A growing number of B.C. renters are facing a crisis of affordability and paying too much of their income on scarce, expensive rental accommodation, according to new statistics to be released today by the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association.

Approximately 45 per cent of renters are paying more than the recommended maximum of 30 per cent of their gross income on rent, the housing association says.

Twenty-three per cent of people are spending more than half their income on rent, a level that leaves renters at risk of not being able to afford other basic living needs, said Tony Roy, the association's executive director.

"That group of people, it doesn't matter what income group you are in, are at risk of all kinds of other issues, from bankruptcy to homelessness to crime," said Roy.

The statistics are part of a new interactive rental housing index map that the housing association will launch today at bcnpha.ca. It's the first comprehensive look at the costs facing B.C.'s 517,430 renters, a quarter of whom earn less than $19,500 a year.

The interactive map crunches half a billion pieces of federal data into a clickable format that shows the average rent, affordability, income gap, overcrowding and unit shortage for B.C. communities and regional districts. Each town and city is profiled and scored.

"There's lots of data out there on home ownership, but this is the first major study which has looked specifically at the incomes of renters as well as how much they are spending on rent for different size suites," said Roy. "This is a chance for British Columbia to look at the province through the eyes of renters.

"There's a reason why housing affordability is the top issue in the municipal elections; it's because the rents are getting very high and the supply just isn't there."

West Vancouver has one of the highest proportions of people spending more than 50 per cent of their income on rent, and also the highest average rent at $1,555 a month, because of high land values and low rental stock, said Roy.

Smaller communities are also affected, including rural locations and those with high populations of immigrants, temporary workers, students and seniors, he said. Few private developers build rental housing, instead opting for higherend condos they can sell on the open market to realize a more immediate profit, said Roy.

The supply of rental units isn't keeping up with the growing demand, and the problem is compounded by the end of federal government rental unit subsidies that have existed on some properties for the past 10 to 30 years but are coming to a close and won't be renewed, said Roy.

"We're hearing from private sector landlords that they don't have enough incentives

to build," he said. "We're hearing from social housing providers that there's no new money coming into the system to build social housing, and we're hearing from municipalities, who are all going through an election, that say they don't have a lot of data out there to understand how many renters they have in their communities, what the incomes are of those renters, and how many more units or bedrooms they need to build or zone or plan for."

The non-profit housing association used a $125,000 grant from Vancity credit union to help create the online map.

The association estimates B.C. needs an additional 150,000 to 200,000 units of rental housing by 2036, with as many as 65,000 of those units requiring some sort of support, subsidy or supplement to make them affordable for renters.

NDP housing critic David Eby said the B.C. government has to find ways to encourage the construction of rental housing, because increased subsidies are wasted in a market where a rental shortage keeps driving up the rental rates.

rshaw@vancouversun.com