What is the best strategy for dealing with the dearth of affordable housing in your community?

Mayor Darrell Mussatto, CNV

There is no single way but rather a number of initiatives which we can and must undertake to increase the supply of affordable housing.

First, we do more of what has worked already. We are partners with both BC Housing and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation who manage, select residents and maintain affordable housing in our city. We also partner with non-profit organizations such as the Kiwanis to provide this much needed housing. Our latest example, St Andrews Place, is a partnership with the Kiwanis, the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation, BC Housing, a private developer and ourselves to produce 29 non-market, affordable rental units for seniors.

But the real exciting stuff is what we will be doing shortly. One example is Anthem Properties along with Loblaw Foods redeveloping the Extra Foods site at 17 and Lonsdale. In return for allowing a residential component and a larger food store the City could receive up to 14 units of affordable rental housing in return. Even more exciting, we are in the process of putting together guidelines for "carriage houses, or granny flats" for single family neighbourhoods. This would increase the supply of rental housing, and benefit both those needing rental accommodation and owners needing income to meet the monthly mortgage.