Rental affordability a key issue in some B.C. federal electoral ridings
Credit to Author: Cheryl Chan| Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:44:25 +0000
Kyla Sims was four days away from being homeless when she landed her current studio apartment in Vancouver.
Sims had been renting an East Vancouver basement suite but had to leave after just 10 months when the house was sold.
Finding a suitable place within the 30-year-old’s budget was an ordeal, even with an excellent credit history, sparkling references, and a good job.
The $1,500 rent on her studio apartment in Kitsilano is already considered reasonable, she said, based on conversations she’d had with other renters — but it gobbles up about 40 per cent of Sims’ salary, which, combined with other bills and student loans, makes it difficult to get ahead or save for the future.
“Even though I work hard, earn a decent wage, have a great job, I’m still financially precarious,” said Sims, who works in marketing. “I feel I’ll never have financial independence, like it’ll always be about survival because I don’t think it’s going to get cheaper.”
Sims’ experience illustrates the plight of many renters across Canada, where too many are spending more than they can afford on rent, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The 2019 Canadian Rental Housing Index uses data from the 2016 census to examine renter households for all 338 federal electoral districts across the country. It also breaks down the data for over 800 municipalities and regions in Canada.
It found that six B.C. federal ridings are among the top 20 ridings facing the worst rental affordability crisis in the country. The crisis is most acute in Vancouver Quadra and Richmond Centre, which are ranked sixth and ninth nationally.
“B.C. is not faring well when it comes to rental affordability,” said Jill Atkey, CEO of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association. “I don’t think that’s going to come as a surprise to anybody who is a renter in British Columbia.”
In Vancouver Quadra, one of the wealthiest ridings in Canada where the average monthly rent is $1,592 including utilities, half of renters were spending over the recommended affordability benchmark of 30 per cent of their gross income to keep a roof over their heads. Thirty per cent were spending 50 per cent or more.
Richmond Centre, where the average monthly rent is $1,337, has similar figures, with slightly more than half of renters having to allot 30 per cent or more of income towards rent.
Most of the ridings on the list were in Ontario, with one each in Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Other ridings in B.C. that placed within the top 20 were: West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, Vancouver Centre, Burnaby North-Seymour, and Burnaby South.
Data from: 2019 Canadian Rental Housing Index
Atkey said the rental affordability crisis is not limited to big cities, but has spread throughout the province. Single mothers, young people under 30, Indigenous people, and new immigrants are among the most affected groups.
Data from the report shows about 22 per cent of single-mother renter households in Canada are at a “crisis level” of spending, defined as needing to dedicate 50 per cent or more of their income to rent.
It’s particularly dire for single mothers in communities outside Metro Vancouver. West Kelowna, for example, has 83 per cent of single-mother renter households spending more than 30 per cent on rent, followed by Parksville (81 per cent) and Salmon Arm (79 per cent).
The report also found nearly a quarter of immigrant renter households that arrived in Canada between 2011 and 2016 are shelling out half their income on rent, and that one in three live in overcrowded conditions, more than triple the Canadian average.
Communities with the highest proportion of overcrowding among recently-arrived immigrant renters are Surrey (40 per cent), Delta (36 per cent) and New Westminster (35 per cent).
The sobering figures show the need for federal party leaders on the campaign trail to take more immediate action to address the affordability challenges affecting so many renters, which make up nearly a third of all Canadian households, said Atkey. “There is without a doubt that affordable housing is a ballot box issue.”
The B.C. provincial government and many municipalities have recently been making significant investments to improve affordability, and “we need the next federal government to really scale up the investments to meet the National Housing Strategy,” she said.
Atkey is calling on all parties to boost investment in purpose-built rental housing units by non-profits and co-ops, which are better protected against market pressures.
The housing affordability crisis is not lost on federal parties trying to find or implement meaningful solutions while on the campaign trail.
On Tuesday, the NDP leader Jagmeet Singh promised his government would build 500,000 affordable new homes over 10 years, with an initial immediate investment of $5 billon.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau promised last week to increase the cap on the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive program for buyers living in red-hot housing markets, including Vancouver and Victoria. He also proposed the implementation of a national vacancy tax to curb foreign speculation.
Measures that would boost income, such as the guaranteed annual income pledged by Green party leader Elizabeth May, would also have an effect on whether people are able to afford housing, said Atkey.