h Houses for All is the story of the struggle for social housing in Vancouver between 1919 and 1950. It argues that, however temporary or limited their achievements, local activists played a significant role in the introduction, implementation, or continuation of many early national housing programs. Ottawa's housing initiatives were not always unilateral actions in the development of the welfare state. The drive for social housing in Vancouver complemented the tradition of housing activism that already existed in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, in the United States. Jill Wade analyzes the housing problem that developed in Vancouver in the first half of this century: the chronic shortage of decent living conditions for those of low income, and the occasional serious crisis in owned and rented dwellings for others of middle income. Beginning in 1919 with the Better Housing Scheme and concluding in the early 1950s with the construction of Little Mountain, the first public housing project in Vancouver, the book also chronicles the responses of governments and activists alike to the city's residen- tial conditions. It highlights the spirited, yet frustrated, campaign for low-rental housing in the late 1930s and the more successful, sometimes militant, drive for relief during the housing emergency of the 1940s. Fascinating and informative, Houses for All repairs the curious rupture in the collective historical memory that has left Vancouverites of the 1990s unaware of previous housing crises and past activism and achievements. Jill Wade teaches British Columbia history in the university program at the Open Learning Agency in Burnaby, British Columbia. This page intentionally left blank fill Wade Houses for All: The Struggle for Social Housing in Vancouver, 1919-50 UBCPress / Vancouver © UBC Press 1994 All rights reserved Printed on acid-free paper <» ISBN 0-7748-0454-8 (hardcover) ISBN 0-7748-0495-5 (paperback) Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Wade, Catherine Jill, 1942- Houses for all Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7748-0454-8 (bound) ISBN 0-7748-0495-5 (pbk) 1. Public housing — British Columbia — Vancouver — History. 2. Housing policy — British Columbia — Vancouver — History. I. Title. HD7288.78.C32V382 1994 363.5'09711'33 C94-910091-9 This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. UBC Press also gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support to its publishing program from the Canada Council, the Province of British Columbia Cultural Services Branch, and the Department of Communications of the Government of Canada. UBC Press University of British Columbia 6344 Memorial Road Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 (604) 822-3259 Fax: (604) 822-6083 To 71 Claremont Avenue and 769 Sawyer's Lane This page intentionally left blank Contents Illustrations and Tables / ix Acknowledgments / xi Abbreviations / xiii Introductionn / 3 1 HousinHousing anand ReforReform iin Pre-DepressioPre-Depressionn VancouveVancouverr / 8 2 'Slu'Slum Dwellings'Dwellings': ThThe HousinHousing ProbleProblem iin the 1930s / 38 3 RespondinResponding tto the HousinHousing ProbleProblem iin ththe 1930s: The Campaign for Low-Rentt HousinHousing // 662 4 'A'A CamCamp Existence'Existence': ThThe HousinHousingg ProbleProblemm iin ththe 19401940s / 93 5 RespondinRespondingg tto ththe HousinHousing ProbleProblem iin ththe 1940s1940s: ThThe WaWar oon Canada'ss 'Numbe'Number OnOne EmergencyEmergency'' // 11115 6 ConclusioConclusionn // 16162 NotesNotes/17/ 173 Index/23Index/231 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations and Tables Illustrations 1 Map of Vancouver. Map by Eric Leinberger / 14-15 2 East end cabins. Courtesy National Archives of Canada, PA-154626 718 3 Encampment of native people. Courtesy BC Archives and Records Service, HP 35623 / 19 4 Chinese boardinghouse room. Courtesy BC Archives and Records Service, HP 59639 / 20 5 Central City Mission dormitory. Courtesy BC Archives and Records Service, HP-66178/22 6 Better Housing Scheme home, South Vancouver. Photograph by the author / 33 7 Better Housing Scheme home, Kitsilano. Photograph by the author 735 8 Prior Street jungle. Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives, RE P 12, N 3 #17 44 9 False Creek shacks. Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives, WAT P 128/51 10 First DHA house, Vancouver. Photograph by the author / 75 11 The 'down east' DHA style / 76 12 B.C. Binning home, West Vancouver. Courtesy National Archives of Canada, PA-132040/77 13 Strathcona houses. National Archives of Canada, PA-154630 / 107 14 WHL subdivision in North Vancouver. Courtesy National Archives of Canada, PA-111586/121 15 WHL standard house types / 122 16 WHL home, North Vancouver. Courtesy National Archives of Can- ada, PA-148472 / 123 x Illustrations and Tables 17 Burkeville. Photographed by Charles Wishart, Vancouver. Courtesy City of Richmond Archives Photograph Collection, P84-17-84 / 124 18 Veterans' housing on Broadway Avenue. Courtesy G. Warrington/ National Archives of Canada, PA-154627 / 130 19 Veterans' housing built by WHL. Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives, 150-1/143 20 Picket line outside the old Hotel Vancouver / 145 21 Aerial view of Renfrew Heights. Courtesy Aero Surveys Lim- ited/National Archives of Canada, PA-148474 / 148 22 Fraserview house type / 152 23 Little Mountain public housing. Courtesy National Archives of Canada, PA-154628 / 158 Tables 1 Housing Canadians in selected cities, 1921, by percentage / 11 2 Summary of building permits for all new construction in Vancouver, 1902-24 / 24 3 Summary of building permits for dwellings in Vancouver, 1920-55 739 4 Business licences for contractors, real estate dealers, and operators of apartment and lodging houses, Vancouver, 1930-7 / 40 5 Relief cases of the City of Vancouver Public Welfare and Relief Department, 31 December 1931 to 31 December 1938 / 42 6 Unemployment, personal income, and rental costs in Canada, 1926- 40/43 7 Average rents in dollars in Vancouver and Canada, December 1929 to December 1939 / 43 8 Owner-occupied dwellings in selected cities, 1931, 1941, and 1951, by percentage / 46 9 Relief tenants, classified according to rent, in Vancouver, 8 April 1936/47 10 Monthly shelter allowances in dollars, City of Vancouver, effective September 1932 and January 1936 / 47 11 Home ownership in selected cities, 1931 / 52 12 Value of tax arrears and tax sale properties, in dollars, City of Vancouver, 1930-40 / 53 13 Housing conditions in selected cities, 1941, by percentage / 56 14 Vital statistics for the City of Vancouver, 1930-50 / 96 15 Facilities, conveniences, disrepair, and overcrowding in Vancouver (1941 and 1951) and Strathcona (ca. 1950) / 108 Acknowledgments I am indebted to many colleagues for their support while I prepared this study of early housing activism in Vancouver. Bob McDonald originally encouraged me to combine my architectural and historical interests in the social history of housing. Both he and Robin Fisher guided me through a decade of graduate work at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. David Hulchanski, who now occupies the position once held by Harry Cassidy and Albert Rose at the University of Toronto, offered assistance from UBCs School of Community and Regional Planning and its Centre for Human Settlements. My work has benefited from the helpful, vigorous comments of McDonald, Fisher, and Hulchanski, the friendly, sensible advice of Jean Barman, Irene Howard, Veronica Strong-Boag, and Allen Seager, and the spirited, thoughtful observations of my graduate school comrades Douglas Cruikshank and the late Elizabeth Lees. Keith Ralston gave me factual information best known to West Coasters of the 1940s and 1950s. John Weaver of McMaster University, who reviewed the manuscript for UBC Press, provided some especially perceptive, constructive, and delightful criticism about the tone and the thrust of the book. Many individuals and institutions assisted me in researching and publishing this study. I relied heavily upon the expertise, generosity, and good humour of staff members at many libraries, archives, munic- ipal offices, and government agencies, including the National Archives of Canada, the National Film, TV, and Sound Archives, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Library, the National Film Board of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British Columbia Archives and Records Service, the City of Vancouver Archives, the Special Collections Division at the UBC Library, the Simon Fraser University Library, the UBC Library, the United Church Archives at the xii Acknowledgments Vancouver School of Theology, the Vancouver Public Library, the North Shore Museum and Archives, the City of Vancouver, the City of Rich- mond Archives, the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver, and the Canadian Architectural Archives at the University of Calgary. I am particularly grateful to Anne Yandle, former head of UBC's Special Collections Division, for the use of a study carrell. I must also acknowledge the great value of interviews granted by two local activists, Peter Stratton and the late Grace Maclnnis. The financial assistance of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, BC Heritage Trust, Simon Fraser University, and the J.S. Ewart Fund at the University of Manitoba has made possible my work in a very real way. UBC cartographer, Eric Leinberger, drew the map showing