With one month to go before the municipal elections, many mayoral candidates are claiming they can fix the housing crisis without explaining exactly how they will do it 鈥� and that's "dangerous," according to outgoing mayors and councillors.
Speaking at an Urban Development Institute panel event September 20, Port Coqutilam鈥檚 outgoing mayor Greg Moore and departing 麻豆传媒映画councillor Raymond Louie both issued warnings to the electorate over 鈥減latitudes鈥� that sound great but 鈥渉ave no credibility.鈥�
In June, council approved a 鈥淢easures to Retain the Rental Housing Stock鈥� report, which included asking staff to investigate ways to encourage reinvestment in existing stock, but the Greens Adriane Carr maintains that while solutions are being sought, existing rental housing may be lost to demolition, which would worsen the housing crisis. Photo Dan Toulgoet
鈥淥ne of the challenges of this election is that [candidates] are going to say, 鈥榃e need more affordable housing and I鈥檝e got the answer,鈥欌�� said Moore. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 really have a meaningful conversation about it. I hope that somehow, in the process, people peel that back. Because we know that there is no silver bullet [to solve the housing crisis]. There鈥檚 no one reason how we got here, and no one solution to get out of it.鈥�
Moore did not identify any particular candidates, but added, 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing more politicians just checking which way the air is flowing, what鈥檚 populist, and just saying things [about affordable housing] to get big social media buzz, with no credibility behind them.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 dangerous for all of us.鈥�
Departing Vision councillor Raymond Louie agreed, saying, 鈥淭he candidates are saying all the right things about the need for affordable housing, but not describing exactly how they are going to go about supplying it, and solving the problem. We鈥檙e getting a lot of platitudes, but we need to know exactly how they will do it, described in a way that the public will understand.鈥�
The event鈥檚 third panellist, outgoing District of North 麻豆传媒映画mayor Richard Walton, said that it was crucial for incoming officials to help the public understand how new housing development can improve their lives instead of damaging it. Walton referred to the huge increase in traffic on the North Shore, which is making it hard for residents to support new homes and population growth in the area.
鈥淥ur community isn鈥檛 necessarily anti-development, but we have very visible problems with traffic over the past five years. Residents are saying 鈥榮how us the value proposition鈥� 鈥� they see that good development means more people, and more people means more cars and more delays.鈥�
Mayor Moore added that cities need provincial and federal governments to provide social and supportive housing, in order to free up municipalities to focus on providing affordable market housing. He said, 鈥淲e could have invested so much more in affordable housing if we didn鈥檛 have to do anything on the social housing side. [But] this is changing now with the province鈥檚 housing plan and the federal National Housing Strategy.鈥�
The Urban Development Institute held a panel event 鈥淧olitics and Perspective鈥� on September 20, 2018. L-R: moderator Anne McMullin, CEO of UDI Pacific; Vision 麻豆传媒映画councillor Raymond Louie; Port Coquitlam mayor Greg Moore; and District of North 麻豆传媒映画mayor Richard Walton. Photo: Daniel Collins
With a huge turnover of mayors and councillors an inevitability this fall, Councillor Louie also warned of current community plans on housing not getting supported by incoming officials.
鈥淲ith such a changeover, there will be less ownership of those plans [from the new mayors and councillors]. As a result of that, you won鈥檛 get the same level of support for those plans had it been the same people coming in. That鈥檚 a big problem, given the need for affordable housing and for public consultation on new community plans.鈥�
