Whereas the housing crisis across the Province continues to cause measurable harm to renters, working families, seniors, and employers, with rental vacancy rates at or near zero across much of the region, creating serious challenges for workforce recruitment and retention in rural communities; And whereas the suspension of the Community Housing Fund has stranded shovel-ready affordable housing projects in every region of the province where non-profit societies and municipal partners spent years on public consultations, land contributions, rezonings, and pre-development work in good-faith reliance on provincial programs, and where the loss of Community Housing Fund financing has collapsed projects that depended on BC Builds and other provincial and federal funding streams working in combination, a situation the BC Non-Profit Housing Association estimates has cost the sector 15 million province-wide: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request that the Province of British Columbia establish a replacement for the Community Housing Fund that prioritizes previously submitted applications through a formal resubmission process and ensures small and rural communities are prioritized in any federal-provincial housing framework.
