Vancouver; an Unaffordable Utopia

Vancouver Skyline (2018). https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-most-livable-city-world-2018

Is Vancouver a utopian city for the select elite, providing high livability standards in terms of stability, healthcare, diversity, and infrastructure as well as excellent education and much more? As of 2019, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks the city as the sixth livable city in the world (Vancouver Economic Comission, 2020), yet, for the second year in a row, it tops the most unaffordable housing market in the world as per the Demographia International Housing Affordability survey (Gaviola, 2019).

What defines livability and who defines it? Livability is a concept that emerged in the 1950s, repeatedly used in policy and community-planning efforts at all levels of governance. Using the principles that define the concept of livability by the Sustainable Cities Initiative (2015 – 2017), one of the preeminent factors of a livable city is equitable and affordable housing, combined with transportation and other amenities (Herrman & Lewis, 2017). Vancouver may be a livable utopia but for whom?

With the ongoing affordable housing crisis, Planners need to answer the ‘who’ question. If the answer to this question falls under the social equity lens to promote an inclusive and quality standard of living for all Canadians, then the values and priorities that, underline urban policies need revision and rework. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Vancouver needs to build 10,000 new units of public housing annually at a cost $ 2.5 billion (Hennig, 2019). With the majority of the city’s priorities to incentivize and partner with private developers to build the rental units, along with what is being currently built i.e. condominiums, it is no big surprise that an affordability problem exists and will likely continue to do so for a long time. Reliance on the private market sector to build affordable or public housing may be one good strategy but it is not enough to boost the dearth of supply to fill in the existing backlog. With only 5 percent of the housing stock that is social or co-op (Hennig, 2019), compared to many cities in Europe like Vienna (scores 99.1 out of 100 on the livability standard by Economist Intelligence Unit), where half of the housing stock is public (The Economist, 2019), Vancouver is not a livable utopia for all.

Housing supply that meets the needs and quality of life standards for all citizens is the key to Vancouver’s problem. The ‘Affordable City’ book by Shane Philips proposes Three S’s: Supply, Stability, and Subsidy as a policy framework to address the housing affordability crisis. Supply is having enough homes for everyone, stability is recognizing that housing is essential for human dignity, and therefore it is more than an investment tool or commodity, as often treated by the private market in Canada and lastly, subsidy, is ensuring that everyone will enjoy benefits of sound and stable housing (Philips, 2020).

With rising income disparity in Canada with a Gini coefficient of 0.31 (OECD Statistics) (OECD Data, 2020), it is imperative to understand that there will always be people that will be priced out of the private market. The policies that set, control and regulate the affordable housing market are tweaking affordability at a surface level. While tools like inclusionary density, property tax exemption, rental-only zoning, and growing partnerships with nonprofit, private, and public may enable a certain percentage of housing to be built over a period (usually three to four years), there remains a need to recognize much deeper issues. These issues range from outdated zoning bylaws and legislation, unrealistic building code standards, long and tedious approval processes, and amenity based planning rather than a needs-based planning framework.

Local planning tools are impeding the supply needs of Vancouver and other cities in Canada. Zoning by-laws drafted back in the 1970s to meet the need of that time are still currently in use, with constant tweaking to accommodate the needs of today. Alternatively countries such as Sweden, make use of detailed development plans that work like zoning bylaws but with a set period from five to fifteen years, beyond which their validity expires (Ducas, 2000). The legal tools (zoning bylaws/ LGA) need reformulation to meet demands of today but within a workable period, beyond which their validity is undermined by a fast-changing world.

In addition, while public consultation and community engagement requirements outlined in the Local Government Act (LGA) are an important part of democratic society, too often-public consultation hearings become advocacy grounds for a few select interest groups, then such ‘consultation’ becomes problematic (Heinrichs, 2013).

Additionally, the building codes that step up the green energy requirements, without accessing the implications of cost and time on housing construction exacerbate the crisis (Gibson, 2017). We need to develop a policy framework that caters to the immediate needs for the good quality shelter of the growing population especially the most vulnerable, with the incremental implementation of green building codes in a long-term strategy, for greening Canada and the world.

A needs-based policy framework keeps sight of immediate needs within long term planning. While the current regulatory and approval processes do provide some benefits, such as contributing to QIMBY (Quality in my background) in our neighborhoods (Roberts, 2019), but it loses foresight of the immediate need for the most vulnerable. Yes, quality is necessary but if concepts of quantity and quality are not in balance, then we exacerbate Vancouver’s affordability problem.

References:

Ducas, S. (2000). Case study of the City of Stockholm and the Greater Stockholm area. Ville de Montreal.

Gaviola, A. (2019, 01 23). Vancouver Is the Second-Least Affordable Place to Live on the Planet, Study Says. Retrieved from Vice Canada Newsletter: https://www.vice.com/en/article/eve4j7/vancouver-is-the-second-least-affordable-place-to-live-on-the-planet-study-says

Gibson, S. (2017, November 24). Are Higher Construction Costs Looming for Canadians? Retrieved from Green Building Advisor: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/are-higher-construction-costs-looming-for-canadians

Heinrichs, B. (2013, June 19). Eight Reasons Why Public Consultations Are Overrated. Retrieved from C2C Journal: https://c2cjournal.ca/2013/06/eight-reasons-why-public-consultations-are-overrated/

Hennig, C. (2019, 12 12). Vancouver needs 10,000 affordable housing units a year to address rental 'backlog,' report advises. Retrieved from CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-needs-10-000-affordable-housing-units-a-year-to-address-rental-backlog-report-advises-1.5393571#:~:text=British%20Columbia-,Vancouver%20needs%2010%2C000%20affordable%20housing%20units%20a%20year%20

Herrman , T., & Lewis, R. (2017). What is Livability? Oregon: University of Oregon.

OECD Data. (2020). Income inequality. Retrieved from OECD Data: https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm

Philips, S. (2020, 10 21). 'The Affordable City' Offers Solutions for the U.S. Housing Affordability Crisis. Retrieved from Planetizen: https://www.planetizen.com/features/110948-affordable-city-offers-solutions-us-housing-affordability-crisis

Roberts, D. (2019, 01 30). Making cities more dense always sparks resistance. Here’s how to overcome it. Retrieved from Vox: https://www.vox.com/2017/6/20/15815490/toderian-nimbys

The Economist. (2019, September 4). Vienna remains the world’s most liveable city. Retrieved from The Economist: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/09/04/vienna-remains-the-worlds-most-liveable-city

Vancouver Economic Comission. (2020). Living in Vancouver. Retrieved from Vancouvereconomic: https://www.vancouvereconomic.com/living-in-vancouver/#:~:text=Economic%20and%20political%20stability%2C%20universal,across%20all%20North%20American%20cities.