Housing can’t keep up with waiting lists
Craig McInnes
Sun
VICTORIA — Waiting lists for subsidized housing are growing in B.C., even though the province is one of the few in Canada still building new units.
In the past two years, the waiting list has grown from 8,000 applicants to 10,000, while the number of units available for needy families, couples and singles has grown by only a couple of hundred, according to Alice Sundberg, executive director of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association.
“It’s been a big, huge jump in the last two years.”
George Abbott, the minister for community, aboriginal and women’s services, says housing has been a priority for the Liberal government, which has cut back services in other areas.
“I think we’re doing very well,” said Abbott, who says the long waiting list is partly a result of the tight rental market in Vancouver and Victoria. “In terms of meeting 10,000, it’s probably a gap that will not be filled,” he said in an interview.
“I think in part when there’s low vacancy rates, people look for lower-cost alternatives and B.C. Housing is one of the places that they look for that.”
The shortage of affordable housing has been cited by some activists as part of the reason for an increase in the number of people living on the street. But Lundberg and others say that while a shortage of affordable housing is a major problem, it is only one piece of the complex puzzle of homelessness.
“They’re all interrelated, but we can’t just build more housing and the problem’s solved.”
The growing waiting lists, especially in the Greater Vancouver area, mean the effective criteria for qualifying for subsidized housing have been getting tighter, however.
Some people have been on the waiting list for five years or more, Sundberg said and may never get off because they will continue to be bumped by people with greater need.
Officially, people are supposed to be eligible for subsidized housing if their rent in private market accommodation is 30 per cent of their gross income. In practice, the figure has become more like 50 per cent, Sundberg says.
“So if you are living in a two bedroom with four kids and you are paying less than 50 per cent of your income, chances are you are going to wait and wait and wait.”
The province has budgeted $153 million this year for subsidized housing, an increase of about 13 per cent since the Liberals took office. Part of that is funding for new construction, but most goes into subsidies for existing units.
The federal government is spending about $90 million on housing in B.C. through various programs, according to B.C. Housing.
After taking office in 2001, the provincial Liberal government cancelled 1,000 of the 1,700 units of subsidized housing that were in the planning stages under the NDP.
The 700 that were allowed to go ahead were aimed at people deemed to be most at risk, rather than ordinary people who have fallen on hard times.
The government also allowed work to continue on a couple of thousand more units that were already in some stage of construction.
In total, there are 42,400 units of subsidized housing in the Greater Vancouver area targeted to low- to moderate-income families, seniors, single mothers fleeing from abusive relationships and people with mental and physical disabilities, according to B.C. Housing.
Abbot said the private sector has to be encouraged to start building affordable housing through zoning changes and tax reform at the federal level.
“I don’t think affordable housing is something that can be generated simply by direct government spending. We need to have a combination of appropriate tax reforms and appropriate regulatory reforms to try to encourage the marketplace to provide more affordable housing as well,” he said.
Linda Mix, coordinator for the Tenants Rights Action Coalition, says there is more rental housing being built but most of it is high end.
And although there is some anecdotal evidence that housing vacancy rates have gone up since the last official figures were released last November, rents have not responded by coming down, she said. “Vancouver and Victoria still have among the highest rents in the country and in between tenancies, the landlord can raise the rent to whatever the markets will bear,” Mix said.
That means it is not available to people with low incomes. “There could be some vacant units on the market, but who can pay $1,100 a month?” Sundberg said.
Sun Legislature Bureau
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