“We learned about the redevelopment through a notice in the mail, it was devastating”, shares Nikki, a tenant whose home was bought by the development company Fastmark in 2023.

With plans to redevelop three recently rezoned sites in the area and a fourth in the works, Fastmark is targeting the whole neighbourhood. The first project, approved in 2024, aims to replace the homes from 523 to 549 E 10th Ave with a 19-storey tower. The second, approved in June 2025, would gut the homes down the street at 469 to 483 E 10th Ave to build a 17-storey tower. The final one, under conditional approval since September 2025, would build another 17-storey tower on top of 2535 Carolina St and 557-569 E 10th Ave. 

“It’s sad that living in Vancouver as a renter feels like there’s a ticking clock, there is no stability,” reflects Nikki. “We have felt completely disposable, with developers treating us as if we are annoying, worthless, and money-grabbing, while they are upending our entire lives.”

Hans Fast, the owner of Fastmark, has given an interview bragging about owning a real-estate development company in his 20s. He comes from a rich family that is well established in the real-estate industry in Vancouver and that has direct ties to the Conservative Party of Canada. 

At one of the houses under threat of demolition, Nikki and her partner moved in 5 years ago with their now 6-year-old kid and have since welcomed a new baby. “When we first moved back to Vancouver, finding a place to live was extremely challenging. This rental felt like a real blessing, and we have truly enjoyed living here. Being within walking distance of parks, schools, amenities, and close friends has been so valuable.”

Although they qualify for tenant protections within the Broadway Plan, the city’s Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy (TRPP) is not as clear-cut as it seems. Nikki says that “there is a lack of transparency. While tenants may be offered the ‘right of first refusal’ [to rent a unit in the redeveloped building], replacement units are often significantly smaller and come with hidden costs such as parking and storage. Families, workers, and people with children, hobbies, or even the desire for a functional kitchen are clearly not being considered in these plans.” In other words, while on paper tenants may be offered the opportunity to remain in their neighbourhoods, in practice, this is impossible for many.

The issue is not redevelopment or building new houses, as Vancouver Tenants Union members residing in the Broadway Plan area have explained. The issue is the displacement of current tenants and the destruction of the social fabric of the neighbourhood, replacing long-term working-class tenants with higher paid workers and gentrifying their community spaces. When homes are commodities, increasing density won’t solve the problem of affordability. 

Building Neighbourhood Solidarity

With some of her neighbours facing similar threats, Nikki joined a meeting of the Mount Pleasant chapter of the Vancouver Tenants Union. “One of the only sources of support and hope has been involvement with the tenants union and the solidarity of fellow renters and neighbours.” Through weekly meetings and socials, she says, “this community has been a refuge against developer greed and the vapid Vancouver they seem intent on building.”

Two doors down, under the same redevelopment threat, Corey shares what brought him to the union: “Community is the only option to stop displacement and the tenants union is all we’ve got right now.” Recently, he’s seen his next-door neighbours caring for their sick relatives while facing a fast-approaching deadline to leave their home. “They’ve lived here for over 10 years . You can see the stress on their faces, having to move everything out of their home while they have to move their mother back in with a breathing tube because she's on her last final days. They asked for more time, even just a week, and were denied.” 

In early spring 2025, most of the 14 tenants impacted by this project met in a neighbourhood pub to discuss the situation. At the time, the residents had been asked to consider moving out of their homes early, by the end of July 2025, in exchange for a $2000 per household offer of compensation. Despite the diversity of their personal situations, with a minority of tenants eligible for Broadway Plan tenant protections, they all decided to stay connected. None of them wanted to leave their homes by the end of July, as their new landlord originally asked. Especially not for the $2000 on offer, less than a months’ rent for most households, i.e. less than what all tenants in BC are entitled to under the Residential Tenancy Act in the event that the landlord waits to receive the proper permits and issue eviction notices. 

Pressure Tactics and Collective Responses 

This solidarity helped the tenants of East 10th to face their landlord’s demands. Nikki explains that Fastmark actively undermined tenants' solidarity by telling them that everyone had to accept a deal or no one would receive it: “It created intense pressure to comply.” When one tenant did accept a later offer of $6000, the remaining tenants were told by Fastmark this meant that none of the other tenants could be offered more than this going forward. Tenants reached out to City of Vancouver staff, who confirmed this was false. They later learned that the first person to sign the deal was offered an extra $20 000 in the event that they could convince the rest of the tenants to take the deal to move out early as well. 

At Corey’s house, tenants were told they could be evicted because of a skate ramp they built in their backyard, putting pressure on them to accept the agreement to move out early. Corey remembers multiple phone calls with Hans Fast yelling at him to “sign this deal when we told him multiple times we didn't want to.” When he and his roommates later accepted the offer of $6000 plus four months of rent, Fastmark backtracked and rescinded the proposition.

