patrick Jones and Christina Song, with editing and production by Alex de Boer. It aired on December 7, 2017 on Democracy Watch on CiTR 101.9FM. Full episode: http://www.citr.ca/radio/democracy-watch/episode/20171207/

Democracy Watch / CiTR 101.9 FM

Marpole Modular Housing Controversy

Sonny Graham, a 9-year-old resident of Woodhill Homes, walks listeners through a day in his life.

Always Fun Outside: Growing Up in Public Housing

Voices of Hunger in North Carolina: Episode 12

A First Generation College Student Shares Their Story of Food and Housing Insecurity

Presented by the North Carolina Alliance for Health and MomsRising, with support from Mazon

A First Generation College Student Shares Their Story of Food and Housing Insecurity

A podcast mini-series where each episode takes a different approach to stories about renting in Vancouver, a city where displacement has become the norm. The series features six Vancouver-based storytellers and artists using pre-recorded tenant interviews to develop their own storytelling and audio practices, while considering the topic of housing.

This project was part of a mentorship and skills development program that took place in summer 2019 in Vancouver at VIVO Media Arts Centre, on unceded and occupied territory of the səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw(Squamish) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations

The participants were Maddi Dellplain, Jamie-Leigh Gonzales, Susan Lu, Tiffany Muñoz, Victoria Spooner, Melissa Roach, and Yijia Zhang. Mentors were Helena Krobath, Kim Bince Villagante (aka Kimmortal), Alex de Boer, Madeline Taylor, Alexander Kim, Pietro Sammarco, and Kell Gerlings. Podcast narration by Helena Krobath and Sydney Ball. Production by Helena Krobath.

Thank you to the Vancouver Tenants Union for oral history support and Sydney Ball for supplemental scripts and commentary. Thank you to VIVO Media Arts Centre for hosting the project and Pietro Sammarco for logistics and coordination. Thanks to BC Arts Council for financial support. Special thanks to the tenants who shared their stories.

Episode 5: Art Vs Art Washing

Vancouver Housing Stories

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