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The City of Vancouver is beefing up its long-term rental stock by allowing development of 1,039 co-op homes on seven city-owned sites, from the Downtown Eastside to the new River District south of Marine Drive.

And the non-profit developer is touting this model as the answer to Metro Vancouver’s rental housing shortage.

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The co-op housing, styled after the co-op rentals built in the 1980s and ’90s, but self-sustaining, will provide homes for 2,000 Vancouverites who are part of households making low to middle incomes of between $30,000 and $80,000 a year.

The rents will likely range from $750 for a one-bedroom to $1,800 to $2,000 for two- and three-bedroom units, said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson at a news conference in Yaletown, against a backdrop of towering condos with rents or mortgages out of reach for those earning minimum or average wages in Vancouver.

He said the goal was to provide affordable housing for those who work in lower-paying jobs in the city so they can “live without anxiety” among “rapidly escalating rents.”