Vancouver home donated to city for affordable housing, community services

It’s a classic Kitsilano house from the early 20th century, one of a row of them on a quiet side street only three blocks from the water.

Like all of the houses in the area, its value has shot into the stratosphere in the last half century, and it was assessed at $2.89-million in the most recent year.

Now, the former home of Eric and Florence Pierce on West Third Avenue has been turned over to the City of Vancouver in perpetuity to be used for affordable housing and community activities – a rare occurrence. Mr. Pierce died in 2011.

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That is the legacy of a quiet man and his wife who spent decades helping a cluster of regular Vancouverites live in the city by providing them with cheap housing in properties they owned around the city.

“Eric was so amazing. He had an apartment building on Fourth and he kept the rents at 1960 levels for people there. He may even have given the tenants that building,” remembers Jan Pierce (no relation), a long-time Kitsilano resident and historian who met Eric and Florence numerous times at community gatherings.