Making North Shore housing affordable - Part 2

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

Mayor Richard Walton, DNV

The entire North Shore is a housing community with municipal boundaries inconsequential to those seeking affordable accommodation. The underlying cost of land, the dominant number of single family homes with empty bedrooms, and the increasing desirability of living on the North Shore all impact affordability. If every North Shore bedroom were occupied there would be no shortage – the empty unused bedrooms are largely in empty-nester homes.

Affordability may come through new zonings allowing single family stratification or rental units as happened in older large homes in Vancouver. It may come through negotiated rent controlled bonus provisions in new developments. Past experience has shown that market prices on new townhomes escalate very quickly therefore without pre-negotiated rent caps, market driven rents may be unaffordable to most.

The Whistler community housing model sees their Land Corporation build units at cost on communal land and sell them to pre-qualified buyers. When owners want to sell their units, they must sell back to the Land Corporation at inflation-adjusted prices, who in turn re-sell to those on a waiting list. The availability of appropriate land is a barrier to this approach however.

It will be an evolutionary zoning process that sees North Shore housing stock adapt to growing needs, with policy incentives and assistance provided by senior government.