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Since 2011, hundreds of affordable rental homes have been demolished in Burnaby.

The streets near the Metropolis at Metrotown shopping mall has been ground zero in the mass eviction of tenants.

More rental homes are expected to be lost.

More condo towers are coming as Burnaby council moves to develop the entire Metrotown area into what the city describes as its “true downtown”.

Throughout all these, according to local resident Rick McGowan, the B.C. NDP has been silent.

McGowan, a Green Party of B.C. member, offers an explanation.

“The local government is NDP-affiliated,” McGowan told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview, referring to the governing municipal party, the Burnaby Citizens Association.

McGowan is running in the May 9, 2017 provincial election as the B.C. Green candidate in Burnaby-Deer Lake.

The electoral district of Burnaby-Deer Lake is held by outgoing B.C. NDP MLA Kathy Corrigan, wife of Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan.

“My MLA Kathy Corrigan, you know, we’ve talked to her about this, and she has not been helpful,” McGowan said.

The Green candidate turned next to David Eby, the B.C. NDP’s MLA in Vancouver-Point Grey and the party’s spokesperson on housing.

“We have not seen David Eby, who is, you know, their poster boy for affordable housing. He has not come to Burnaby,” McGowan said.

He recalled that Eby was nowhere to be seen on July 20, 2016 when RCMP officers were clearing out people who occupied in protest an apartment on Imperial Avenue, which was slated for demolition.

According to him, Eby and B.C. NDP leader John Horgan were in Coquitlam instead, where they had an event calling for changes in the tenancy law.

Rick McGowan is the Green Party of B.C. candidate in Burnaby-Deer Lake, where tenants are being displaced by new condo developments in Metrotown.

Eby rejected claims that the B.C. NDP failed vulnerable tenants in Metrotown.

According to Eby, the blame lays with the province’s ruling B.C. Liberal Party.

“There’s no question that tenants in Burnaby and all across B.C. have been failed, but it’s by the actual government that’s in power, which is the B.C. Liberal Party,” Eby told the Straight in a phone interview.

According to Eby, the Greens are trying to make political hay.

“It’s opportunistic, frankly, of the Greens to suggest that a party that’s in opposition and in different level of government is responsible for what’s happening in one city, when the trend is actually happening across the entire province,” Eby said.

For Eby, it’s all politics.

“I understand that some people want to draw these politically convenient comparisons during a provincial election,” Eby said.

With Kathy Corrigan on the way out, the B.C. NDP is fielding Burnaby councillor Anne Kang in Burnaby-Deer Lake.

On Monday (April 11), housing advocates went to her campaign office to talk about the eviction of tenants.

Ivan Drury, an organizer with the Alliance Against Displacement, was there, and according to him, no dialogue took place.

“Instead, they called the RCMP,” Drury told the Straight by phone.

According to figures compiled by Drury’s group, 473 units of affordable market rental units have been demolished in the Metrotown area.

Based on the count, some 296 additional units are waiting for the wrecking ball.

In the interview, Drury said that more rental homes, numbering up to around 3,000, will be lost as the Metrotown development boom proceeds.

In August last year, B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver visited the Metrotown area to see for himself the housing crisis in the neighbourhood.

Reflecting on his visit, Weaver later asked on a blog post what is being done to help residents.

“The honest answer is that virtually nothing is being done,” Weaver wrote. “Burnaby council seems to be turning a blind eye as the demoviction problem gets out of hand. Rather than recognizing that the municipality has a moral obligation to look out for the best interests of their constituents, they seem content with the knowledge that property taxes and developer funds acquired through granting increased density will increase the City’s coffers.”