Vancouver
is hoping to make a dent in the demand for housing from less-wealthy residents
by creating a housing-development agency, the way the city’s two universities
and the ski resort of Whistler have.
A
task force on affordable housing recommended that the city set up a separate
agency that could negotiate with private developers on deals to build units on
discounted city land. The rents would have to be guaranteed at lower rates than
usual for new units.
As
well, the agency would then manage the hoped-for thousands of units created to
ensure they go to people with lower incomes.
But
Vancouver is willing to take on that more aggressive role because the city is
“in an affordability crisis,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson, the political leader
of a city where the average sale price for a house is around $800,000, more
than 10 times median income.
“The
city hasn’t had a big focus on stimulating the development of affordable
housing historically,” the mayor said, as he announced the task-force
recommendations.
He
didn’t have any numbers on the cost of setting up a housing authority or on the
value of city land that Vancouver might commit to future housing projects.
The
recommendations also included creating new “transition zones” that would be
geared to different forms of housing than the towers and single-family homes
that dominate in Vancouver. There was also a requirement for developers to
include more affordable options in major projects.
A
housing authority would create a specialized team operating at arm’s length
from the city and able to move more quickly to take advantage of real-estate
trends and opportunities.
Both
the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University have, through their
property-development divisions, focused on creating new models of affordable
housing.
Vancouver
deputy city manager David McLellan said the city agency would be most like the
UBC Properties Trust, which set a goal of building 20-per-cent rental among the
new housing developed on its extensive holdings.
“We
put the land in and that makes it possible for our rental units to operate on a
cost-recovery basis,” said Paul Young, the trust’s development director. The
university has created 380 apartments that rent for less than the usual market
rates, which go to faculty and students only, and another 375 that are rented
at standard rates to anyone.
Whistler
started its housing authority in 1977 as, like many high-end ski towns, it
discovered that its local residents, essential for the resort’s service
businesses, were being priced out of the market. It now manages almost 2,000
rental and home-ownership units.
Oliver
Clegg, a 31-year-old who has worked as a hotel and golf course employee and in
property management, just bought a three-bedroom townhouse in the resort as a
result of the program.
“It’s
the best thing I’ve ever done,” said Mr. Clegg, who had to agree to Whistler’s
rules that homebuyers can only get a limited amount of profit out of their
homes, pegged to the rate of inflation.
The
creation of a city agency to develop lower-cost housing is also similar to what
Toronto has done – once in the late 90s and again more recently – after federal
and provincial funding evaporated, said Mark Guslits, a former chief
development officer with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. Mr. Guslits
was a member of Vancouver’s housing task force. (TCHC’s recent woes over
managing its older social-housing properties isn’t connected to any of the
agency’s housing development work.)
Mr.
Guslits said having a separate agency, staffed by people who understand the
real-estate market and can negotiate with developers, gives any city its best
chance at finding ways of using the private market plus city assets and
non-profit agencies to create lower-cost housing.
“When
cities have tried to be a developer [without that separate agency], they have
either failed or spent far too much money,” said Mr. Guslits.
Many
other cities have created housing authorities or corporations to find ways of
developing lower-cost housing where the private markets don’t seem to be
serving their residents well.
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