Article content continued

In 2014, council changed the definition of “social housing” to mean rental housing where 30 per cent of the units are affordable to households with incomes below Housing Income Limits (HIL). According to B.C. Housing, HIL “represents the income required to pay the average market rent for an appropriately sized unit in the private market.” The 2016 HIL in Vancouver are $38,500 for bachelors, $42,500 for one-bedrooms and $52,000 for two-bedrooms.

Where 30 per cent of the rental units are affordable to people with incomes below the HIL, the City of Vancouver considers 100 per cent of units to be “social housing.” In other words, social housing in Vancouver, by definition, now includes market rentals. Although the 91-page staff report doesn’t include proposed rents for the 25 units, the city’s report does state that “at least 30 per cent (eight) units will be geared to households within incomes below housing-income limits.” There is, however, no guarantee that rents for the remaining 17 social-housing units will have any measure of affordability. In fact, they could be expensive luxury rentals and still fall within the city’s definition of “social housing.”

This is hardly a public benefit worth touting.

In addition to not creating true social housing, the city is also shifting onto taxpayers a financial burden that should be borne by developers. This is because the Vancouver Charter and the city’s bylaws exempt developers from paying Development Cost Levies (DCLs) when the land will be used for social housing, as it’s defined by the city. DCLs are an important source of revenue and help pay for things like parks, infrastructure and child-care facilities. On this particular project the developer will be exempted from paying about $155, 570 in DCLs for providing market rentals. However, these various capital projects are still necessary to service the development. Where does the funding come from if not from the developer? You guessed it — taxpayers’ pockets.