We can have an inspiring, fun, and affordable Vancouver that cares about people.
For too long, Vancouver has been a playground for the super-rich. Working people are getting sold out, priced out, and steamrolled by the power of predatory wealth.
Vancouver doesn’t have to be this way. We can build a city that makes us proud, that takes care of people, and pushes the envelope and innovates to make life better for everyone.
If I’m the next Mayor of Vancouver, I will fight every single day to make this city more affordable for people. We'll make it easier for people to have safe, affordable, lovely places to call home. We'll give power to the people.
We got this,
Stephanie Allen
COPE candidate for Mayor
Stephanie’s first priorities as the next Mayor of Vancouver:
✓ Make Vancouver Affordable
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Vancouver is building luxury condos that sit empty for investors, while most of us can’t afford our rent.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will negotiate, secure, and build 20,000+ affordable and accessible homes for people getting priced out of the city, including deeply affordable housing. -
The city has tools that can make life more affordable for people.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will use every power the city has to lower everyday costs, and expand access to affordable groceries, stop price gouging, and free or low cost community amenities close to transit that support arts, culture, play, and leisure -
In an affordability crisis and climate crisis, we need to make it easier to choose public transit.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will fight to make public transit fast and free, starting with low-income passes, service improvements, and fare-free bus routes. -
You shouldn’t have to be super-rich to build a life in Vancouver.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will invest in public, $10/day childcare and push for partnerships across governments to accelerate access so families can afford to keep Vancouver home. -
When we invest in public services, we create public wealth.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will upgrade libraries, community centres, and public pools to provide world class facilities, open all libraries 7 days a week, and support the growth of the local circular economy and repair infrastructure to reduce waste while making people’s lives better.
✓ Fight for Housing
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Tenants make up more than half the population of Vancouver, but the city is not working for us.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will strengthen tenant protections to stop forced displacement, create a city-wide anti-displacement policy, and launch a demoviction task force to shift development away from vulnerable renters. -
We need to crack down on bad landlords who make breaking the law a business model.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will bring back the renter’s office, with the power to crack down on bad landlords and fight for tenants, and in cases of extreme neglect or abuse of power, expropriate those properties, deduct costs to repair and upgrade, and turn into affordable housing. -
The Empty Homes Tax (EHT) is working, but Ken Sim and ABC have refused to raise it, or close the loopholes that keep the housing we need empty.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE Team will triple the empty homes tax and increase enforcement on vacant properties that are slipping through the cracks. -
Vancouver’s development policies are breaking up beloved communities and pushing regular people out of town, or worse, into homelessness.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE Team will make it easy for tenants to buy their rental buildings to convert into co-ops and land trusts, and for the city to buy rental buildings with nonprofit or government partners before they go to market for redevelopment. -
Housing is for people to live in, not a vehicle for investors to pad their profits.
Stephanie Allen and COPE will engage in an aggressive strategy to encourage the removal of land and housing from the realm of speculators and investors, and put it under democratic community control with Community Land Trusts.
✓ Power to the People
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Vancouver should be shaped by the people who live here, not lobbyists, big business, or the well-connected elite.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will work with residents, workers and unions, community advocates, local shops and restaurants, and neighbourhoods in collaboration, not against them. No more phony consultations or box-checking exercises. We’ll protect our public institutions, and listen to people. -
Vancouver can be more accountable to people and serve the public interest with real democracy.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will advance community-led planning and budgets including citizens assemblies, participatory budgeting, strengthened advisory committees, referenda, and dedicated community and resident engagement. -
Vancouver is for the people who live here. We need community-led public spaces, amenities, and services for public benefit.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will collaborate with residents on the co-creation of a new civic commons. The city can play a part in fostering the creation of new organizations and community groups aimed at improving public space, fostering community, and providing benefits to the public. -
Respecting voters and our democracy means giving people meaningful choices, and making their ballots count.
Stephanie Allen and the COPE team will make every vote count. Instead of pinching our nose every four years to pick “lesser evils” to try to keep out the truly awful mayors, we can have a ranked-choice ballot for Mayor that gives every voter an expressive ballot that actually counts.
ABOUT STEPHANIE
She’s a housing policy expert with decades of experience across public, non-profit, and private housing sectors. As the co-founder of Hogans Alley society, she helped lead the charge for a community land trust in Vancouver’s historic Black neighbourhood.
COPE recruited Stephanie Allen for Mayor because she has the courage to expose the lies of the powerful, listen to the people, and fight for an affordable city.
As the former vice president of strategic operations at BC Housing, she fought to bring tenant and resident voices to the table, implement climate policy and honour DRIPA, and protect tenants.
She has the experience, the knowledge, and the values to fight for a city that delivers affordability, acts with integrity, and distributes power to the people.
THE COPE TEAM
Stephanie Allen is joined on the COPE ballot by an all-star team across City Council, School Board, and Park Board. We got this.
