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What’s in a name?

The term “social housing” could have many definitions. In Vancouver, some may be surprised to learn, the city’s definition of social housing includes a studio apartment renting for $1,700 a month.

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Earlier this month, the official City of Vancouver Twitter account announced the approval of “a record 1,938 new social and supportive homes in 2018!”

A record year for social housing certainly sounds like a good thing in a city with an ongoing housing and homelessness crisis. Citizens might presume all those social housing units help the most vulnerable members of our society.

But beyond the tweet, and deep into the 197-page housing data book recently released by the city, a more complicated picture emerges.

For one thing, more than 60 per cent of those 1,938 new social and supportive homes approved last year are affordable only for households with incomes higher than $50,000 a year. Almost a quarter of them are only affordable for households earning more than $80,000 a year.