City support for co-op housing, developing 鈥渢emporary modular colleges鈥� and creating a rent-to-own pilot project were the three most popular ideas pitched at a May 17 city-organized 鈥渋dea jam鈥� aimed at generating suggestions for how to spend revenue from the Empty Homes Tax.
The City of 麻豆传媒映画 from the tax. Implementation and operating costs are expected to be $10 million, leaving $20 million to be invested in affordable housing initiatives.
In recent weeks, the public was through the city鈥檚 website about how and where to spend that $20 million, while 60 residents and housing advocates were invited to Thursday鈥檚 "idea jam" to dream up more options, six of which were presented to a three-person panel in a friendly Dragon鈥檚 Den-style process. The remaining three of the six proposals included creating an innovative infill housing lab, creating a city finance agency to provide loans to non-profits for housing projects and creating more 鈥渞eal鈥� social housing.
The co-op housing proposal, which was most popular, envisions using the $20 million to invest in new housing co-ops on city-owned land and creating new units in existing co-ops.
The idea behind 鈥渢emporary modular colleges鈥� is to create a pilot project to end the cycle of homelessness. Using the temporary modular housing model, residential educational communities would be created at eight sites scattered throughout the city. Each would house under 40 people and feature peer-to-peer mentoring so residents could learn life skills such as fixing bikes, small appliances or computers from each other. Lengths of stays would be time limited 鈥� residents would graduate and go 鈥� hence the term 鈥渃ollege鈥� in the name. One of the proponents noted the importance of having a goal because people who are chronically homeless 鈥渓ose the future鈥� because they鈥檙e too busy surviving.
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The rent-to-own proposal, meanwhile, imagines a scenario where a tenant rents the unit but doesn鈥檛 own the debt; rent contributes to equity towards the purchase price.
The panel evaluating the suggestions included Jill Atkey, acting CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, Abi Bond, the city鈥檚 director of housing policy and projects, and UBC professor Paul Kershaw who founded Generation Squeeze.
Kershaw wouldn鈥檛 say which idea he favoured, but said it鈥檚 important the money from the Empty Homes Tax is not just used to build new affordable homes projects, but spent on a movement to get bigger policy change and bigger investments from provincial and federal levels of government.
鈥淏ecause that鈥檚 how we can scale up. The city does not, in and of itself, have the revenue capacity to solve the affordability challenges,鈥� he told the Courier. 鈥淲e need broader policy change. Using some of the dollars from the empty homes tax to actually invest in the movement-making and the building of the political will to create cover for politicians to make courageous decisions would be one of the most important parts of what we do with this money.鈥�
Atkey was inspired by the variety of ideas presented, while acknowledging the affordability problem won鈥檛 be solved by a $20-million investment.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 certainly not the intent here but there might be something innovative here that can scale up to make a meaningful long-term impact and that鈥檚 probably where the money should be invested,鈥� she said.
Atkey said although there is a level of frustration about the lack of affordable housing in Vancouver, all levels of government are now making significant and historic investments into it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a conversation we鈥檙e having every day in the media and around kitchen tables but people aren鈥檛 feeling the impact of those investments yet. I鈥檓 feeling optimistic that in the next two to four years we鈥檒l start to feel the impact and renters will start to feel a sense of relief,鈥� she said.
鈥淭hat being said, we need to figure out, in a city like Vancouver, the extent to which we鈥檙e going to solve the problems within the market. We need to be looking for solutions that take speculation out of the market and create affordability in perpetuity. Some of those solutions will be found within the community housing sector because what鈥檚 built at affordable levels today in community housing remains affordable tomorrow and the day after that.鈥�
A summary of all the ideas for how to spend the Empty Homes Tax will be reviewed for feasibility by city staff before a first set of recommendations are presented to council in June.
@naoibh
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