Judy Graves, a longtime advocate for the homeless, has her sights on the city council seat vacated by Vision Vancouver’s Geoff Meggs.
She cites the housing crisis as the main reason she decided to run for office. She’s seeking a nomination under the OneCity party, which formed in 2014. A date for its nomination meeting has yet to be set.
“The big motivation is [that] everywhere I go — it doesn’t matter if it’s the dog park or the grocery store standing in line or waiting to pick up a kid at school — anywhere I’m going, I’m listening to people who are talking about feeling like they’re being forced out of Vancouver after spending their lifetime here or losing their grandchildren who are moving away because their parents can’t afford to live here,” she told the Courier Wednesday.
Graves’ daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren moved out of Vancouver about five years ago because they couldn’t afford to stay even though they’re professionals in their early 40s with good jobs.
“This is just wrong,” she said. “But my story isn’t unique. Almost everyone I know in grandparenting age is telling me the same story.”
Meggs, meanwhile, resigned from council July 4 after accepting the chief-of-staff position for NDP premier-designate John Horgan. His decision set the stage for a byelection, which will likely happen in October.
Graves told the Courier she tried to “settle in” to retirement but “there’s work that needs to be done, so here we are.”
She considered running for Vision Vancouver at one point.
“But certainly not now. When Vision was first elected, I was so excited about them. They started off with a good bang but they’ve broken my heart,” she said. “Not only did they not end homelessness or street homelessness, they have, in fact, created a whole other kind of homelessness. That’s the homelessness of working people and professionals who can no longer stay here.”
OneCity formed three years ago to focus on issues ranging from development and transit to social inequality and childcare.
RJ Aquino, a former member of COPE’s executive, who split with that party over concerns about its direction, ran under OneCity in the civic election in 2014 but didn’t win.
Graves said she’s seeking the OneCity nomination because the party has the policies that “fit” for her.
“They’re talking about inclusionary zoning, meaning that at least 20 or 30 per cent of the units in buildings being built by developers would be rented at one third of the income of ordinary working people, which would mean a lot of families and singles and, for that matter, seniors could stay in Vancouver,” she said. “They’re talking about the city doing an overall planning but neighbourhoods developing councils that will advise on the development of that neighbourhood.”
Graves spent years as the City of Vancouver’s homeless advocate until she retired in 2013. She was widely praised for her work, including by Liberal housing minister Rich Coleman who she had criticized in the past.
Graves, who once described herself as an “off-the-end-of-the-scale introvert,” conceded politics is an odd choice for an introvert but explained that while she doesn’t like crowds, she loves people.
“So over the course of my life I’ve learned to manage the crowd one person at a time. And so the whole city is a city full of individuals to me.”
She hopes to do more as a politician than she did working for the city where she said she was one person working within the city structure.
“I’m just the person that’s taking a particular position but backed by a huge organization supported by people all across the city. And I will just be the voice for the people of the city.”
While the OneCity party, which approached Graves to run for office a number of times over the years, doesn’t have the profile of more established parties, Graves said at one point the NPA was a new party and at one point Vision was a new party.
“Every party has to start as a new party. And OneCity has developed remarkably quickly. I expect we’ll be running a number of candidates in 2018,” she said.
During her retirement, Graves, who lives in the West End, spent time with family but she also did work with organizations in the Downtown Eastside.
The homeless will continue to be one of her priorities if she wins the OneCity nomination, and is ultimately elected to council, but she stressed the causes of homelessness are inseparable from the problems facing the rest of the city.
Her other priorities include helping small business prosper.
“Every major street I walk down, I’m seeing small business close. It’s for the same reason as people leaving the city. The rents have gotten too expensive, the taxes are so high that between the two, they can’t make a go of it anymore,” she said. “So I want to see business thriving again here.”
Graves said she appreciates the multicultural nature of Vancouver and that immigration has enriched the city “[but] what’s different now is people are actually buying here without actually moving here. And we want to see the people that buy here live here.”
Graves, who was born in Toronto, moved to Vancouver at age two. Her family left for five years on a military posting when she was a child but she’s lived in the city solidly since age 15.
She didn’t want to “advertise” her age but said, “I’m old enough to know what’s going on and young enough to do something about it.”
An honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of British Columbia in 2009 and an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Vancouver School of Theology in 2013 are among the accolades she’s earned for her work. She was also awarded the Freedom of the City in 2014.
Former Vision Vancouver school board chair Patti Bacchus, who was fired by the Liberal education minister last year along with the rest of the board, and Pete Fry, who ran unsuccessfully for the Green Party in the 2014 civic election, are among other potential candidates who’ve expressed interest in Meggs’ seat.
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