While home ownership may have long been out of reach for many Vancouverites, the city struggles to produce enough rental homes that are affordable even for households earning median incomes.
Vancouver has created, a city news release announced Tuesday, a “record number of new homes” in the last two years. But while that headline may be true, it omits the fact that when it comes to certain kinds of homes, the city lags behind its own targets.
Vancouver is at the point where, according to representatives of the development and rental-housing industries, the private sector can’t, on its own, produce rental housing that’s affordable for even households earning median incomes. Tuesday’s presentation to council, a two-year progress report on the 10-year Housing Vancouver strategyadopted in 2017, showed Vancouver is actually near or exceeding housing targets in some areas. The city is very close to its targets on social housing for the poorest and most vulnerable, largely thanks to the creation of hundreds of units of modular housing in Vancouver last year, mostly built with money from the province, on land provided by the city. .
Stewart noted the difficulty many Vancouver employers have filling service roles in restaurants and coffee shops. But even for medium-income earners, which could include senior-care providers and office workers, the city isn’t meeting its own housing targets. Households earning less than $30,000 a year often need publicly funded social housing. But the market environment in Vancouver has become such that the private sector says they’re increasingly unable, on their own, to provide homes for that next group up the income ladder: households earning up to $80,000. Tuesday’s update showed Vancouver is about 25-per-cent below its own target for affordable rental homes for households earning between $50,000 and $80,000.
Anne McMullin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute, which represents the development industry, said: “It’s difficult without looking specifically at a pro forma, but I’d say yes, it’s very, very difficult to build rental housing in that price point in the current conditions.”
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Dan Fumano: A $75-billion snapshot of foreign-owned Vancouver real estate“This is like a Polaroid image … As we see the image emerge, are we going to like what comes out of it?”
Read more »
Dan Fumano: As city struggles to build housing for middle-income families, landlords pitch an ideaVancouver, which has a median yearly household income of about $72,000, struggles to meet its own targets for rental housing production for middle-income families.
Read more »
Vanhooren named coach of Canada's U19 men's basketball team - Sportsnet.caDan Vanhooren has been named head coach of Canada's under-19 men's basketball team.
Read more »
Metro Vancouver drivers set to pay record high gas prices“I wouldn’t be surprised to see $1.65 (a litre) between now and the May long weekend (Victoria Day 18-20),” said gas analyst Dan McTeague.
Read more »
Weegar on Byron: 'I hate seeing what happened' - TSN.caFlorida Panthers defenceman MacKenzie Weegar said in a text to TSN's Dan Robertson he hates seeing what happened to injured Canadiens forward Paul Byron and hopes he's back on the ice soon.
Read more »
'Gas bar shenanigans': When is the best day to buy gas?Canadians filling up at the pumps in several provinces are seeing increases of up to 13 cents per litre at the pump as the federal government’s carbon tax goes into effect, but GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Dan McTeague says the increase is ‘looking a lot bigger than it really is’ as Monday is typically a day for ‘gas bar shenanigans.’
Read more »
Dan Fumano: As city struggles to build housing for middle-income families, landlords pitch an ideaVancouver, which has a median yearly household income of about $72,000, struggles to meet its own targets for rental housing production for middle-income families.
Read more »