Housing in the City: Beyond the Headlines
2015, Summit We the City, Cities, Equity + Justice
Headlines remind us constantly of our housing crisis: prices run amok, renovictions, and near-zero rental vacancy rates. This evening of storytelling dug deeper into the story of housing in Vancouver and beyond, with an eye on working households at or below median income in urban centers across Canada.
Seven experts spoke about their efforts to move us closer to the goal of affordable, suitable, and secure housing for all.
We heard from:
Robert Brown (Catalyst Developments), on working with community organizations to leverage land assets, and create more affordable housing.
Gail Joe (Consultant in First Nations housing initiatives) on Aboriginal-led housing development and financing;
Tom Lancaster (Metro Vancouver) on how to build more rental;
Christine McLaren (Happy City), on what kind of housing makes us happy, and builds communities in our city;
David Ley (UBC Geography) on regulating foreign investment;
Marla Zucht (Whistler Housing Authority) on market-controlled ownership for local residents, and others;
Jeremy Loveday (Councillor, City of Victoria), on how affordable housing makes livable cities more lively.
Audience members were invited to submit their questions to Tyee Solutions Society鈥檚 journalists to be used in follow-up features over subsequent weeks.
6:30 - 8:30 p.m. (PT)
1181 Seymour St., Vancouver
About We the City
Beyond the Headlines: Solving Canada's Housing Crisis
By Nicole Strutt
Communications Volunteer, 丁香园AV Public Square
Student,
The recent increase of Vancouver housing prices affects everyone, no matter if you鈥檙e 5, 25 or 105. On November 2, 2015, Housing in the City showcased 7 housing experts who addressed possible solutions and generated discussion around the current housing issue in Vancouver. This public event was presented in partnership with the Tyee Solutions Society as part of a year-long project called , which aims to promote a national non-partisan dialogue and real policy changes on affordable housing through open source journalism and invited-expert workshops in Vancouver and Ottawa.
The evening鈥檚 particular focus was on individuals who were at or below household median income. The event was unique in providing a variety of perspectives including: housing issues in Victoria, Whistler, First Nations communities, public spaces and utilizing alternative resources for housing.
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Suspect I'll not be only one tweeting Housing in the City: Beyond Headlines
— Michael Geller (@michaelgeller) Housing is a basic human right...
— Sarah Canham, PhD (@slcanham) Full house for tonight's "Housing in the City" event!
— Yuri Artibise (@YuriArtibise) The majority of solutions generated across the evening were taken from cities who all experienced an inflation in housing prices in the past. For instance UBC Geography professor used London, England to demonstrate how transfer taxes were used to help 鈥渃ool-down鈥� the hot market, that was generated by foreign investment.
We can't solve the housing crisis through housing policy alone. Have to address
— Jill Atkey (@jfatkey) recommends an immediate implementation of a $15/hr minimum wage to deal with housing crisis
— Brent Holmes (@BrentHolmes240) 200k people have immigrated to BC on our invitation but wealth has gone into property says Ley
— Shauna Sylvester (@ShaunaSylvester) David Ley: It's imperative that we protect social investments that are currently expiring
— Jill Atkey (@jfatkey) 
Similarly, General Manager Marla Zucht spoke on how Whistler has been able to provide 82% of employees with accommodation. This was accomplished through strict policies established in the early 1990s. These policies included inclusionary zoning, long term affordability and ensuring employees of Whistler had housing. Moving forward, Zucht believes that although Whistler is a resort-city, that the same practices can be applied to Greater Vancouver.
did the fresh mountain air enlighten Whistler councillors to be proactive in providing workforce housing?
— Kira Gerwing (@KiraGerwing) Good housing policy turns NIMBYS to YIMBYS --Marla Zucht
— Tabrina (@TabrinaExplores) Whistler Housing Authority =fantastic strategy although market fundamentals of resort community allows market to bare cost
— Pete Fry (@PtFry) Advice for non-resort cities: ideas are transferable if there's the strength to put restrictions in place! - Marla Zucht
— City Conversations (@cityconv) Other speakers focused on solutions that dealt with the actual units of the housing themselves. planner Tom Lancaster brought about the importance of innovative planning of long term housing solutions to sustain future generations. The idea Lancaster proposed, is as Vancouver鈥檚 population grows, movable walls can be rearranged to provide more housing units for families within the same amount of space. Robert Brown, president of brought up the topic of utilizing resources within the community that haven鈥檛 been used for housing yet. This includes unlocking untouched resources for housing: utilizing churches and non-profits to generate more available housing.
Lancaster's slide deck on housing stats are incredible and depressing!
— Shauna Sylvester (@ShaunaSylvester) Filing this for later, Tom Lancaster urban designer slide construction cost v sales cost
— Pete Fry (@PtFry) 
Robert Brown's np model is great. Build on it and make it 3 ways - City, Developers, non-profit
— Tom Lancaster (@Yazapapa) Churches can be housing spaces too-its about rethinking real estate, says Robert Brown of
— Cherise Seucharan (@CSeucharan) Heard of a non-profit real estate developer? Robert Brown of shares some projects, like homes w/ 60yr leases.
— City Conversations (@cityconv) 
Gail Joe says that All Nations Trust has a very low loan loss rate with aboriginal communities
— Shauna Sylvester (@ShaunaSylvester) Highly agree that you can't expect to use a cookie-cutter model for communities with diversity. Thx Gail Joe!
— Jennifer Liu (@jenn278) 
Interactive portion on the intersection of happiness & urban planning
— 丁香园AV Public Square (@丁香园AVPublicSquare) The reality of the situation addressed by all 7 speakers, is that the housing issue can鈥檛 be fixed by itself. Government intervention is needed to implement strict policies that generate the inflation of housing prices as well, consider alternative solutions to solve the housing issue.
鈥� David P Ball, The Tyee (November 18, 2015)
鈥� Pete Fry, The Georgia Straight (November 13, 2015)
鈥� Ulduz Maschaykh, Spacing Vancouver (November 9, 2015)
鈥� Tyee Solutions Society, The Tyee (October 5, 2015)
This public event is presented in partnership with the Tyee Solutions Society as part of a year-long project called 鈥�The Housing Fix,鈥� which aims to promote a national non-partisan dialogue and real policy changes on affordable housing through open source journalism and invited-expert workshops in Vancouver (Nov 3rd) and Ottawa (Jan 2016). Find dozens of in-depth articles on housing issues, as well as information about where the major political parties stand on housing, here:
#actions4housing
Supporters
Tyee Solutions Society鈥檚 Housing Fix project supported by:
Media Partners
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