The Squamish Nation of western Canada have a phrase for their approach to community development — their aim is "to manage wealth not manage poverty".
Their experience in the latter is beyond dispute. For 150 years, the persecuted Squamish people saw their lands stolen, their language and culture marginalised and their once vibrant economy decimated.
Of late, however, fuelled by an enlightened approach by the Canadian government and a self-empowerment campaign, the Squamish have seen their fortunes turn.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Vancouver, where the Senákw housing development will create 6,000 apartments in one of the hottest real estate markets in all of North America. Built on tribal lands – which meant the Squamish didn't need city planning permission – the mammoth towers have acted as a veritable goldmine of contracts and work opportunities for the Squamish people whose artwork and crafts are integral to the development.
1,200 of the homes will be rented at below-market rates, with 250 of that number set aside for Squamish Nation members, creating the largest number of indigenous people to have lived on this land ever.
In a city of three million people with sky-high rents, the Squamish were always going to be on a winner by using the remnants of their reservation land for housing. And yet this unique economic development initiative from Vancouver does have some echoes closer to home.
For West Belfast boasts its own tract of abandoned land and vacated homes which could become a jewel in the crown of a revitalised community. We refer to the derelict Broadway Towers.
Back in 2011, we reported on how over 1,000 applications were received for a 71-unit new housing development on the Donegall Road, in the very shadow of the vacant towers. At that time, Belfast Trust was decanting the remaining residents — staff members at the nearby Royal — from the accommodation. All were gone by 2015.
Even in a jurisdiction where government departments are famously unable to work across silos, the inability of the health department – ultimately the owner of the site – and the Department of Communities – the body responsible for provision of housing – to work together to release this site to ease West Belfast's housing crisis is truly mind-boggling.
And yet, by 2021 we were reporting that was very much the case: the Belfast Trust was grimly holding on to the site without any idea as to how it might be used.
And so it remains today, a prime four-acre site, zoned for housing and slap-bang in the middle of a constituency with some of the worst homelessness stats in Europe is being effectively landbanked by the very government which identifies housing as a priority.
Returning Broadway Towers to the community wouldn't bring the return of billions of pounds expected to flow from Vancouver's 11-tower Senákw development but it would provide a priceless gift – a home – to hundreds of people. And if the new Broadway apartments were to be built by a truly community-owned housing association then the rents too could flow into local coffers, to be spent perhaps on educational uplift or job creation.
So taking inspiration from the most unlikely of places – an indigenous people who were almost pushed to extinction in Canada's far-west — let's make it our New Year's Resolution to reclaim Broadway Towers for the community.
