By Katie Hyslop

Published November 29, 2011 06:40 pm |

Members of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council (DNC), neighbourhood residents, and social justice activists, including former city council candidate Lauren Gill, occupied the Paris Annex condo development on West Hastings between Carroll and Abbott for three hours today, saying they want social housing, not condos, in the city's poorest neighbourhood.

Part of an "Occupy the Pantages" march organized by the Stop the Pantages Condos Coalition that began at 4 p.m. today, the occupiers were already in the building when dozens of protestors marched from Carroll to the site, chanting "Condos--hell no!", "Homes--not jails!" and "Occupy--the hood!". Although the former Pantages theatre, which is set to become condos under developer Marc Williams, was mentioned in a list of condo developments protestors denounced, it was not included as a stop in their march.

Once protestors set up outside the Paris Annex site, police quickly blocked off West Hastings between Carroll and Abbott, but by six o'clock had only made one attempt to open the doors to the construction site, which was unsuccessful due to human chains of protestors blocking off all three exits.

Speaking to The Tyee from inside the condo site, DNC member Ivan Drury said they took over the building to send a message to the city and to condo developers.

"We're not going to tolerate any condo developments in the Downtown Eastside, and a message to the city to call for a moratorium on all condo developments in the Downtown Eastside, until there is no more homelessness, until no one sleeps in shelters, until no one has to live in SRO hotel rooms, until the does what they say they're going to do and replace all the SRO hotels with decent, dignified, low-income, affordable social housing," he says.

The number 21 is significant, according to Drury, because it's the name of another condo development, 21 Doors, that's scheduled to open across from Pigeon Park on December 1. Both 21 Doors and the Paris Annex belong to the Salient Group developers.

"(21 Doors) used to be low-income housing, and everyone who lived in it was evicted in 2008 and it stood empty for years, which is a blight on our community that this society allows livable housing to stand empty in the midst of a homelessness and housing crisis, only to be reopened three to four years later as a quarter-million condo project," says Drury.

The city said told The Tyee that because the occupation was on private property, they had nothing to say about it.

Drury and the rest of the protestors say they aren't leaving until their demands are met, but they weren't under any illusions that the cops will let them stay.

"We are going to stay in here until the police drag us out. We anticipate that the city government is more than willing to use city resources to defend empty buildings from the bodies of low-income people, but they are not willing to use their resources to buy land in order to guarantee housing for low-income people," he says.

By 7 p.m. the occupiers had made a "strategic decision", according to protest organizer Harsha Walia, to leave the building and regroup for another protest in front of the Pantages site on Thursday at 2 p.m.

"And Naomi Klein is going to join us," she says.

A press release issued by the Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Constable Lindsay Houghton stated police told protestors they had to leave or face arrest for tresspassing, saying they were concerned about safety because the site is under construction.

"The protesters left voluntarily just after 7 p.m. and no arrests were made," he said.

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues for The Tyee and other publications.