Article: Filling in a growing affordability gap

TREVOR BODDY
The Globe and Mail
Friday, March 9, 2007

British Columbia finance minister Carole Taylor labelled it a "housing budget." While the housing-related spending she announced in February was only one third the $1.5-billion expenditure on an income tax cut, this choice of names for her budget is revealing.

Our province is in the midst of a housing crisis that affects nearly every one of us. Ms. Taylor and her government were compelled to address the factors that now make Vancouver the 12th most un-affordable city in the world, with the dismal additional distinction of having Canada's highest ratio of incomes spent on shelter.

Ms. Taylor's budget focused spending on the two ends of the social spectrum. Its tax cuts benefit middle class and wealthy British Columbians, as do several measures intended to assist seniors wishing to remain in their now astronomically-valued (and property-taxed) homes.

At the other end of budget provisions, innovative proposals to house the homeless, the addicted and the handicapped are to be funded by a forward-thinking $250-million endowment. Just as welcome, welfare rates and housing allowances were bumped up. One nagging worry about the latter initiative is that a dozen and more of the Downtown Eastside's Single Resident Accommodations — call them welfare hotels — have changed hands recently at unprecedented prices.

As there is no way Vancouver can absorb that many back-packer hostels or boutique hotels, many new owners may be counting on this $50 per month increase being passed right on to them (most welfare shelter allowances in the area are paid directly to SRA landlords.) Let's hope much of this 15 per cent increase funds needed SRA improvements, rather than simply rewarding speculators.

The housing budget's biggest bombshell is what is not there: social housing. Proposed spending details indicate that twice as many existing social housing units will be converted into privately-run assisted living accommodations for seniors than built as new units — a significant net reduction. Our provincial government clearly has heard middle class complaints about the indigent, the stoned, and the mentally ill on our streets, with nearly all proposed construction being "supportive housing" for these groups.

Read the rest here.