OneCity mayoral candidate William Azaroff wants to help Vancouver’s working class thrive

Editor’s note: This is part of our ongoing series of profiles of mayoral candidates as part of our Vancouver municipal election coverage. You can read our other stories on Kareem Allam, Colleen Hardwick, Pete Fry, and Rebecca Bligh.

William Azaroff, a former filmmaker and executive with Vancity Credit Union and Brightside Community Homes, wants Vancouver to be a place where the working class can thrive. 

Reflecting on his childhood, growing up in the Douglas Park neighbourhood in the 1970s and 80s, Azaroff remembers, “it was a time in Vancouver where a single working nurse could build a life for herself and her kids,” he said of his mother, who still lives in that area today. But now, as a parent, Azaroff wants his 21-year-old son to have the same opportunity to build his life in the city. “I think it'll be a real struggle for his generation to figure out how to stay here,” Azaroff said.

In one lifetime, Azaroff has watched Vancouver change from a city where you could make a life for yourself and your family on a modest single income — “it was difficult, but you could do it,” he said — to a place where that's now nearly impossible. “I think there are things the government can do to make that possible.”

To that end, Azaroff’s top three policy priorities in his bid to lead Vancouver’s government are building affordable housing, expanding childcare options, and creating better public amenities.

On affordable housing, Azaroff has experience in the sector, having served as CEO of the non-profit housing developer Brightside Community Homes from 2019 until he went on leave to pursue political office.

If elected with OneCity, Azaroff said he’d look to use city-owned land to build new housing that’s affordable to people with average incomes in Vancouver. “Where you have city-owned sites that are big enough to develop at scale, and if there’s no profit motive… then I know firsthand that you can build homes that are affordable… to people earning average, decent salaries,” Azaroff explained. 

In Vancouver, the average household income after taxes is $96,800, according to the most recent census data from 2021. Based on the standard definition of affordable housing – 30 per cent or less of household income – Azaroff’s goal is that new housing on city-owned land would cost tenants somewhere in the ballpark of $29,000 per year, or $2,400 per month. 

In recent years, one of the primary ways the city has sought to build more affordable housing is through inclusionary zoning, a policy that requires for-profit developers building on rezoned sites to set aside 10-20 per cent of their new building at below-market rates. 

Azaroff’s vision is that city policy would be less about “can we get a few crumbs” from a private developer’s new building, and instead focus on city-led projects, in partnership with non-profit developers, where “it’s all geared to break even with no profit motive,” he said. However, he added that this approach may also include working with for-profit developers, as needed. That caveat could undermine his model, depending on how much the latter option is leaned on. 

As an example of what he’d do differently, Azaroff cited the pending redevelopment of the 2400 Court Motel on Kingsway – a large city-owned site that’s expected to host 863 market rental units across four towers, plus social services and commercial space. 

The 2400 Court Motel proposal is one of five projects on city-owned sites overseen by the city’s Housing Development Office, which was created in 2023 by Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC government. The projects are a signature policy of Sim’s government, intended to generate non-tax revenue for the city, with rents geared toward households making between $80,000 and $180,000.

“The city can't fight the affordable housing crisis with one hand and then have a separate hand that needs the market to go up in order to bring in revenues,” Azaroff argued. “We are either for affordability, or we're not, and so this was an area that frustrated me, and [doing this] was hypocritical of the ABC government.” 

That rezoning will be one of the final decisions of the current city council, with a public hearing scheduled for July 28. 

When it comes to childcare, Azaroff said this is an issue that comes up a lot in the hundreds of door-knocking conversations he’s had over the past several months. 

“Many parents I talk to drive to other municipalities because that's where they found daycare,” which creates challenging commutes and more congestion on the roads, Azaroff said. 

Under the current ABC-led council, the city has made expanding childcare a priority, with 1,400 new spaces added since 2022, and another 3,000 in development, according to the city. Azaroff said he’d like to see the city continue to prioritize new childcare in many different neighbourhoods, including the continued use of community amenity contributions (which have been slightly altered and are now called amenity cost charges) to create these spaces in new developments. 

While the actual number of new childcare spaces falls short of ABC’s 2022 campaign promise to build 5,000 by 2026, that shortfall seems to speak more to the perils of overpromising in election season rather than a lack of political will.  

