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However, they were shocked to learn Laufer’s former unit in the heritage home was being advertised on Craigslist for $2,850 a month, far beyond what the hopeful family could afford.

So Laufer wrote a letter on Saturday, Aug. 17, to Vancouver’s mayor and council, also copying West End Coal Harbour MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert and provincial Housing Minister Selina Robinson, expressing his dismay that the city was “taking away precious family housing that exists, and replacing it with market rate housing that is not geared to families.”

“I just don’t get it,” Laufer said when reached by phone. “Everybody on council now ran on the platform of housing … What’s going on?”

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As of the following Monday, the Craigslist ad was still online, but by last Tuesday it had been taken down.

But some neighbours are still angry about it, including Judy Graves, who lives across the street.

Graves, who worked for the city for 33 years until her retirement in 2013, worries about the policy shift that the Craigslist ad seems to represent. And she wants the city to publicly explain why and how that shift came about.

“There’s definitely been a policy shift, but I don’t know if council was informed of that policy shift,” said Graves, who previously served as Vancouver’s advocate for the homeless. “I think most people who are on the current council would understand immediately the amount of outrage that will be experienced by people in Vancouver, when they realize they paid for social housing that is now being rented out for top dollar, and families are being screwed.”