Another tactic is the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA). Fastmark offered certain tenants individual agreements that required them to sign contracts containing confidentiality clauses. “Preventing tenants from sharing the details of their offers with the rest of the units, these agreements limited transparency and made it difficult for tenants to make informed decisions or advocate collectively,” said Nikki. Corey added, “this is very an inhumane way of working with people, getting their friends to sign NDAs, playing with their lives by offering money without following up on their promises.” 

In October 2025, an email campaign started by residents in the area successfully alerted City Hall of Fastmark’s plans to remove street trees along the 10th ave bike route. The three trees targeted for removal by Fastmark are still standing. As tenants stated in their first meeting, “we are the people who make a difference in this community.”

Demovictions and “so-called tenant relocation specialists”

A month later, the tenants living in the five houses targeted for demoviction on the 500 block received their eviction notices. The clock was moving rapidly. 

Three of the households collectively filed disputes against the eviction and attended the arbitration together. Facing the lawyers hired by Hans and his company, they stood their ground. Despite each tenant pointing to the absence of one permit necessary to start the eviction process, the RTB arbitrator decided in favor of the developer and approved the eviction set to take place on February 28, 2026. The VTU later found out that, seven days after Nikki and her neighbours filed the appeal against their eviction, Vancouver City Hall general managers of development and planning submitted a referral report to streamline the demoviction process by allowing developers to evict tenants before receiving their demolition permits. Report which City Council passed unanimously in January 2026.

Two months later, with the February deadline quickly approaching, two of the households do not know where they will go. For Nikki and her family, “trying to find a new place has felt nearly impossible. The psychological toll has been exhausting, and there are very few realistic options available, especially for families. The uncertainty and constant stress have had a significant impact on our wellbeing.” 

Despite looking for months now, finding a place to move into has not been feasible. “We want people to know how bad it is. We’re on Craigslist everyday, we’ve visited over 15 places in January alone. Half of them are weird condos, so small the kids couldn’t play”. The examples abound. “The other day, one condo’s third bedroom was a glass partition with a Murphy bed in the living room. Another room was four feet nine inches. They are not built for people to live in. The only one we saw which was similar to what we have was out of the neighbourhood and over $1400 [higher] compared to our current rent. The lump sump [TRPP compensation] won’t even cover one year of rent increase.” For Corey and his housemates, the situation is similar: “Finding a new place has been insane. There’s places available, but nothing is adequate or safe to live in. We’ve been running into mold everywhere, or seen places with twenty people waiting to visit.” 

And the landlord's requirement to help tenants find temporary accommodation? “The so-called relocation specialist has been entirely unhelpful” notes Nikki. “The support amounts to little more than being sent links to Craigslist listings, which we’ve already seen by the time they send them.”

At the beginning of February 2026, Nikki’s assigned relocation specialist emailed them that, given the time constraints, they “strongly” recommended them to be “open to some compromise on size or layout so that you are able to secure housing.” Fastmark, their property management company Macdonald Realty, part of Macdonald Real Estate Group, and now their relocation specialists Nest Well, had 5 months to find housing for 12 households. Three weeks before the fateful eviction day, two of those households have no place lined up. 

“This is displacement for profit and capitalizing on it isn't gonna fix the problem” 

Mount Pleasant houses a quarter of the renters in so-called Vancouver. With many Broadway Plan redevelopments on the docket, the actions of Fastmark show us that the Broadway Plan tenant protections can’t make up for a city built on the commodification of land and housing. Tenants from the block agree, “this is displacement for profit and capitalizing on it isn't gonna fix the problem.” The reality we know, that developers love to willfully ignore, is that the issue in the city isn’t the lack of housing. It is the lack of affordable, stable and safe housing. There are currently just under 4000 condos sitting empty in Metro Vancouver, a 649% increase since 2019. 

“The displacement caused by the Broadway Plan is profound and part of a broader pattern across the city” tells us Nikki. “The current system often assumes renters will simply accept displacement and diminished living conditions. Building strength through solidarity is one of the most important things we can do as renters living in Vancouver.”

On their block, three more houses received their eviction notice from Fastmark last week. After going through the process, Nikki wants her neighbours to know the reality: “Everyone wants to comply because they believe they are covered by the TRPP. But we have not been clearly informed about when or how rent compensation will be provided, nor has any meaningful moving support been offered, despite what was promised.

Any protections promised under the Broadway Plan have only materialized after significant pressure from tenants. Nothing has been proactively provided. At every step, we have had to push, advocate, and involve the City’s housing relocation staff assigned to us.

For anyone facing a similar situation, my advice is to connect with your neighbours immediately, organize, and build support. Do not expect developers and landlords to act in your best interest. Any protections or compensation you are entitled to will only come through persistent advocacy. Even then, there is little accountability once permits are granted. Although compensation is presented as a requirement, there is no meaningful enforcement to ensure it is actually delivered, leaving tenants to pursue what they are owed on their own.”