The Affordable Housing Crisis
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Those who purchased North Shore property years ago, generally enjoy enhanced personal balance sheets. The flip side is affordability. While they may have paper profits, the question is whether they have enough cash to stay here?
We see the same phenomenon elsewhere: Victoria, Kelowna, and even Stowe, Vermont, which I visited this summer. As house prices rise, the supply of affordable housing shrinks, and ordinary folks are forced out. Paradoxically, as property values escalate, so do fears that less expensive housing will detract from those values.
A North Shore municipal politician was recently quoted as saying, “If they can’t afford to live here, they can go someplace else.” This let-them-eat-cake attitude hardly befits a community with a heart, populated by many who -- even though less well-off -- raised their families here, grew up here, helped build this place, and who want to continue to live out their lives on the North Shore. As for the “someplace else” the affordable options are limited; what would one propose: Spuzzum?
Your MLA recently attended an excellent NSCR++ conference on affordable housing on the North Shore. Speakers (see accompanying photographs) included:
- Alice Sundberg, Executive Director, B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association
- Euan McLean, Principal, Quoin Project and Cost Management Ltd.
- Jean Ferguson, Councillor, West Vancouver District
- Craig Crawford, Director of Development Services, B.C. Housing
- Dr. Brian O’Connor, Medical Health Officer, North Shore, and member, Homelessness Task Force
As to who is being affected, here are some case examples drawn from a report titled Staying Power prepared by CHAC*.
Who is Being Forced Out of the North Shore?
Diane and Tim - young family
"I grew up in West Van and I am in my mid 30's. Both my husband and I work full time, we have two kids and we cannot afford to buy on the North Shore. It is a huge stress for us. The space we live in keeps getting smaller. Both of our jobs are on the North Shore and with working we already spend too much time away from our kids. We don't really want to add a large commute time into our day just to get a home, however, there are no options even if you can afford to buy now, cause there are no modest homes on the North Shore. We would not be able to get into any coop type housing, nor would we be eligible due to the equity we have been working on to buy a home."
Allen - single father
"I was paying $900 dollars for my rent. It was a low rise apartment, 50 years old. Everything had deteriorated, everyday was a prob-lem... The children were constantly having bouts of cold and fever, they had relatively poor health and were constantly sick...runny noses and coughing."
Annie - single mom
"With my phone and heating, (my housing costs) come to $800—and I only have $825 from welfare. And I get child tax that's just been cut from $300 to $240, but then I am also going to school. I have been managing living on $300 (a month) for a year and a half. With food, toilet paper, diapers, and all the things that come with living, it's real-ly tight. I have been on the BC Housing list for three years. I have never gotten a call.
"I found it really hard to find a place. I called over 35 places; half of them said they didn't take kids. Half of the other half said we do take kids but we don't have any suites available... the rest of them were basically too expensive."
What do you Mean by Affordable?
The experts – and your banker – will say that housing is "affordable" when rent or mortgage, plus related taxes, total no more than 30% of your household's gross income.
For almost 25 years – prior to the Federal government’s cutting itself out of affordable housing programs -- the North Shore added to its stock of affordable housing. However, in 1993 Federal funding for affordable housing dried up. Over the next decade, even though populations were growing, fewer units were built.
Affordable housing stock built on the North Shore
| City North Vancouver | District North Vancouver | District West Vancouver | Total | |
| 1967 to 1993 | 798 | 860 | 493 | 2151 |
| 1994 to 2004 | 152 | 144 | 0# | 296 |
| Figures supplied by Planning Departments of each municipality. | ||||
| #An additional 55 units will be added to the West Vancouver stock by 2005 | ||||
No Place to Rent -- at an Affordable Price
If you cannot afford to buy, why not simply rent? The North Shore has 2,447 units of subsidized rental housing, but...
In 2000, the last year for which we have data, 4,420 renters on the North Shore reported paying more than 50% of their income for shelter.
The policies of the previous provincial government did not encourage investment in rental properties. Today, condominiums make better economic sense – to those with capital to invest. Horror stories of “renters from hell” do not encourage entrepreneurs. Government policies – even after modification by the present government – can make it next to impossible to evict irresponsible tenants. The end result is sparse economic incentive to increase the supply of rental housing.
