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A security guard patrols an area as a group of concerned residents and parents protest against temporary modular housing in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver last November.Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) received 21 calls for service to the city's first temporary modular housing project over a 10-month period, or an average of about two calls per month, according to information released through a Freedom of Information request.

Of those calls, three were classified as Priority 1– which are defined as "requires urgent attention, life threatening" and are the most serious in a four-level ranking system used by the VPD.

The Globe and Mail requested data on police calls to the project – on Terminal Avenue, close to the Main Street SkyTrain station – amid an ongoing backlash from some city residents to a similar project in Vancouver's Marpole neighbourhood.

Those residents have objected to how the city pursued the project – including changing a bylaw to allow it and other modular housing projects to move through the permitting process more quickly. They also say they are worried about the potential risks of having people who may have been previously homeless, or who have a history of crime or violence, near schools.

Modular housing consists of small, self-contained units. The city is building these units because it says they are quicker to construct than traditional housing, and can provide homes within months instead of years.

In early December, the city won an injunction to prevent protesters from blocking access to the site. That was not the end of legal action, however; a group called Caring Citizens of Vancouver in January filed a petition to the Supreme Court of B.C. seeking a judicial review of the city's decision to build the project.

A decision on that application is expected this week.

While some students have spoken publicly in favour of the project, Caring Citizen's concerns still linger.

"The safety of the schoolchildren is a concern – because it is so close to the schools," Connie Kuang, a member of the group, said on Monday.

As outlined in city submissions for that court action, residents raised issues in three main areas: They had concerns that there had not been sufficient consultation, about the proximity of schools and "concerns about the characteristics of the intended residents of the temporary modular housing units and that they [the residents] may increase drug and crime exposure in the community."

The provincial government last September announced $66-million for 600 units of modular housing on city-owned land. That announcement was part of a broader plan for 2,000 modular units over two years throughout the province.

The first to open was 220 Terminal Avenue, which has 40 units and opened last February.

In addition to the Priority 1 calls, nine others were ranked as Priority 2, which the VPD defines as "requires immediate attention, serious, may not be life threatening" and another six were Priority 3 – routine calls that involve no threat to life or property.

The remainder were ranked as Priority 4 – events that must be documented but may or may not require police attendance – other than a "mischief in progress" incident, which was ranked as zero.

Calls for police service have been considered an indicator of problems at social housing.

In 2014, for example, the Vancouver Courier reported that police answered 729 calls to the Marguerite Ford Apartments – a 147-unit social housing complex that opened in May 2013 – in its first 16 months of operation, or about 45 a month.

At the time, provincial officials cited a challenging mix of tenants in the building, including some who were dealing with substance abuse and mental illness.

When it approved a development permit for 78 new homes for the Marpole project in November, the city cited several steps it had taken in response to community feedback, among them a community advisory committee that includes residents and members from school Parent Advisory Councils.

Overall, the VPD received about 258,000 calls for service in 2016, or a rate of 394.5 per 1,000 people. That was an increase from 2015, when the VPD received about 245,000 calls for service for a rate of 378.5 calls per 1,000 population. Figures for 2017 are not yet available.

A separate freedom of information request shows there were 44 police calls over a one-month period, from September 29, 2017 to November 1, 2017, to 39 Smithe Street, the address of Vancouver's downtown Parq casino.

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