VANCOUVER—Jean Swanson has advocated for Vancouver’s poorest residents for decades. She’s held countless demonstrations, many of them targeting city hall, in an attempt to improve housing conditions in the Downtown Eastside.

In 2018, Swanson crossed over to what she calls “the inside” when she ran to become a city councillor with the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors civic party. Swanson was the only COPE councillor to win a seat on a council split between four different parties and an independent mayor.

Following a housing crisis in 2016, when the city saw homeless numbers, rent rates and housing prices spike, money has started to pour in from all levels of government to build new social housing. Meanwhile, a series of taxes targeted at real-estate speculation have slowed rising prices.

But Vancouver continues to see record levels of homelessness and sky-high rents, a fact underscored this summer when the city tried, and failed, to clear a large tent city at Oppenheimer Park.

Swanson spoke to Star Vancouver about why she’s fighting to get developers out of affordable housing and how she makes her voice heard as the lone COPE councillor.

What do you think is the most pressing issue for Vancouver right now?

I can’t do one. It has to be housing and climate change — but the one I know the most about is housing. We have the highest homeless count we’ve ever had. Rents are over $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom, and people can’t afford it. They’re doubling up, tripling up, moving out of the city. Kids are staying with their parents longer than they want to. It’s pretty obvious.

You made the switch in 2018 from activist to city councillor. How have things changed in terms of what you have been able to accomplish?

Well, I haven’t really gone from activist to politician. I’m still an activist, and we still need activists and people on the ground in social movements to push politicians to do anything.

For example, Unite Here, the hotel workers’ union, came to me and said our workers are being sexually harassed in hotels. It just so happened that (the City of) Victoria had passed a good bylaw, tying workplace audits and violence prevention education to business licences.

So we talked a lot about that, and (Councillor) Christine (Boyle) and I drafted a motion, and (the union) came and spoke to it and it passed. But without them, there would have been nothing.

Sometimes you’ve voted yes on housing projects, like a building at Clark and 1st Ave. that will include a detox centre and some social housing. But you voted no on a proposal to rezone a single-family lot in Shaughnessy to rental townhouses. I think it surprised some people when you voted against a mansion being turned into rental units. What’s going through your mind when you’re deciding whether to vote yes or no for more density?

Mainly I’m thinking about, is it going to improve affordability? And, if someone’s going to make a pile of money on it, is there any contribution back to the community? Those were the two things that were in my mind around the (Shaughnessy proposal). Here we have a developer who owns a piece of land and he can collect rent from one housing unit on it, maybe two if he builds a duplex, and he’s asking the city to change it so he can collect rent from 21 units of housing. That’s going to make that piece of property much more valuable, but the rents are still going to be really high.

You’re really focusing on much, much deeper levels of affordability. How do you think we get there?

We have to switch the narrative so we’re not relying on developers, because if we’re relying on developers, the people that need housing the most will end up in Oppenheimer Park or wherever they’re allowed to be.

And this isn’t a communist thought or an evil, socialist thought; in 1972 there were 30,000 units of social housing built in Canada. The government’s contribution to housing should be actually building it, not getting more market housing where developers make their 15 per cent profit.

Do you ever have developers come and talk to you and try to explain their business?

I’ve talked to lots of developers … and they want density. That’s what they want. I’ll say, if you give me 50 per cent social housing, we might go for that. But they’re more in the 20 per cent range.

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You’ve been pushing for vacancy control for a long time. It’s a policy that would mean that rents couldn’t rise more than a set amount, even when tenants move out. But B.C.’s NDP government is not interested, and Vancouver City Council has been reluctant to lobby the province on this. Where do you go from here?

I’m just going to keep pushing, that’s all. That didn’t stop Tommy Douglas from pushing for medicare, even though no one wanted it. For things that are needed, you just have to keep pushing.

Some answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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