Who is Being Forced Out? - the Seniors
It is difficult for your MLA, in the face of life style magazines extolling the grand life of SUV’s, cocktail parties and hot tubs on the North Shore, to get people in Victoria and elsewhere to take seriously the proposition that proportionately, the North Shore has as many seniors receiving the Federal GIS income tax supplement – due to their low incomes – as anywhere else. As the following illustrates, these low-income North Shore seniors are particularly impacted by housing affordability.
Marge, age 65, living on North Shore since 1965
"All (my) children (were) born on the North Shore. We are living in a one bedroom apartment, my daughter and I. (We have been) waiting over a year to get into Lions low-cost housing. My daughter is 45...she is totally blind. We both have medical problems."
"It would be fine if we could afford 2 bedrooms...1 can't afford it...1 moved into the living room and (am) sleeping on the couch... to give her privacy I sleep on a couch that is not comfortable... She (my daughter) gets a disability pension and I am on the old age pen-sion... and a small Canada pension income supplement."
Simone, divorced, retired, 25-year West Van resident
Her Pension, CPP, and Shelter Aid amount to $1,069 per month. She pays $408 less than the average monthly cost for renters in West Van but her shelter costs, for inadequate space, equal $845, leaving $224 to live on. Her rent has been increasing every year.
Alice, widowed veteran, retired
"The large complex where I presently live is going to be completely bulldozed down, and very expensive units built. None of us can afford these units. Where do we seniors with fixed incomes find a place to live?"
As veterans we moved to Edgemont Village in 1948 — and now, as a widow, I will have to leave."
"There are no places to rent in this area. Very sad for us, and a big worry"
Forty percent of all seniors' households on the North Shore consist of
people living alone. Those living alone are four times more likely than
married couples to spend over 50% of their income on housing.
Women represent 88% of seniors living alone on the North Shore, and they are twice as likely to spend over 50% of their income on housing, than males in the same age group.
What can be Done About It?
There are no easy answers. Clearly, all levels of government have a role to play, as well as the non-profit agencies. One set of suggestions distributed at the conference I attended was:
Federal Government
- Develop a national housing policy and program.
- Adopt a 1% funding solution which includes capital grants
- Save on health, justice and income assistance costs by supporting below-market housing partnerships with non-profits and the private sector.
- Work with the federal government to re-invest in this basic building block of a civil society: below-market housing.
- State as policy that they support affordable housing.
- Work towards elimination of homelessness through encouraging a continuum of housing from emergency shelters through transitional housing and supported living units.
- Establish a housing legacy fund dedicated to affordable housing, and create revolving housing development funds.
- Provide municipal land at below-market rates for affordable housing.
- Establish a Housing Task Force (building on the success of the Homelessness Task Force) to develop initiatives to solve affordable housing problems.
- Rezone to create mechanisms that promote affordable housing.
- Support units for low-income urban singles.
- Support alternative forms of housing such as secondary suites.
- Advocate with senior governments for budgets and programs to meet the housing needs of all citizens.
- Build alliances: promote communication and collaboration through a North Shore Housing Network that links health, housing providers, builders, developers and investors.
- Educate: Create education tools, guidelines, forums to address issues and fears, turning NIMBY into YIMBY "Yes in my backyard."
- Advocate: as the front-line community workers and organizations, for affordable and adequate housing all levels of government.
- Raise funds: Develop housing funds that will enable people and organizations to take advantage of partnership opportunities.
Your MLA has been educated to the problem. I intend to focus on trying to find solutions. At the provincial level, it is clear the role of BC Housing is of fundamental importance. They already do a good job; but the need is vast and growing, particularly on the North shore.
Acknowledgements
*Community Action Housing Committee (CHAC)
The members of CHAC are:
- Phyllis Goodwin
- John O'Neill
- Lynette Schissel
- Phyllis Scott
- Donna Stewart, Chair
- Robyn Newton
- Tricia Andrew
- Trish Gauntlett
- Steve Hall
- Ruth-Ann Meadows
- Tom Walker
- Judi Whyte
- Vivien Christison (ex officio)
- Li Boesen, Executive Director, North Shore Community Resources Society (ex officio)
For Copies of the Staying Power report or information contact:
CHAC: 604-985-7138
SFPIRG: 604-291-5338
Email:
Certain material herein was extracted from the full report titled Staying Power, published by CHAC in February 2004.
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