Community & Co-Housing

Today I ate lunch in the lunch room at work, for the first time in months. Lately I've been one of the desk-eaters... the ones who just keep working and put food into their mouths when they have a spare second between phone calls, charting, home visits, and the various crises that occur on a regular basis. But today was different. I decided to sit down, eat lunch without my computer, and read the newspaper.

The front page immediately caught my eye as it had a headline about a new Co-Housing development in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage area of Vancouver.

You can read the full article here, but the Cole's Notes version is that a development proposal for Co-Housing has been put forward which hopes to build a 31 residential condominium building that would contain individual/separate condos with their own amenities but large common areas for cooking, eating together, laundry, offices, etc. They talk to a few people interested in this type of lifestyle, who express a desire to know their neighbours, to share life together.

What I read in between the lines: People are longing for community. People are realizing they need each other. People want to be known and know others. And it's people in VANCOUVER wanting this. A place that is one of the "most liveable cities" in the world, yet many people feel isolated and alone and pursue an individualistic lifestyle. I'm not trying to generalize. This obviously doesn't apply to everyone and all of Vancouver. But it's been my prayer that isolation, loneliness, despair would lift and that people would realize their need for God and community. I am encouraged by this article because it's showing that people are longing for community in some way, even if they can't fully articulate it and may not even be fully conscious of this need or desire.

I feel strongly in my Spirit that one of the keys for the Gospel to spread in Vancouver, for people to encounter God and his love is in the context of community. I have felt this for a while, and have the joy of seeing it happen in our own small group that meets every few weeks, as well as in our own home where we are embracing community living. God is on really on the move within small groups/community groups. He is using communities, however they may look, in a powerful way. In ways, I can't even comprehend or fully imagine.

It reminds me of Acts 2:46-48 where they met daily together to break bread, to eat together, and to Praise God while enjoying one another's company and favour. And daily people were being saved! This is how they did church for hundreds of years.

"The fullness of Christ will not come without Christians standing with each other in love."

- Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds

Let's live this. 

That's my heart right now.

..... And hey, what if half of the owners of this new Co-Housing development were Christians?

My Rambling Thoughts on Gentrification, Part 2

Read Part 1 here

Perhaps my biggest struggle with all of this is still seeing the segregation and division. There is little to no integration or blurring of communities as middle/upper class have moved in over the last couple years. On one block you are in the midst of the perhaps organized chaos of what happens in front of the bottle depot on Hastings, and the next block you can go enjoy a coffee and croissant at a new coffee shop, with all that out of sight and mind!
It's the coffee shop that:
(a) isn't affordable to people living in the DTES
(b) I purchase coffee from regularly.

While on the coffee topic... I've definitely struggled with wondering whether or not my purchasing of this coffee or a $3 donut from the new donut shop has helped contribute or encourage gentrification. Maybe that's extreme, but it's made me uncomfortable to think about. With that said, I'm NOT implying (in any way) that we should feel guilty about going to these places and supporting businesses in the area. Let's not forget that this post is my ramblings.... this discomfort and struggle I'm having is not a bad thing. It's making me think. It's making me ask questions. It's challenging me.

What am I trying to say in these ramblings?
It seems I have more questions than answers, and it's all quite messy....

Maybe this process of gentrification could be improved...smoother.... better integrated... but where do we start? Is there a starting point?

I'm proposing that as a community we first start with being more aware of one another. While we can not control or change the fact that disparities may always exist, we can't turn a blind eye and pretend things don't exist just because we aren't comfortable seeing someone pan handling or injecting on the street corner. We can be more respectful, primarily through our attitudes and actions - both of which we can control. The reality is that this is going to be hard work. The reality is that community is hard work. Proximity doesn't automatically equal community - as witnessed by SROs and condos being next to one another.

I think that people need a platform and opportunity to discuss the changes that are happening in their community. These community meetings should include all sides and parties. Business owners and city planners should have a place at this table, as well as residents from the community. Perhaps communication, and having people's voices heard would change the impact that gentrification is having. Coming from the girl who has been willing to pay $3 for a donut once in a while, this might be a naive proposition but I really think communication and discussion is a key here. I also think there are creative ways for people to get involved and establish relationships with the people who already live in the DTES, the resources they access and the community that already exists!

Perhaps new businesses and restaurants can learn from Save On Meats, a diner that has been established in area since 1957 and "aims to be a reliable neighbour in the DTES". I've noticed that they are quite a well-respected establishment in the area, and are very much accessible to anyone, not just because it's affordable. They have generated a really welcoming atmosphere. You can read more about their partnership and involvement with the community here.

Unfortunately I don't have any straight forward, cut-and-dry answers to any of my questions, but I guess I am wanting to open up the discussion. I am not even sure I have any ideas for the "creative ways" for gentrified businesses to get involved as I (naively?) propose. Perhaps I should stop calling these businesses "gentrified" because that label may also be contributing to the separation and segregation from my end.

Perhaps the biggest issues in the DTES aren't prostitution, homelessness and addiction! Perhaps the biggest issue is an intense longing for community in a deeper, bigger, more united way. I don't think that this longing for community exists only in the DTES. I think it's a Vancouver wide groaning. Or at least it's groaning in me.

Maybe that is why gentrification makes me so uncomfortable because currently it's a collision of separate worlds and communities that really aren't so separate (we are all human after all), that could come together in a powerful way and create community together. It just hasn't happened yet. I'm dreaming big, but all it takes are small steps...