How affordable should housing be?

Good morning! 

Sometimes the best laid plans are, well, best (I think that saying makes sense!). I asked Dustin to put together a story for today’s newsletter, and they chose an excellent topic on housing affordability in Vancouver.

But of course, the federal government had to go and announce their new Build Canada Homes plan yesterday. Luckily, thanks to a quick edit by Dustin, the story tied in perfectly to the announcement, as you’ll read below.

That’s the nature of local news; it’s always moving extremely fast!

With that, let’s get to today’s newsletter.

— Geoff Sharpe, Vancity Lookout founder and managing editor

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free. 

WEATHER

Monday: 17 🌡️ 14 | 🌤️

Tuesday: 24 🌡️ 17 | ☀️

Wednesday: 19 🌡️ 14 | 🌤️

HOUSING

How affordable should housing be?

What: As the federal government unveiled more details on its Build Canada Homes program, at least one recommendation from a group of Vancouver planners, architects and geographers appears to have been taken to heart.

An Aug. 28 letter submitted as part of the government’s engagement on the program urged Build Canada Homes, which the writers called a “once-in-a-generation opportunity,” to go beyond the supply-side approach to housing that has, in recent years, become the convention in policymaking.

Counted among the letter’s 28 signatories are the likes of UBC Housing Research Collaborative co-director Penny Gurstein, SFU City Program director Andy Yan and former City of Vancouver planner Sandy James.

What does that include?: The letter made eight recommendations that centre on building housing that is affordable, rather than building for the sake of supply, and not putting too much focus on large projects.

One of those recommendations pushed for the government to break from the definition of “affordability” that has been dominant in B.C. in the last half-decade, including as a key feature in Vancouver’s Broadway Plan.

Defining affordable: The group called for affordable units to be rented at 30% of local incomes at most. That isn’t exactly a new definition — it's been used for decades in North America, and is part of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s criteria for “core housing need.”

But as senior levels of government have let public housing construction fall by the wayside, municipalities have leaned on private developers to subsidize rents — and that has led to a shift away from affordable housing towards below-market housing. That has meant basing rents not on incomes but on the rents that local tenants are already paying.

• Since the late 2010s, cities in Metro Vancouver have begun requiring part of a market development to be rented out at 20% below the median market rent in the area, as measured by the CMHC. East of Boundary Road, the measure is called “Burnaby affordable.” 

It got that moniker after the city made it a requirement in all four of its town centres. This was one of a suite of measures the city took following the 2018 election in response to widespread anger about the displacement of tenants in older, more affordable buildings.

Vancouver eventually followed suit. The Broadway Plan, approved in 2022, includes requirements that 20% of a development’s floor area be rented out at the same “Burnaby affordable” rents.

What is affordable?: If a unit is rented out at 20% below market medians, that definition of affordability would still leave out most people, the Vancouver Tenants Union has argued, pointing to the fall 2024 CMHC Rental Market Report.

That report places the average one-bedroom rent in Mount Pleasant at over $1,700, which adds up to $1,400 with the 20% discount. But Vancouver’s median income in 2023 was $46,300, meaning affordable rents, based on the 30% of income metric, would need to be less than $1,200 for half of the city’s population. 

That doesn’t account for the fact that renters tend to make far less than owners — in 2019, the median owner ($55,000) made more than double the median renter ($25,000). And as more market rentals are built and rented out at sky-high rates, that CMHC market median is likely only going to become even more detached from local incomes.

Why 30%?: The 30%-of-income affordability metric itself wasn’t always the standard. Its origins lie in an old saying: “a week’s wages to a month’s rent.” That was codified into laws and policies variably at 20-25% of incomes for decades, starting with the Great Depression.

Over time, that crept up to the 30% that’s standard today.

Smaller buildings, more wood: The letter also makes some more material recommendations for the federal government about how to achieve affordability. It suggests that more wood-frame buildings would not only better serve communities with more ground-oriented units, but could also be a boost for BC’s forestry sector.

And it notes that affordable housing has the best outcomes in smaller-scale, lower-density projects.

Low-density, wood-frame projects also tend to be more affordable to build — according to Altus Group, a wood-frame apartment building of up to six storeys costs 10-17% less per square foot than a 12-storey apartment building and about 25% less than a 60-plus-storey building.

What’s next: The federal government’s announcement on Build Canada Homes did make clear that its definition of affordability matched the 30% rule of thumb. But it’s yet unclear how successful the policy will be in bringing down rents to that level more broadly.

Carney has at times talked about it as a developer unto itself, which could see the government getting more seriously into the housing construction business. And with $13 billion behind it, Build Canada Homes could see large-scale construction of affordable housing become a reality.

But Carney has also called the forthcoming budget an “austerity and investment budget at the same time,” and the government has only committed so far to building 4,000 homes — with none of those coming to Vancouver, according to The Globe and Mail.

Still, it’s early days in the program, and Carney told reporters there would be “a series of additional projects across the country in the months ahead, leveraging those public assets, public lands [and] partnering with the private sector to build at scale.”

THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

$33 million

That’s the size of the city’s annual funding deficit for recreation facilities, according to a new report from the city’s Auditor General that says council has not done a good job of setting aside funds for the replacement of Vancouver’s aging recreational facilities. For context, the city’s overall infrastructure deficit is $500 million per year. Read more. [BIV]

THE AGENDA

The province has extended funding to two DTES drop-in support services. Read more. [BC Govt News]

Through BC Housing, the province is providing nearly $61 million in grant funding to build 400 new rental homes for people with low and moderate incomes and people with disabilities across Metro Vancouver -- nearly 300 of which are located in Vancouver proper. Read more. [BG Govt News]

West end residents are opposing a 27-storey hotel tower proposed for the edge of Stanley Park. Read more. [Vancouver Sun]

Periodic vehicle lane closures will take place at the intersection of Denman Street and West Georgia Street as crews install a temporary overland water pipe related to the Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel project. Closures will take place through October 21, with work taking place daily between 7 am and 8 pm Read more. [Daily Hive]

With help from a hat trick by birthday boy Thomas Müller, the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Philadelphia Union 7-0 on Saturday, securing a spot in the playoffs. Read more. [Sportsnet]

City council

Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung is bringing forward a motion calling on city staff to prioritize shovel-ready, fully-funded infrastructure projects over non-essential projects that lack funding. Read more. [Daily Hive] 

Council will debate Councillor Lisa Dominato’s motion to urge the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to reopen Clark Drive as an access point to the port, which she says would ease transport truck traffic on Powell, Dundas, Nanaimo, and McGill streets. The closure of Clark Drive as an access point to the port was initially intended to be a temporary closure in 2011, which eventually became permanent. The Port Authority recently confirmed that they have no intention to revisit the decision. Read more. [Daily Hive]

The mayor will bring forward a motion to post details on salaries and taxpayer-funded compensation received by councillors on the City of Vancouver’s website. Read more. [BIV]

Speaking of, in the first eight months of 2025, the VPD spent $339,063 to provide a security detail to Mayor Ken Sim. Read more. [CTV]

EVENT GUIDE

End of Summer Mount Pleasant Block Party | 300 Block E 11th Ave, Vancouver | Sept. 20, 12–5 pm | Final block party of the summer with food, drinks, music and vendors | Free

411 Coffeehouse | 3502 Fraser St | Second and last Friday of each month | Acoustic open stage with a feature | Admission by donation

Vancouver Audio Festival | HiFi Centre, 23 West Pender Street, Vancouver | Sept. 20, 10 am–5 pm | Hear exclusive product demos and music in high-end listening rooms | Free

Pleasant Mountain Music Open House | 2435A Granville St | Sept 20th, 10 am to late | Student Performances, instrument trials, raffle prizes, drinks | Free

Bits + Bobs Samples and Seconds SALE | Heritage Hall, Vancouver | Sept. 20, 10 am–3 pm | Discount art, craft supplies and studio samples from local makers | Free

Splash – Free Preview Exhibition | Pendulum Gallery – 885 W. Georgia St. | Now–Oct. 2 | See 90+ donated works by Canadian and international artists in this public art preview | Free

Japan Market Fall Festival | Robson Square Ice Rink, Vancouver | Sept. 28, 11 am–6 pm | 60+ vendors offering Japanese crafts, food, workshops and performances | Tickets $4

Country Fest at London Farm | 6511 Dyke Road, Richmond | September 20, 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm | Celebration at the Farm with fun fall activities for all ages | Free admission

Vision Zero Vancouver Presents: Life After Cars | SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W Hastings St, Vancouver | Nov. 8, 6:30 pm | A discussion with The War on Cars podcasts hosts Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear about their new book! | Tickets $35

Submit your event and it could appear here and reach 20,00+ Vancouver locals.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

How does Vancouver's budget actually work?

We dive into common questions about the city's budget process to help demystify an essential part of how the city functions. Read the story.

Other Lookout stories

• Two social service programs in the Downtown Eastside get six-month funding extension

• Dysfunction and the search for accountability in Vancouver politics

• Great Northern Way proposals invite the latest transformation in False Creek Flats

NEW VANCOUVER JOBS

Discover your new dream job in Vancouver:

• Manager, destination events at Destination Vancouver

• Manager, customer and digital service strategy at BC Ferries

• Director, media relations and research at Simon Fraser University

• Manager, Indigenous relations at City of Richmond

• Client transformation director at Octopus Energy

HOUSING

Prime Minister Carney announces new affordable housing

To help Canada’s housing demand —particularly for affordable units — Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced the new $13 billion Build Canada Homes agency, which will construct 4,000 homes in six Canadian cities, including Ottawa.

The government said the new initiative — which can scale up to a capacity of 45,000 homes — will transform public-private collaboration and deploy modern methods of construction. It will leverage public lands, offer flexible financial incentives, attract private capital, facilitate large portfolio projects, and support modern manufacturers.

This story originally appeared in the Ottawa Lookout and includes additional details about the Build Canada Homes. Read the story here.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Here’s a great deep dive into the B.C. government’s housing policy, in a way that isn’t as boring as your regular newscast.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• A guide to upcoming comedy shows in Vancouver. [North Shore News]

• Did you know Vancouver has a poo and pee mascot?

• Learn more about gentrification in Chinatown by watching this documentary made for an SFU politics class. [SFU]

• Vancouver author Jen Sookfong’s latest novel is about the expectations of motherhood and ghosts. [The Tyee]

• A travel writer with the UK-based publication The Independent says Vancouver is her favourite city to visit in North America. [The Independent]

• You might be seeing more spiders indoors this fall - and it’s not related to Halloween. [Vancouver is Awesome]

VANCOUVER NEWS QUIZ

PHOTO OF THE DAY

I love this stick library out in East Van!