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Developing Story: Revised Pearson proposal praised for changes

Disabilities advocate lauds council for recognizing human rights issue
Jill Weiss
Jill Weiss. File photo Dan Toulgoet

Jill Weiss teared up when she asked city council to reject the Pearson-Dogwood Policy Statement at its Jan. 23 meeting.

The statement, once approved, will guide redevelopment of the property. Two health care facilities are located on the 25-acre site — the 120-bed George Pearson Centre for people living with conditions such as spinal cord and brain injuries, and the 113-bed Dogwood Lodge for seniors who require complex, 24-hour care.

Vancouver Coastal Health owns 20 acres of the property, while the provincial government owns five acres (Dogwood Lodge). VCH wants to leverage the site’s land value and reinvest money in health care.

When the policy statement went before council almost two weeks ago, Weiss, chair of the city’s Persons with Disabilities Advocacy Group, was one in a stream of speakers who argued against it based on plans for a complex care facility on site and concerns about “institutionalizing” people with disabilities. The 150-bed facility was to house Dogwood Lodge’s 113 beds, along with 37 of the George Pearson beds. (The remaining 83 were to become independent living units.)

Weiss and others objected to including the 37 George Pearson beds in the complex care facility, which they insisted represented an institutional environment as opposed to an “intentional” community in which people with disabilities have autonomy over their lives.

Their emotional arguments convinced council to defer its decision on the policy statement, but the delay turned out to be short lived. Advocates for people with disabilities and Vancouver Coastal Health reached an agreement late last week.

The revised policy statement goes back before council for a vote Wednesday, Feb. 5.
In an email to the Courier, Weiss said revisions include:

  • no institutions on the Pearson redevelopment for people with disabilities
  • no person currently residing in Pearson can be transferred to another institution/facility elsewhere, unless they request that option
  • the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be followed
  • a clear statement from Vancouver Coastal Health that independent community living is best practice
  • commitment that the “Proposal for Housing and Support for the Pearson Redevelopment” collaboratively prepared by the Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee, Pearson Residents Redevelopment Group and the B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities will be the basis for implementing housing & support on the site. (Weiss says this consensus proposal has been endorsed by twenty organizations and provides people with four housing and support options, all with excellent support and full autonomy and choice)
  • acceptance of the Greenhouse model, and that Greenhouses will be located in integrated buildings (example: apartments, condos, townhouses) and not in a facility
  • the number of independent living housing and support units will be increased to from 87 to 114 for the Pearson residents
  • safeguards to ensure that Vancouver Coastal Health presents a detailed plan that demonstrates best practices in order to receive city approval at the rezoning stage, and that VCH must work collaboratively with the disability community to do that.

Weiss couldn’t be happier.

“I didn’t necessarily think we would be successful but I’m really glad we were,” she told the Courier Monday. “Council — all of them, all parties [since it was unanimous] deserve a lot of credit. They responded to the people who talked, but I think also they really responded to the human rights issue. That this is not a health issue, this is a human and civil rights issue — they got that. All of them care about that issue. It was really brave of them. It’s the largest development in the history of the city, I think, and they refused to approve it until it came back appropriately changed.”

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