Link to comment on the Times Colonist website
Increasing supply to solve the crisis sounds good, doesn’t it? Until you look under the hood.
A commentary by a James Bay resident and former public servant.
Victoria’s affordable housing crisis is worsening—1,252 people are waiting for subsidized housing even though Victoria city council approves every development that comes before them.
Why? Because we’ve been sold the wrong solution.
The real estate development industry has shaped the housing debate to serve its own interests: build, baby, build, and all our problems will be solved. Politicians and so-called YIMBY—Yes in my back yard—groups have embraced this narrative because it is easy to sell politically.
After all, increasing supply to solve the crisis sounds good, doesn’t it? Until you look under the hood.
Increasing supply does not ensure affordability.
Research shows that the housing supply legislation brought in by the provincial government will likely raise land values, spurring development in desirable neighbourhoods—like James Bay—at the cost of demolishing existing affordable housing.
We need more supply, but it has to be carefully planned for so that it benefits residents, not speculators and investors.
We have more and more people homeless as Victoria becomes less and less affordable. According to B.C. Housing, there are 1,252 people waiting for subsidized housing in Victoria, including almost 500 over the age of 55.
Another 865 are on a separate waitlist for supportive housing.
We could build, build, build until the entire city is covered in high rises and six-storey buildings, and there is gridlock on all our roads, but we will still not have affordable housing for people who live and work here, or a health-care system that can support the population unless actions are taken to support affordability and to ensure that services are in place for the people who live here.
As the city says, the new Official Community Plan (OCP) is a big deal, but unless major changes are made, it will make the affordability crisis worse, not better.
In James Bay, the median annual household income is $62,000, and 70% of residents are renters. Many of them are seniors who can afford their homes because they moved in before rents skyrocketed.
Based on income levels, a median household in James Bay can afford $1,500 per month in rent—yet today, there aren’t even studio apartments available in James Bay for that amount.
Research shows that Canada lost 10 affordable units for every new one built over a decade.
The experience with Starlight Investments renovicting tenants in James Bay just before the pandemic and the upcoming demovictions of tenants living in affordable apartments on the Gorge and other neighbourhoods illustrate the risks of unchecked development.
Council must do more to protect existing tenants and to meet its own targets for affordable housing. If we are going to upzone all of Victoria, we should upzone only for rental housing, including non-market rental, and we should require that market rental developments include affordable units.
The City of Victoria is not proposing any affordability requirements in new rental housing as part of the Official Community Plan. Burnaby’s Rental Use Zoning Policy requires that 20% of new units be below-market rentals. Is that too much to ask for?
Even better, council could upzone only for non-market rental to pressure the provincial government to step up and fund more affordable housing.
To protect existing tenants, council should adopt a robust rental protection bylaw, like Burnaby’s, so that tenants who are demovicted from an older three- or four-storey rental building can still afford to live in Victoria and won’t end up homeless on the street.
Leaving development to the market will mean unchecked growth in my already dense and livable community of James Bay, displacing long-term renters and further exacerbating inequality.
James Bay already has more development pressure than other Victoria neighbourhoods because it is a desirable neighbourhood, with its mix of density, heritage houses, trees and greenspace, surrounded by the ocean.
We were told during the municipal election campaign that development should be more equitably distributed throughout Victoria, but council has not taken any steps to ensure this happens.
Many James Bay residents have signed a petition urging that changes be made to the draft OCP. Their requests are simple: prioritize affordable housing, strengthen renter protections, strengthen protections for trees and greenspace, and protect the heritage buildings that define James Bay’s character.
Will council listen? If they truly care about affordability, they must.
It’s time to live up to campaign promises and stop caving to developers.