Vancouver Housing Authourity, how we will create affordabilty
How will Vancouver maintain its high quality of life if it loses its affordability? People from all over the world relocate in Vancouver. The city has a spectacular setting, situated in the valley of the Coastal Mountains, but increasingly Vancouver is becoming less affordable. The change in affordability is also going to affect the diversity of the city. Particular in the West End, where over 80% of residents are renters, keeping market rate rental units affordable is essential to ensure the neighbourhood’s diversity and to maintain and improve the livability of the community.
Leaving affordability to the marketplace is not going to create more affordability. The basic motivation of the market is always to maximize profits. Why would a developer build a market rate apartments and not try to rent them for as much as possible? Witness what has been happening in the West End in the recent past; even the sale of an existing building increases the capital cost of building and puts pressure on landlords to increase rents. The term “Renoviction” was invented in the West End
Word Spy (http://www.wordspy.com/words/renoviction.asp) defines Renoviction as follows:
Renoviction is a new housing buzzword, perhaps a buzz-saw word. It is a portmanteau word, a blend of renovation + eviction, a neological nightmare for British Columbia tenants. Renoviction is the act of evicting longtime tenants from their rental houses and apartments by moneybags landlords who announce huge renovation plans that require the emptying of apartments and homes to be renovated. Once out, the tenants are not allowed to renew their leases until they agree to monstrous rent increases, sometimes double what they paid before the renovation. (my term “Kittyviction” never made it in the lexicon. Kittyviction is when one is evicted for the ownership of pets.)
If capitalization of existing rental space is putting increases on rent, what will be the cost pressures for new construction? What will be the consequences of the HST that the provincial government is proposing to bring in on the cost of new construction and on existing rental properties?
Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) http://www.whistlerhousing.ca/
On its website the WHA describes itself in the following way:
The Whistler Housing Authority (WHA), formed in October 1997, was created to oversee the development of resident restricted housing in Whistler through the use of the Employee Housing Fund. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW). We perform the combined functions of two other agencies: the Whistler Housing Authority Ltd, a municipal corporation that is legally responsible for resident restricted housing developments, and the Whistler Valley Housing Society (WVHS), a volunteer, non-profit society formed under the Societies Act as a legal entity qualified for acquiring CMHC financing.
Providing reasonable housing options, be it rental units or home ownership, for those who live and work in Whistler has been the most challenging issue facing the community for the past 20 years. Creating an inventory of price controlled units that are only available to resident employees is the best means of reducing the impact of market forces that are driving the price of our housing out of reach for locals.
Comfortable, affordable living space fosters the well-being of both the community and the individual. Affordable housing attracts skilled and energetic adults as well as young families with children to become part of the community. This in turn helps to ensure a stable workforce and a vibrant and diversified community. The Whistler Housing Authority believes it is essential that the majority of Whistler employees live in the community in which they work, and thus is continually working towards finding solutions to the affordable resident housing issue.
Whistler came to the conclusion that lack of affordable housing was affecting the economic well being of the city. When will Vancouver realize this as well? The only way that affordability is maintained and improved will be if the city has the capacity to work creatively with its capital assets (the property endowment fund) and leverage this with other partners. This capacity is a Housing Authority. Vancouver needs to build an agency that has the mandate and gain the experience to create partnership with other groups that have a vested interested in creating affordable housing.
The Vancouver Housing Authority (VHA) could work with the pension funds of its employees like the Firefighters, Police and CUPE to jointly create housing. The VHA could create a partnership with the Federation of Teachers to invest in housing for teachers.
What does it say about a society when the our children’s teachers are finding it hard to afford to live in our community? What does it say about our society when the nurses that take care of our sick have difficulties affording to live in our community? Police, nurses, teachers and firefighters — these are relatively better off professionals. What about the folks at the lower end of the income spectrum?
Great post Brent, a housing authority for a city like ours is long overdue. The lessons that can be learned from other cities more further away is also worth mentioning. In New York, the department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) acknowledges the two most critical housing challenges facing cities in it’s title: keeping what you have, building what you need. HPD provides low cost financing for developments that are affordable, and they have a multitude of levers and tools at their disposal. Quite the model. In six short years they’ve been able to fund over 97,000 affordable housing units in the city: http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/home/home.shtml
Vancouver once had a housing authority, before CHMC and the province took it over, abandoned its mission, closed buildings, and began selling off the public land.
In North America, there are over 2,000 civic Housing Authorities plus tens of thousands of building societies, Habitat for Humanity restricted covenant developments, and other organized efforts to provide stable and affordable housing. Last I heard, Vancouver was ranked in the list of the top 50 largest cities in North America.
We are the only one of that 50 without a significant civic housing program. No major city in Europe is without one.
It’s time, and thank you Brent for your advocacy and this well-written article.