No topic has dominated the headlines in recent years more than housing, or the growing lack of affordable options in Metro Vancouver and other BC cities. Scarce and expensive housing is eroding the province’s liveability and economy—and soaring price increases have become a source of enormous wealth inequality.
Today, the CCPA–BC Office has published Building equity: lessons for affordable housing in BC, by my colleague, senior economist Marc Lee and myself. This new report analyzes policy changes introduced by the BC and the federal governments in recent years and outlines the next steps for a solutions agenda.
Our report looks at the state of BC’s housing system and takes a deep dive into key contributing factors that have left us with sky-high rents and prices, ultra-low vacancy rates and a huge backlog of need for affordable homes.
The report also looks at how policy interventions from all levels of government—like the National Housing Strategy, short-term rental restrictions, density minimums and the Renter’s Tax Credit, among others—have performed when it comes to addressing the housing crisis.
Finally—and most importantly—we issue guidance and comprehensive recommendations for local, provincial and federal governments to scale up efforts to address the housing crisis, including much larger public investment in non-market housing, stronger renter protections, a major increase in overall rental housing supply and an end to the exclusionary zoning in our cities, to name a few.
While all governments have been slow to deliver the type of community or social housing that was built from the 1960s to the 1990s—a move that remains a cornerstone of housing affordability decades later—our work shows that turning the ship around towards affordable housing for all is not only necessary but possible.
Read our report here, and let us know what you think via X, Instagram, Facebook or Threads.
For affordable housing,
Alex Hemingway
Senior Economist and CCPA-BC’s Public Finance Analyst