‘It’s a shame’: Vancouver builder says red tape killed DTES social housing project

Perdip Moore says he was ready to build 14 units of social housing on a lot at 436 East Hastings, but red tape with the city derailed the project.

A Vancouver builder says he made the difficult decision to cancel a social housing project in the city’s Downtown Eastside due to a years-long nightmare process of trying to work with the city to secure a building permit.

Perdip Moore still struggles to understand why the property he purchased in 2014 sits vacant amid a housing crisis.

“It’s a shame,” the senior project manager for PD Moore Homes Inc. told Global News in an interview Tuesday.

“I find it really upsetting.”

Moore said he bought the empty lot at 436 East Hastings while his wife was pregnant and the couple thought it would be a good way to give back to the community, given their business had seen 23 years of success.

“When our child entered Kindergarten, at that point we kind of gave up on that portion of this venture,” recounted Moore.

In 2019, the city of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board approved an application for a seven-storey mixed use building at 436 East Hastings with ground level retail and 14 units of social housing plus eight units of market rental.

The 64 per cent social housing and 36 per cent market rental complied with the 60 per cent social housing and 40 per cent secured market rental requirements for new projects built beyond existing zoning in the DTES Oppenheimer District.