The provincial government's new affordable housing strategy does not seriously address housing issues such as increasing the housing stock, says the chair of the newly-formed affordable housing task force on the Sunshine Coast.
The B.C. government unveiled its Housing Matters BC strategy earlier this month, which is now in effect. The strategy includes a program providing direct rental assistance to eligible working families earning less than $20,000 a year; a commitment to build new supportive housing units and new assisted living units for seniors around the province; a homeless outreach program; a transfer of management of housing units to an Aboriginal housing association; improving home ownership affordability; and improving building construction efficiency and safety, according to a B.C. government news release.
"This strategy will immediately assist approximately 15,000 low-income working families and homeless individuals," Minister Responsible for Housing Rich Coleman said in the release. "It's also a new direction for housing, designed to provoke discussion about long-term solutions. We can only address homelessness and housing affordability if we all work together - long-term solutions require the co-operation of all levels of government, as well as organizations and volunteers dedicated to housing."
Sue Jackel heads the affordable housing task force here on the Coast, which was formed as the next stage after the release of the Sunshine Coast affordable housing study this year.
"I don't think there's a single quick-fix solution," Jackel said in a phone interview this week. "It is a long-term problem requiring long-term thinking. The federal and provincial governments have to take responsibility for the most vulnerable of our population, people with special needs, mental illness, people who are seriously unemployable - that's what's called social housing."
Although the provincial Housing Matters BC is a start, it does not seriously address housing, she added.
"There are quite a few people who are excluded who are having trouble getting rent they can afford," she noted. "This program doesn't increase the available housing stock. All it does is increase the amount of money that landlords can charge for relatively low level rent. [The provincial government] is mainly aiming at people on very low incomes with children; it's a good target, but it's not going to help many people."
The Coast's affordable housing study defined affordable housing as housing that does not exceed 30 per cent of annual income. An income of $20,000 on the Coast would allow for $500 a month rent payments.
"There isn't much out there for $500 a month," Jackel noted. The study also found vacancy rates on the Coast to be at approximately two per cent.
"Another issue on the Coast and in other places is the question of nonconforming or illegal suites." Regarding secondary suites, she stated, "I think it's something that the municipal governments have to look at very seriously." Or an alternative to legalizing secondary suites could be to put municipal policies in place allotting a portion of new developments to affordable housing, she suggested.
"There are ways of doing it and other communities have very elaborate affordable housing policies," she noted. "We are not there yet; ours is still in the making. The discussion is starting but it hasn't got in place enough that current developers are under any obligation to do anything at all."
The local task force includes municipal planners, non-profit housing societies' representatives and for-profit housing representatives (a realtor, developer and mortgage finance person).
"We're trying to see it as a problem that requires all the players at the table," Jackel said.
The local authority or group that would be responsible for implementing the province's homeless outreach worker program is unclear, according to Jackel. The last homeless count conducted found 33 homeless people on the Coast, according to the affordable housing study.
"It's hard to know how many people are homeless on the Coast because they manage to stay below the radar most of the time," she noted.
Affordable housing is expected to be a hot issue at this month's Union of B.C. Municipalities convention.
"It will be interesting to see what our municipal officials say when they come back from those meetings."
