Metro Vancouver's Unaffordable Housing Crisis

Vancouver housing options are shrinking fast for renters

The housing situation in Metro Vancouver is fast coming to a head with a terrible combination of rising interest rates and inflation, while salaries are not keeping up.

Before there was a lot of scorn poured on the real estate industry, with blame put on foreign buyers for jacking up property prices that made it near impossible for locals to get a foot in the door.

The City of Vancouver responded with an empty homes tax -- any home that was vacant for long periods of time the owner would be subject to a 5 percent tax of the assessed value of the property. The rate was recently reduced to 3 percent for this year.

Densifying neighbourhoods with townhouses

The empty homes tax was a bid to force property owners to not leave places vacant and open up more housing opportunities for people. There were stories of mansions were rented out to numerous students, who in turn created a mess in the home... for others it was a god send to have a decent place to live in.

But now because of rising interest rates, those homeowners with variable mortgages are suffering, and may have hoped to have a "mortgage helper" by renting out their place, but now the renter can't afford the jacked up rent and has to find another place to live.

In some cases people are "reno-evicted" -- where the landlord claims they are renovating the place and the renter has to leave, or the landlord claims they will sell the place, or it is sold, the rent is increased and unaffordable.

That leaves more people looking for somewhere to live.

This morning a local radio show opened up the phone lines to hear from renters about their situations and it sounds dire.

An example of a basement suite

One person talked about looking at a budget of C$2,500-C$3,000 for a basement suite. The caller added landlords are preferring one person or maximum two people for a two-bedroom suite, whereas she had three in her family and was ignored.

Another person said on Twitter that a few months ago in order to keep renting their current place, they had to agree to a C$300 increase otherwise the landlord would sell it.

One woman said the place she was renting was burned down in March and since then has essentially been homeless. She makes just under C$70,000 a year and cannot find a place to live. Originally she was living with her adult daughter but since they became homeless, they had to split up in the hopes of bettering their chances of getting roofs over their heads. Their senior cat is living with someone on Vancouver Island.

She said in finding a place to live she has seen more rooms available than enclosed units, and suggested some of the housing that could have been rented out is being used for air bnbs, which is illegal in Vancouver.

People with decent incomes have to throw away the rule that rent should take up 30 percent of their salary and instead spend up to 50 percent now. How can they afford their utilities, gas for their car and food and still save something in the end? Newspaper articles report many people have resorted to buying groceries on credit cards. How will they pay back these bills?

Homes like this will be scarcer in the city

Some elderly landlords rent out spaces to help with their own bills as they have small pensions, but with inflation, the rents they are charging aren't enough, while other landlords aren't even humans but real estate investments trusts or REITS, that are only out there to make as much money as possible. 

It's evident the system is broken, but how to fix it? How do we make sure everyone who needs an affordable place to live can find one? We're not even talking about home ownership -- just a roof over their heads that they can afford that is not leaving them in survival mode.

The city is trying to densify neighbourhoods and approving building permits faster, but these people need places to live now. 

At the other end of the spectrum are seniors who have lived in their homes for decades and can't understand why the municipal government is forcing them to accept six-storey condos in their neighbourhoods, or that developers can build up to six units on a plot of land next to theirs.

It's sadly a situation of the haves versus the have-nots and the inequity is becoming starker by the day...