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For at least six of those lots, that financing from provincial and federal governments never materialized and, as a result, fewer than 10 per cent of homes in False Creek North are deemed affordable right now.

“We never did get the housing we were promised,” Shayler says today, standing in front of one of the lots that he predicted three decades ago would remain empty.

“We were really keen (in 1989) on getting something written, almost in blood, because we knew that with the price of land, unless the municipal government, the provincial government and the federal government were all in to support the cost of the non-market housing, … the market would not supply what we were looking for. And you can look at it today: The market is failing as far as low-income housing.”

Indeed, Metro Vancouver’s sky-high real estate prices have created an affordability crisis for many households today.

There is renewed optimism, though, that these lots won’t sit empty forever, given recent promises by the NDP in Victoria and the Liberals in Ottawa to invest in affordable homes — such as co-ops — for below-average-income families.

“There’s kind of a shift in the landscape and a new opportunity for partnership that has emerged very recently,” Abigail Bond, Vancouver’s director of affordable housing, said in a recent interview. “So we will definitely be pursuing all possibilities to bring these sites forward.”

Rather than being frustrated that these lots remain empty, Bond is grateful a deal was struck long ago to make them available to the city — a deal that, with the right government funding, could help the city “get closer to meeting the needs of Vancouver citizens in relation to affordable housing.”