VANCOUVER, B.C. – Councillor Adriane Carr’s motion to achieve real housing affordability passed unanimously at today’s city council meeting. Her motion directs staff to review all city housing programs and identify ways to provide real affordable housing; with affordability defined as a household not paying more than 30 percent of its gross income on housing.
“I’m thrilled our new Council has taken this necessary first step to getting truly affordable housing for the people who live and work in Vancouver,” said Carr. “I’ve pushed for this for the last seven years knowing we will never achieve affordability in our city unless we base affordability on local people's incomes, not market rents.”
Carr called attention to the fact that over half of Vancouverites are renters, and over half the renters cannot afford the rents in the developments currently incentivized by the city. Incentives offered by the city to promote the building of rental housing are based on maximum rents tied to market rates, not renters’ incomes, and include increasing the allowed density or height of a building, waiving the Development Cost Levies (DCLs), and reducing the Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) a developer has to pay.
“The fact that $3,702 rent per month for a 3-bedroom apartment is considered affordable in our by-laws and results in city giveaways is emblematic of how broken our housing market is.
“We are in a crisis. It is time to end subsidizing builders for market rental housing that the majority of Vancouver renters can’t afford. My motion aims to change incentive programs to focus on building real affordable housing for the people who live and work here. I am grateful to our new council for their support of this motion," concluded Carr.
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More Information:
2013 Motion: Affordability of STIR Program Rental Housing for Average Vancouverites
