Vancouver City Councillor
As the city defines it, a building is considered 100 per cent social housing if it’s rental housing that includes a minimum of 30 per cent low-market rents.
A fanciful promise to “make it easier to build social housing than mansions” failed to win support at Vancouver council last week.
Under the City’s Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy, formally evicting long term tenants for “minor repairs” necessitates at a minimum 4 months free rent and moving expenses (in the case of a 10year tenant).
nual rent increases are a direct result of over a decade of inept housing policy by the former BC Liberal government. The failure to reign in a housing market increasingly disconnected from local incomes is 100% on the Clark government.
Ever wonder why so much of our city’s (dwindling) affordable rental stock are of a 50’s-60’s-early 70s vintage?
The City tries to incentivize rentals with density bonuses, the Province tries to support rentals with subsidies — what’s been missing is the Feds and the support for rentals with tax breaks and deductions.
Rent control is another obvious solution, but in a free enterprise housing market—where renovictions are a thing, and the provincial Residential Tenancy Act is in desperate need of overhaul—there is potential for pushback from industry. Arguably rent control could be seen as a disincentive for new rental builds, although cities like New York have managed to make renter protection a condition of rezonings.
But there is a tool that hasn’t been subject to much discussion in our province, one that might bring some relief to beleaguered British Columbians: a renter’s tax credit.