Within 14 of BC’s largest communities more than 21,000 households are on the wait list for BC Housing support. More than 3,000 homes are on hold in various states of completion because they’re waiting on provincial funding.
These are some of the results of a housing survey done by UBCM and the BC Urban Mayors’ Caucus to help understand critical housing gaps. It also shows escalating costs as local governments pick up the Province’s tab. Results of the survey were shared at a Convention session, Delivering Affordable Housing on Monday.
The survey shows what local governments already know: there is a deep need for supportive and affordable housing in BC. Local governments are trying to help – some have started their own housing agencies, others are buying land, offering nominal leases, and waiving fees. But local governments do not have the financial resources to address what is truly a provincial responsibility.
UBCM and the BCUMC are calling on the Province to accelerate project delivery through streamlined processes, renewed project funding and dedicated support teams, while urging the Government to provide bridge supports to local governments and partner social support agencies to address sheltering, encampments, sanitation, and services for people experiencing homelessness.
Here’s the top line:
- 21,000 households are on the waitlist for help from BC Housing. And that doesn’t include families in non-urban communities or the housing non-profits that operate separately from the BC Housing waitlist.
- More than 3,000 homes are on hold between 6 urban communities because they’re waiting for provincial funding.
- Local governments are working hard to support housing, and this survey shows the receipts. They are buying land, offering nominal leases, funding their own housing authorities, awarding grants to local housing initiatives, and shouldering substantial cost increases for fire and police departments that are providing care and responses to people experiencing homelessness.
- The housing needs reports local governments have been required to produce show there is a need for about 31,000 below-market rental units – just among 13 urban communities. Local governments do not have the tax base to make this happen.