Affordable Housing

Increase affordable housing options and reduce barriers to finding a home*

• Non-Market Rental housing – to support low-income earners and vulnerable populations
• Mid-Market Rentals housing – to support low to moderate income earners who don’t earn enough to pay today’s market rents
• Family-Friendly Rental housing (3+ bedrooms) – to support renting families who need more space
• Senior-Oriented housing – to support seniors and their specific needs
• Rent-to-Own housing – to support first-time home buyers who may not have sufficient equity to obtain a mortgage
• Flexible Housing forms & Multi-Generational housing – to make home ownership more affordable by supporting smaller housing parcels – townhouses / cohousing / duplexes / single family dwellings with secondary suites or coach houses (which can be used as a mortgage helper or to support family members age in place)

Why is this important?

Time and time again, I hear of North Vancouver residents leaving our City for more affordable communities. For those who have chosen to live elsewhere but remain employed in the City, they are now faced with long commutes on and off the North Shore. Income growth is not keeping pace with the increased cost of housing.

Through conversations with City businesses, North Van Chamber of Commerce, not-for-profits and emergency service providers, there is consensus that, without affordable housing options, City employers will be challenged to:

• attract and retain staff for the long term
• provide better work-life balance for their employees
• help reduce traffic congestion caused by employees commuting from other regions to the North Shore

With continued increases in land and construction costs, the remaining affordable rental units are often located in aged rental stock, and those tenants face:

• continuous rent increases
• possible threats of “renoviction”
• possible displacement due to development of new rental stock

We need to increase the number of mid-market rentals to support tenants who are unable to afford today’s market rents.

*While increasing housing can put pressure on our local public schools, continued collaboration between the City and the North Vancouver District Board of Education is essential in addressing the needs of schools in the City.