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b.c. ndp explains why $2b housing affordability program was not about, er, delivering affordable housing
vaughn palmer: housing hub plan meant to subsidize developers to deliver units at affordable rents and prices falls short, gets rebranded
aug 8 2024
4 minute read
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victoria — the new democrats are scrambling to explain why their $2-billion program for affordable housing is delivering rental units that are not really affordable.
case in point: a five-storey, 64-unit project at 1807 larch st. in vancouver’s kitsilano neighbourhood, scheduled to open next month with rents priced at the high end of the market, from $2,650 to $4,300 a month.
when the project was announced three years ago, then-housing minister david eby touted it as a groundbreaking example of the ndp government’s commitment to “affordable” housing.
“another affordable rental housing building will soon be available for people who work and live in vancouver,” declared the dec. 16, 2021, news release from eby’s ministry of housing.
“our government is investing in more affordable housing for people who work and live in vancouver, and throughout b.c.,” said eby, whose release touted “affordable” and “affordability” a dozen or so times.
the key was housing hub, a $2-billion ndp government plan to subsidize developers to deliver units at affordable rents and prices.
“two billion dollars in a rotating line of credit that builds affordable housing across this province will be transformative,” boasted eby. “it will build thousands of units of affordable housing again, and again, and again. let’s get building.”
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for the larch street project, housing hub advanced a $31.8-million low-interest loan to jameson development corp., a family-owned company headed by tony pappajohn. the subsidy was intended to hold rents at or below market rates on 54 of the 68 units in the building.
as with many ndp government initiatives, the project came together more slowly than eby anticipated. slated for completion and occupancy in spring 2023, it is instead scheduled to open this september.
but the real departure from eby’s original vision is in the supposed-to-be-affordable rents.
“the units are, in fact, at the high end of the current market rate, according to the recent rental rates on the building website,” reported kerry gold in the globe and mail on saturday.
“the 393-square-foot studios are being rented on a one-year lease at $2,650 to $2,750 monthly. a 517-square-foot unit rents for $3,275. a 589-square-foot, two-bedroom unit on the top floor with a large patio is available at $4,200 a month. there are 840-square-foot, two-bedrooms with two bathrooms renting at $4,300 monthly. for 10 years, the rents can’t go above market rate.”
the studios and one-bedroom units are targeted to “middle-income households” without children and an income up to $131,950. the two and three-bedrooms are for those with children who earn up to $191,910.
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the rents and targeted income figures were surprising enough. the greater shocker was the response from b.c. housing, when asked to reconcile the current numbers with eby’s promise of affordability.
“the housing hub program is a supply-based program. it’s not an affordability program,” explained michael pistrin, vice-president of development for b.c. housing. “the whole intent of the housing hub was just to build more housing. and it was intended to be market (rate) rental housing.”
“it’s not supposed to be below market at all. it’s supposed to be ‘at market’ for the most part. we can leverage — through the low-cost financing that we’re able to provide during construction — we can leverage that to force the builder to reduce the rents to slightly below market in some cases, for a percentage of the units.
“but that’s on a case-by-case basis … for the most part it was just intended to put market supply out there.”
this from a government that made housing affordability a key promise in the 2017 and 2020 elections. affordable housing was also one of the four areas where eby promised results “that people can see and feel and touch and experience in their lives” before the election.
the b.c. housing exec’s discounting of affordability had me wondering if they met the classic definition of a “gaffe” — where a public official discloses the actual truth of government policy as opposed to the guff in the news releases.
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pistrin also disclosed that the eligibility threshold for accessing the units has been raised considerably. at the initial announcement three years ago, the income cap was $99,000.
eby’s successor as housing minister, ravi kahlon, shed light on how the housing hub has been rolled into b.c. builds, a new program that will also, supposedly, promote housing affordability.
“b.c. builds is designed to increase the supply of rental housing for middle-income households,” said kahlon. “it does this by reducing development costs and timelines in exchange for securing rental affordability at prescribed levels for a period of 10-35 years.”
note the wording: b.c. builds will deliver “rental affordability at prescribed levels.”
prescribed by the ndp government that is. translation: don’t tell us what is affordable, we’ll tell you.
the b.c. builds renaming, which happened earlier this year, is a classic governmental dodge for an election year.
when results fall well short of your promises, repackage the program and relaunch it under a new name.
then hope the votes are counted before anyone notices that the old program failed to deliver affordable housing, rental or otherwise.
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