Start talking about Vancouver and it won’t be too long before the conversation works its way around to affordability. Everyone has a story of the outrageous rent, the tiny high-priced condo — and the friends who had to move away because the bills were just too high.

This week, we received the final report from the Mayor’s Task Force on Affordable Housing. It has the potential to make a huge difference for our entire city, and it’s an issue I campaigned strongly on in the last two elections.

But we can’t give the report’s recommendations the consideration they deserve unless we take the time to truly appreciate what the cost of living in Vancouver is doing to our communities.

Nearly every day since I became mayor, I’ve heard from family after family and business owner after business owner about how the high cost of living impacts their lives.

One day, it might be a young couple whose second child is on the way, and who’ve decided it’s time to buy a home. And they’ve come to the conclusion they simply can’t do it in Vancouver’s housing market, and they’re planning to move to the Fraser Valley.

The next day it might be a senior, someone who can tell me the names of the families who’ve lived on their block going back half a century … but with a fixed income he just can’t afford to stay in his neighbourhood.

I’ve spoken to people in deep distress because they hold down three jobs and it’s still not enough to make rent. I’ve talked to owners of major companies who can’t fill positions because their workforce is leaving the city for somewhere more affordable.

And I lost count a long time ago of the number of people who just laugh off the idea of ever owning a home here.

The lack of affordability imposes a burden on everyone. When mortgage and rental costs eat up the discretionary income of a large swath of our population, it depresses spending in the local economy. When our communities start losing young families and seniors on fixed incomes, we lose vitality and a sense of generational continuity.

Of course, all of this is playing out against the backdrop of a prosperous city. We have innovative businesses, a thriving cultural scene, vibrant neighbourhoods and remarkable business, community and environmental leadership.

We’re doing well — but we could be doing much better.

That’s why the task force recommendations are important to everyone in Vancouver. And whether making your next mortgage payment or rent is an impossibility or a foregone conclusion, I’m asking you to set aside a little time this weekend and read them over.

You’ll find some bold ideas and some common-sense approaches. They include:

Creating an arm’s-length affordable housing authority to deliver a steady supply of affordable housing, now and for many years to come;

Encouraging more low-rise row houses and townhouses on streets well-served by transit, and requiring them to be 100 per cent rental or sold at 20 per cent below market value;