Activist’s tweet raises fear of squatters occupying vacant Vancouver condos

Critics have lashed back at Vancouver anti-gentrification activist Ivan Drury for a cryptic tweet that some see as advocating the takeover of vacant condominiums.

Drury, who's been front and centre in efforts to beat back redevelopment of Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside, sent this out on Monday evening:

Drury, who CBC News says sent out the tweet during city hall hearings for a development permit for a controversial Downtown Eastside condo project, appears to have been referring to recent reports that up to a quarter of Vancouver's condos are either vacant or used by non-residents.

Census data analyzed by urban planning professor Andrew Yan of the University of British Columbia suggest there are between 15,000 and 20,000 vacant housing units in Metro Vancouver.

[ Related: Nearly a quarter of Vancouver’s condos are empty, but Gen Y still can’t afford to buy in ]

Drury and others are upset that a 29-unit condo building proposed for a vacant lot on Cordova Street will contain just five $375-a-month social-housing units.

"We'll fight this on the street," on activist shouted at the permit hearing Monday, according to the Globe and Mail.

Drury, who works with the Carnegie Community Action Project, said before the meeting that there is time to mobilize opposition to the project, including perhaps blocking construction, the Globe reported.

“We go to these hearings time after time, they nod their heads and smile, and agree with the problem, but they won’t do anything that hurts the property owner," Drury said. "People are frustrated.” So that's the context of Drury's tweet. And the reaction wasn't slow in coming.

Ransford, a public relations and urban development consultant, previously called Drury a "Marxist class warrior" who opposes philanthropy, social enterprise and community building.

Some of the responses were unprintable while others suggested Drury was undoing the good that business people were trying to do in the Downtown Eastside.

But Drury insists his tweet was "a dream," rather than a call for squatters to descend on Vancouver's vacant condos, CBC News said.

"The very idea that buildings can sit empty while people are on the streets is an absurd kind of systemic violence, and I wish that our priorities were opposite and we saw the lives of people as more important than the investments of property owners and developers," Drury explained.

[ Related: Save-On-Meats sign theft latest attack on gentrification in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside ]

Despite Drury's disclaimer, squatting isn't unheard of on the Downtown Eastside. A decade ago, protesters occupied the shell of the old Woodwards Department Store building, which was being redeveloped into a combination of commercial space, market residential and social housing.

Drury and others believe the gradual encroachment of upscale businesses and residential developments are driving up housing costs on the Downtown Eastside with the result, perhaps intentional, of forcing the neighbourhood's low-income residents out.

Anti-gentrification protestors have taunted patrons of Pidgin Restaurant, which overlooks local hangout Pigeon Park, ripped off a sign at the refurbished landmark Save-On-Meats butcher shop, which is now also a restaurant, and repeatedly smashed windows at a pizzeria on Commercial Drive, another gentrifying neighbourhood.