HOUSING

@ a glance

- Affordable housing ­ Improve basic strategies.

- Take an active, not reactive approach to development.

- Say goodbye to the derelict building.

- Prioritize full-time residencies, fund projects with taxes on part-time units.

- Support independent homeowner-initiatives to increase housing, encourage secondary suites.

- Offer incentives for creators of new rental property.

- Beware of pigs and wolves ­ protect residents' rights and enforce smart, progressive bylaws.

The Simple Solution

Most of us know the story of the three little pigs. For me, the most frightening part of the story has always been at the very beginning. The part where their mother decides her young will have to seek out their own property in the competitive real estate market.

I tend to believe this has something to do with the housing situation in my hometown/city hybrid of Victoria, where leaving home results in one of two common scenarios: our youth are either discouraged by some of the highest house prices in Canada and reluctantly move away, or are forced to live in less-than-ideal units (often illegally) and rely on loans to help with common expenses such as gas, food and post-secondary education.

More than a social issue, the lack of affordable housing - together with competition from prime vacation property and some of the best university facilities in Western Canada ­ contributes to a devastating shortage of productive employees. As a result, local business owners and industries struggle to find workers and only large corporations offering record-high wages and benefits are properly staffed.

There are many advocates and organizations that have worked tirelessly to expand the amount of reasonably priced homes, and it hasn't been for nothing. But to reach beyond the confines of subsidized cluster-housing and time-restricted residencies, we must review our approach to accommodating the many long-term individuals and families who feel isolated, restricted, and increasingly unable to live in their own city.

Resources from the municipality's affordable housing fund, higher levels of government and non-profit organizations must be used wisely, but quickly, in areas where opportunities for social development is quickly diminishing. Unless we invest in the future through affordable units today, we will find ourselves in a city without diversity, cohesiveness, or economic stability tomorrow. Our downtown plans must also take into account the need to relieve tensions growing between economic classes and the intelligent integration of shelters, assisted living spaces, affordable single housing and family-friendly units for low-income Victorians.

Last but not least, we must communicate regularly with current citizens and conclude with a shared understanding of the variance between different levels of subsidized housing and the options for ensuring harmonious integration and collaborative partnerships between development of every status.

What are we Reacting to?

Thanks to a lack of long-term planning and general insight, Victoria's bid to expand its population capacity is poisoned with a curse of irony.

The bigger half of our council will tell you that the sky-rocketing real estate prices in Victoria are market-driven, and the bigger half of our council is correct. But the local government's affect on housing should not be overlooked, and our reactive approach to obtaining what we want is boosting property taxes and increasing the cost of achieving what we need: Affordable housing.

There are still too many new buildings being created that aren't supported by their neighbours or their neighbourhoods. In large part, the city approves re-zoning applications and density and height-increases in these projects because it feels a certain responsibility to react to the demand for housing and support development interests.

In truth, these actions are misguided. By using the resources our neighbourhood associations willingly provide as volunteers, we can and must update neighbourhood plans and use them as strict guidelines and not suggestions, for approving development projects.

This way, neighbourhoods would grow in the desired and planned directions and zoning would be reflective of what genuinely made sense. What does this have to do with affordable housing? Without the relaxed, reactive and developer-friendly policies in Victoria, housing would increase through intelligent design and development that was not cost effective simply would not happen. Consequently, property values and taxes would be reduced to reasonable averages creating a more friendly community for personal, casual and small-business development and, of course, affordable housing.

It's time to stop resisting the wisdom of neighbourhood associations and community-interest groups and start to work with them, in conjunction with local developers, towards a smart, sustainable future.

The Derelict Debate

Somehow, and despite a huge demand for downtown property, through the rate of real estate inflation we have created a market climate that is dangerously close to rewarding owners of unused, wasted space. We end up with building that could accommodate hundreds of residents in need of housing but instead are tightly borded up so that even exterior alcoves cannot be occupied by members of our homeless population.

We must take direct action to discourage property owners that are hoping for eased restriction or future buy-outs from leaving their land abandoned. These issues can be controlled through forced historical-designation, property tax increases and specific abandoned-property bylaws.

Space and Time is Precious

Victoria is a famed vacation spot, and such a valued getaway that many extended-families with ties to Victoria and frequent travelers have even acquired their own units in the city.

Unforunately, a result of this is that sought-after living accommodations are only occupied for a fraction of each year, while long-term residents with only temporary, secure housing struggle in the busy tourist months of summer and the dead of winter when our cross-location citizens find refuge in our temperate climate.

Furthermore, the city has to manage administrative duties and make resources available to all units without knowing when they will contribute to energy or water usage.

Increased taxes on part-time residencies would help offset their socio-economic expense and encourage shared housing with pre-planned time-schedules. This policy would also insure that for an added expense, people in need of a constantly-available alternative residence could still keep Victoria as a viable second location to their primary hometown or city.

Big Development is Only One Housing Solution

While condominiums and new or refurbished houses contribute to the expansion of our working city, it's often older rental buildings, secondary-suites and shared living spaces that our working class, our seniors and our youth build their lives around. We should continue to research and adjust residency laws so we can legalize safe accommodations that don't already 'fit the bill.' We must also encourage ­ and not turn-down ­ resident's own attempts to create safe, secondary homes on their properties. It is illogical and immoral to tell these individuals that they can not expand their own, private, density within the legal limits even while we approve multi-million-dollar projects that fail to match the specifications designated for the properties on which they are based.

Revival of the Rental

Without permanently committing to dealing with an issue that should, by all definitions, be federally resolved, we should explore ways of locally increasing our amount of new rental housing.

It's true that it's not often economically viable to build new rental units in this city, but, as per usual, we have local advocates and philanthropists that have made it happen regardless. Recognizing that it can be done, we should consider options such as property tax-relief for new, affordable, rental-housing initiatives.

The Right of the Resident (a short story)

Once upon a time there were three little pigs. The third built a house of brick, the second used wood. And despite the stringent building codes and public protest, the first little piggy was able to build a house of straw. "Straw?" the third piggy squealed, "don't you have issues with water leakage, mold, odor, and allergies?" "Yes," the first admitted, sheepishly (or as sheepishly as a pig can be), "but it doesn't really matter." "It doesn't really matter?!" remarked the third.     "This is Victoria," the first piggy laughed. "There's such a shortage of housing here that not only will I be able to charge an arm and a leg for rent, but I'll also be able to use illegal and discriminatory methods of determining who gets to live here. And I'll never have to bother with the complaints because the threat of losing a stable living environment will keep my tenants from reporting me." The third piggy, who had already put his brick house on the market for the Greater Victoria average of $630,295* suddenly felt less inclined to follow through with his socially-responsible plan to downsize to a single apartment. "Besides," the first pig shrugged, "I hear they like green roofs here."

I'm not even going to talk about big bad wolfs; truth is, low-rent residents in Victoria often assume a number of problems along with housing. Through by-law enforcement officers and the Vic PD we need to enforce laws that make sense and ensure that landlords maintain safe, legal space and respond to the concerns of their residents when things go wrong. Issues of damaged and unkempt housing and illegal activity in multi-unit buildings only gives a negative impression to the concept of 'affordable housing' and provides misleading justification for developments that shift options away from low-income renters.

Just as problematic, there are a number of given practices in the process of acquiring residents (such as requiring SIN identification) that are, at best, unethical. It is within our power to adjust the standards through education and enforcement.

*April 2008 figure from the Victoria Real Estate Board