However, Azaroff pointed to ABC’s contentious relationship with the provincial government – which shares responsibility for childcare – as a factor that he could improve on, particularly in extending $10-per-day daycare in Vancouver. As of 2025, only 20 per cent of the city’s daycares are part of the provincial program. 

“We have to have a productive, good relationship with the provincial government, so that we attract as many $10 a day spaces as we can,” Azaroff said. 

He’d also like to see the city amend its policies for opening or expanding a childcare facility, which currently requires city permission and, in some cases, has been halted by opposition from neighbours. 

Azaroff argues that “if you meet basic [provincial] standards… you should be able to open up daycare spaces. We can make it much quicker to open up private daycare spaces to fill gaps that exist today, and that's something the city has not moved on.”

Azaroff says he and his wife “could not have raised our son without libraries and community centers and parks. If you're a lower-income or a single-income household, you couldn't get through almost a day without these amenities and facilities.”

But these facilities, with the exception of newer ones like the Hillcrest and Trout Lake community centres, are largely in bad condition. To update the city’s crumbling and overburdened community and recreation facilities, the current council has directed a significant increase in spending toward pools and community centre renewals in the upcoming capital plan. However, that direction has come with some controversy as – amidst its years-long feud with the park board – the ABC majority on city council has selected the specific projects to be funded, a move that’s arguably outside their jurisdiction. 

“I would absolutely want to fund community centers [but] we have to listen to experts,” Azaroff said, pointing to the park board’s comprehensive Community Centre Strategy from 2022 as the type of planning that should guide the city’s investments. 

“[ABC] has swapped out some of the most needed community centers for ones that are still needed, but are lower priority,” Azaroff said, suggesting that ABC is attempting to reward neighbourhoods where the party hopes to pick up votes in the upcoming election. 

It’s an allegation that’s been suggested by other opponents of ABC, including COPE’s Sean Orr. When asked about that perception by Vancity Lookout in April, Sim’s chief of staff, Trevor Ford, disagreed, pointing to the party’s efforts to revive the stalled renewal of Britannia Community Centre, which received funding for planning work in the upcoming capital plan. 

In terms of altering the capital plan that Azaroff would inherit if elected, he said he’d solicit expert advice on what the city is required to follow through on under the new capital plan as it stands. He says he’d also look for wiggle room to hand back decision-making control about specific projects to the park board, while still honouring the public’s decision regarding the $438 million in capital borrowing for community facilities that voters will be asked to approve on election day. 

“We have to prioritize getting value for our taxpayer dollars and upgrading these facilities. So I would listen to experts and prioritize based on the true need, not just political expediency,” Azaroff said.

In April, OneCity, COPE, and the Greens reached a hard-fought agreement limiting the number of candidates each party would run in the election, but it didn’t include uniting behind a single mayoral candidate. 

Azaroff said the parties will be back at the negotiating table on that subject later this month. “The goal is to have just one of us at the end of this process, and so I'll abide by whatever is decided,” he said. 

In June, Azaroff and OneCity earned the endorsement of the Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC), “which was huge for us,” Azaroff said, as VDLC represents 60,000 workers over 90 affiliated unions in the Metro and Sea-to-Sky area. Receiving the endorsement was emotional for Azaroff. “It means a lot to me… because working people have to be able to build a life for themselves,” he said.

“William's commitment to affordability, good jobs, and better public services resonates with our members,” VDLC president Stephen von Sychowski told Vancity Lookout. 

VDLC is also calling on COPE’s Stephanie Allen and the Green’s Pete Fry to reconsider their campaigns for mayor. “Three competing mayoral campaigns is not indicative of the cooperation we’re looking for,” amongst progressive parties, Sychowski said in a press release announcing the endorsement. 

Azaroff was the only mayoral candidate to win a contested party nomination, beating out Amanda Burrows to become OneCity’s flag bearer for October’s election. 

Speaking of his party more broadly, Azaroff noted the varied experiences of OneCity’s slate, highlighting council candidate Lucy Maloney’s work on council over the past year and a half and Frances Bula’s knowledge of City Hall from her decades as a reporter, as well as the resumes of Steve Cardwell and John Irwin, who are running for the school and park boards, respectively. 

“I'm super proud of the work we're doing, and everything tells me that we are emerging to become the best alternative to Ken Sim.”