There is no small irony that the cover page of last week’s Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) report on a housing strategy is a photo of someone turning a doorknob.
Remember the doorknob? That yesteryear curio for Vancouver, non-building-code for the last five years?
The UBCM report, like the cover photo, feels like an old picture of this city as the balance of the province acquires aspects of our affordability, vacancy and homelessness crises.
That being said, the plan for policy shifts is the most candid self-criticism I can recall of the strategy and tactics, the swings for the fence that failed, and the need for a serious reboot.
The UBCM report notes that governments, including its own, “have failed to fully gauge the magnitude of this issue as it has built.”
It notes the need to get at the root causes of homelessness, not just the shelter-building principle that reduces it. There is a nod to the need for housing at all income levels.
It makes clear we are long overdue in purpose-building rental homes and that provincial property transfer taxes are a possible financial source. It concludes we require an “all-government approach,” suggesting the local players are now ready to be partners.
If anyone believes in a fast fix, how about this line fairly buried in the 53 pages? “Housing prices are so out of alignment with incomes that they cannot be aligned with incomes in the short to medium term.” It also warms my heart to read that “simplistic” supply solutions should be rejected.
In an election year it makes sense to look for safety in numbers in a strategy – even more so on the eve of the provincial budget that promises housing will be a priority.
What would make our anxious neighbourhoods sleep better at night are passages in the report that outline principles of putting our best feet forward. Little things like listening, collaborating and varying plans – things that happened back in the era of Vancouver doorknobs.
We have long needed a citywide plan to articulate principles of development and new processes to garner authentic consultation and planning. The report has some soft language on this matter but generally sides with the need for transparency, the end of backroom deals, and the realization that local government is only doing its job when it stops or changes a project when there is not enough community buy-in.
The report rivets extensively on tax policies at senior levels that would achieve its objectives – credits and incentives galore to direct private capital to rental construction, and conferring local powers to create rental zones in communities. It suggests a provincial seller’s tax in the early stages of ownership to discourage rapid speculative resale. It likes more forms of limited-equity home ownership.
It sticks its neck out in challenging the data on foreign investment. It cites a lack of information on condo pre-sales, the use of local proxies, the rampant spread of tips on how to avoid tax and the questionable definition of a resident purchaser.
Overall, it says, the provincial and federal estimates of foreign investment “are quite likely conservative.” Again, old news here in Vancouver, but worth noting it is at last in a report by our mayors. What we need, the report says, is better collection, development and sharing of the evidence.
It also sticks its neck out in a more hazardous way in suggesting landlords be permitted to raise rent at higher than the provincially set level (this year set at 4%).
In trying to balance the need to upgrade properties without adding to the already inflated rental prices in some communities, it sounded an alarm. It’s incongruent with the overall tone of a report worried that home ownership for many has slipped from grasp and that the challenge is to build for the renting public.
All that considered, there is much to consider in the findings, even those that seem disagreeable – a new acknowledgment of the way the issues have been handled and a new resolve to lead the way out of the weeds. •
Kirk LaPointe is editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver Media Group and vice-president of Glacier Media.
