This video documentary runs in a new section of The Tyee called ‘What Works: The Business of a Healthy Bioregion,’ where you’ll find profiles of people creating the low-carbon, regenerative economy we need from Alaska to central California. Find out more about this project and its funders.
When British Columbia’s government two years ago passed laws that will trigger the building of many towers where single-family residences now stand, Glyn Lewis saw opportunity.
No, his company doesn’t construct highrises. Renewal Development “rescues” existing homes from bulldozers and relocates them to where they are needed.
Quickly immerse yourself in one such venture by watching (above) the short video made by Quinn Kelly for The Tyee’s What Works series.
For more than a year, we tracked the progress of Renewal’s collaboration with the shíshálh Nation to move 10 homes from Port Moody to a bluff overlooking the Salish Sea on the shíshálh reserve.
As you’ll hear explained by Lewis, lhe hiwus yalxwemult (Chief Lenora Joe) of the shíshálh Nation, and others involved, the original single-storey structures are being turned into two levels, a metamorphosis carried out by shíshálh construction teams. After making their spectacular journey up the coast via truck and barge, the transformed homes will end up less expensive than what could be built from scratch — with significant environmental benefits.
It will cut costs by more than half, as Chief Joe explains in the video, as she envisions a day when the project is completed with 77 homes. “I imagine children laughing, running around… I envision Elders out and enjoying the sunlight in their gardens.”
What the shíshálh and Renewal are accomplishing is an example of what could be a fast-expanding home rescue industry, explains Lewis, if governments streamline rules and provide financial incentives.
Some 3,000 houses a year are demolished just in Metro Vancouver, a number to rise as mandated “upzoning” densifies communities. Beyond B.C., single-family zoning laws have been reformed in Washington, Oregon and California.
Which means that throughout the West Coast bioregion, tens of thousands of perfectly good homes could be trashed.
Why not give them second lives?
The shíshálh Nation and Renewal Development are answering that question through their collaboration. Says Lewis: “My goal is to shift the demolition-first paradigm. Renewal is a campaign disguised as a company.”
Watch the seven-minute video at the top of this story to see how that future is unfolding on the shíshálh territory.
