Why does a Richmond neighbourhood with many expensive mansions also appear to be one of the city’s poorest?

The upscale neighbourhood of Thompson, where properties typically sell in the $1-million to $3-million range, ranks high for poverty, according to Statistics Canada figures.

But former Richmond Mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt said the predominantly single-family Thompson neighbourhood has “the most expensive homes and the second highest level of household poverty” in Richmond because many residents under-report their global incomes to Canadian tax officials.

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More than six out of 10 Richmond residents were born outside the country, the highest rate of any city in the country. If many people who live in luxury Richmond houses are reporting low incomes to Revenue Canada, Halsey-Brandt is among those worried it means many are not paying their fair share of taxes for social services.

The former mayor said it’s revealing that the roughly 16,000 residents of Thompson, most of whom live in single-family homes, are second only to those who live in the downtown core of Richmond for reporting poverty-level incomes. Richmond’s downtown consists mostly of small condos and rental units.

“Those of us who live here know that this is nonsense. Since many of the families live in over $1-million homes. It is simply under-reporting of income that causes the problem.”

Overall across Richmond, 22.4 per cent of the population is listed as low income.

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But the proportion of near-poverty-level households rises to 26.2 per cent in Thompson, which is in the northwest corner of Richmond, across the Fraser River’s Middle Arm from Vancouver International Airport.

Halsey-Brandt points out households in the less-luxurious neighbourhood of Steveston, which has the fewest immigrants in Richmond, report the smallest portion of low-income households, at 11.4 per cent.

Albert Lo, head of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, is concerned residents with expensive assets in Canada, particularly houses, are earning most of their money outside the country and not reporting it to the B.C. and Canadian governments.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation, which operates on a $24-million endowment from the federal government and ethnic groups, is urging the Canada Revenue Agency to more closely examine the earnings of immigrants who “park large amounts of money” in Canadian real estate and then “go back to work in China” or elsewhere, said Lo, a longtime Richmond resident and Realtor.

Jiun-Hsien Henry Yao, who ran for Richmond city council in 2014, is also troubled by the income-reporting problem. Normally, he said, “you would need a family income of $150,000 to $200,000 just to feel you can afford any home in Richmond.” But in high-end Thompson, most households report income well under $100,000.

Both Halsey-Brandt and Lo said even though the problem of low reported incomes seems most exaggerated in Thompson, it is also occurring in other parts of Richmond.

“Statistics Canada continues to show (the entire city of) Richmond as one of the poorest cities in British Columbia, with a very high child poverty rate,” says Halsey-Brandt, who also represented Richmond as a B.C. Liberal cabinet minister.