I attended a housing forum hosted by Ladner’s Cedar Park Church in May where a number of interesting presentations were given prior to the participants engaging in discussions. The full report is available from the church’s website. Following are a few nuggets from that forum.
We are losing our young people in South Delta due to lack of affordability.
“Those without large sums of money were being forced to choose either unstable housing options or to leave. In the end, leaving was not so much a choice, but an inevitability.” — Dr. Matt Balcarras
One message clearly stood out. Participants were not content to let inertia shape the future of South Delta. They want the municipality to make it easier to add rental suites.
They also want higher density housing options like townhouses, apartments, accessible units and duplexes.
Information about housing co-ops educated and inspired people. There was excitement about the social benefits of sharing common recreational areas. Others who had empty bedrooms showed an interest in sharing their homes with a student or like-minded adult.
This feedback apparently took the forum’s planning team by surprise. They didn’t realize there was such a strong longing for intergenerational living and supportive housing for seniors and people with disabilities.
It’s no secret that our greatest housing need in South Delta is for affordable one- and two-bedroom rentals for young people starting out and for older adults on limited incomes. Century Group is planning a six-storey rental building for the Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall redevelopment. This is good news, but it would be even better if it were seven storeys with the additional units being rent-to-own or rented under market rates.
What happens when thousands of service workers cannot afford to live here? They move away to towns where they can pay the rent or buy. We see this now in Vancouver, where successful restaurants and businesses are closing simply because they cannot find the staff needed to do the work.
Another trend is that first-time buyers are investing in affordable homes in small towns rather than in RRSPs. They rent them out to cover the mortgage to eventually sell or move in when they retire. This is their way of “getting into” the market. Land has become the new gold standard. I wonder how will this affect our stock markets and economies down the road?
Even the 20 per cent affordable designation being introduced by governments is too little, too late. We need more like 80 per cent to turn this crisis around.
Current statistics show it would take an average working couple 30 years to save enough for a down payment in Vancouver. This is why I keep going back to the rent-to-own model. If someone can be a responsible consumer, pay their rent on time and build a good credit rating, after three years a portion of that rent is converted to a down payment, so now they are paying down their own mortgage.
There needs to be anti-speculation rules, but renting-to-own could seriously help the 80 per cent who are being forced out.
ML Burke retired from the health sector to work on issues such as affordable housing. She sits on the Delta Seniors Planning Team and the B.C. Seniors Advocate’s Advisory Council.
