NPA critiques Vision on affordable housing, but non-profit group suggests Vancouver leads region
by MARTIN MACMAHON
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver city council isn’t doing enough to provide affordable housing, argues the NPA, but that might not be the whole picture.
In a new housing report card, city staff outlines Vancouver’s situation. The report says we struggle with stagnant incomes, and exorbitant home and rental costs.
City Councillor George Affleck with the NPA says it isn’t good enough.
“I don’t think you have to look very far to see that Vancouver is certainly not affordable and Vision have not made Vancouver more affordable,” says Affleck. “In fact, they’ve done the opposite. This is the most unaffordable city by far in the country.”
But Kishone Tony Roy, chief executive with the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, says Vancouver is actually doing a lot more than other parts of the region.
“One of the most notable things in the report for me, is just how much Vancouver is leading in terms of developing rental housing in the region,” says Roy. “You know, the worst, in terms of building purpose-built rental housing is Burnaby. According to the staff report, the City of Vancouver has put nearly 1,400 new units of apartment rentals on-line over the past five years, whereas in Burnaby they’ve lost 370. So, you can be building in one community, but if you’re losing purpose-built rentals in another, it’s really hard to make that all add up.
“I would suggest, to a lot of other cities in the region, that they need to come up with a plan that synchronizes with both the projections for growth, in terms of the number of people coming into our region, and the number of rental housing units that are being built.”
Roy calls on all levels of government to invest in more housing for those who need it most.
“The one area that’s furthest behind is social housing,” says Roy. “When it comes to the development of rental housing in the City of Vancouver, the area where they’re furthest behind is social housing. Somebody there needs to start prioritizing actually getting these built. When you take a look at the statistics, the number that are actually completed is very low, so I suspect the city is going to have to be more ambitious when it comes to social housing than some of the other areas.
“The other thing I would say, is that the city is clearly growing, and while they’ve been ambitious about incentivizing rental housing, there’s going to be a lot more growth in this region over the next five years, so they’re going to have to continue to be that ambitious or more so.”
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