1. GEOG 346: Day 10 Housing Affordability (cont’d)

2. Housekeeping Items I have a conflict with my office hour today. I’m working on the instructions for the field trip. These will be self-guided, where you work with one other person (a sort of buddy system). You’ll pick a theme discussed in the course – sustainable cities, land use mix & density, housing types & affordability, alternative trans- portation, public space/ urban design, green space/ green infrastructure, urban agriculture, arts & culture, retail & changing economies, etc. – and you will find a site in Nanaimo that offers an opportunity to study that issue for positive or negative lessons.

3. Housekeeping Items You will, with help from me, develop a checklist for analyzing the site, and then write up your findings and opinions, with appropriate graphics (maps, photos) and background information (relevant documents, including city by-laws, etc.). Any ideas? Suggestions?

4. Solutions for Affordable Housing Today, we’ll look at what Vancouver is proposing to do to deal with the affordability crisis, and watch an excerpt of a film about “Housing America” that focuses on the housing crisis in Burlington, Vermont. The City talks about a “housing continuum”: “from emergency shelter and housing options for the homeless, through to affordable rental housing and home ownership options: Ending homelessness  Shelters  Single room occupancy (SRO) hotels  Supportive housing

6. Solutions for Affordable Housing Rental housing Non-market rentals (social housing) Purpose-built rentals Secondary suites Rented condo Ownership Condos Other ownership” [e.g. co-ops] The Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability also recruited academics to conduct background research. The academics said that better, more reliable data is needed. Nonetheless, they noted that a bare minimum of.4% of

7. Solutions for Affordable Housing new sales are sold to offshore buyers, but this is likely an understatement. They also stated that at least 5-8% of all condos in the downtown core are sitting empty, and that many are purchased to rent out in the first place. They also note that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recommends that housing costs not exceed 30% of gross income, whereas in Vancouver the average is approximately 60-70%. They make a number of recommendations:  Realistic Affordability Indicators  Affordability by Unit Size  Demographic Measures  Employment and Services Standards  Parking Regulation Variations and Relaxations  Total Initial and Ongoing Cost of Housing Rental and Ownership Benchmark

8. Barriers NIMBYism Property Tax Regulations Lack of Secure Investment Options Beyond Home Ownership Lack of Rental Incentives for Investors and Developers Lack of a Security of Tenure for the long-term Lack of Opportunity for the Scale of Development that would attract institutional investors Acceleration of pedestrian and bicycle transportation priority measures, especially in areas of new residential development For more of the academic report, see http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/committees/ mayors-task-force-housing-affordability- summary-report.pdf

9. The City Resolved to Take a Number of Steps in its Final Task Force Report Increase the supply and diversity of housing; Enhance the City’s and the community’s capacity to deliver affordable rental and social housing; Protect the existing social and affordable rental stock, and explore opportunities to renew and expand that stock; and Streamline and create more certainty and clarity in the regulation process, and improve public engagement. Specific advocated measures include zoning changes, creating a housing authority, using City-owned land to create more affordable housing, promoting more co- housing, and more (see http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Staff_report_to_Council_r e_task_force_report.pdf). http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Staff_report_to_Council_r e_task_force_report.pdf

10. Discussion Questions How many people own their own home or live with their family that owns? How many have faced issues of unaffordable housing? Where and when? How did you meet the challenge? When you are your full earning potential, what housing lifestyle do you envision or aspire to? Other comments or observations?