To: Richmond City Council

Rezone Richmond_Lansdowne to fully Rental

Dear City Council,
Thousands in Richmond are suffering because of Richmond’s housing market, a market ignores their needs in order to pander to real estate speculators and developers.

It is time to act and rezone Lansdowne to be 100% rental so that we can reduce rents, cut worker commute times, and give everyone a home. Cities like Vancouver and Winnipeg are making large efforts to make building more compact housing easier and Richmond can as well. However, we’ve recently lagged behind our peers in this regard.
The result? Ridiculous rents, high commute times, and often times, outright homelessness.

Rezoning Lansdowne will make living more affordable. It will allow workers to walk or bike to their works, cutting commute times and carbon emissions. It will mean we have the resources to provide permanent solutions to Richmond’s homeless populations.

We call on Richmond City Council to Rezone Lansdowne. We call on the council to invest in a greener, more affordable future.

Thank you.

Why is this important?

Richmond’s lack of dense, affordable housing has created a world where there aren’t enough homes for everyone who needs one (read: everyone), and the ones that do get housed are paying ludicrous prices for a basic human right.

A tight, rigid housing market means people will be locked out of our society, quite literally. With a more compact, affordable, and greener land, we can begin to correct these wrongs. People will be able to have more of a financial cushion for when things go wrong, workers won’t have to spend hours of their lives traveling to and from their jobs, and our next generation won’t have to move across oceans to find a home they can afford.