VANCOUVER—A school board candidate and a potential city council candidate want to see affordable, non-market rental housing built on Vancouver School Board properties.

Aaron Leung, who is running in the October 2018 school board election, and Tanya Paz, who is seeking nomination to run for city council, both with Vision Vancouver, say it’s time for Vancouverites to revisit the possibility of using VSB property to build new housing for teachers and families.

“We’re trying to find a way to support families to live in Vancouver,” Leung said.

As the housing affordability crisis in Vancouver has worsened, student enrolment across the city has declined, leaving valuable education space unused, he said.

Leung, a youth worker, said a partnership between the VSB, the city and a non-profit housing agency could provide more housing for families, which in turn could increase enrolment. He also said purpose-built child-care facilities should be included in any developments on school lands.

Paz, a transportation consultant, said the affordability crisis is having a negative impact on education.

“It’s a threat to public education in Vancouver,” she said.

“Teachers are increasingly unable to live in the city. We’ve seen the teacher shortages and hiring struggles because it’s so expensive to live here. So we have to get more creative,” she said

Leung said he doesn’t have a specific school ground in mind and that a decision on where to build housing would require “deep consultation” with parents, community members and housing experts.

But while a location isn’t yet proposed, Leung is adamant that the project wouldn’t be lining pockets of the wealthy.

“This isn’t about building more market condos,” he said, and he doesn’t think the VSB should sell off its property. Instead, he suggests it could grant the city or a housing operator a 99-year land lease on which to build affordable family housing.

The idea of using school-board property for housing isn’t new. The Green Party’s Janet Fraser, who is the Vancouver School Board chair, said the board has already put this idea forward to the city. Although it was included in the board’s 2016 Long Range Development Plan, the city hasn’t taken the board up on it, she said.

“We have a lot of school sites and some of the sites are larger than they need to be for providing an educational program,” Fraser said. “We are open to the option of having housing at some of our school sites,” she said.

Now is the perfect time to up the pressure, Leung said.

In the past year, the city has been partnering with the province and housing agencies to build more affordable housing on city-owned land. Leung wants the VSB to “piggy back” on that momentum, and Paz is on board.

“The times have changed, things are more urgent now,” Paz said.

Paz thinks it’s time to get more efficient with school ground space and said the best use of space changes over time.

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“In the ’80s we thought it was parking lots, but obviously that’s not the best use of space anymore,” she said.

For a project like this to go ahead, Paz said the VSB would have to approve a proposal, city council would have to rezone the land and it would require funding from the provincial and possibly federal government.

May 25, 2018 — Correction: This article, as well as its headline and photo captions, has been updated from a previous version, which mistakenly said Tanya Paz was running for school board. Paz is seeking nomination with Vision Vancouver to run for city council.

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