Housing has leapfrogged transportation to rank as the top concern in the Royal City for many residents – no surprise, really, given the affordability crisis on the housing front in B.C.
On one extreme, homelessness continues to grow across Metro Vancouver, including a 25 per cent increase in New West in the past three years. For those who do have a roof over the heads, the situation isn’t always peachy keen, as vacancy rates remain at low levels (in a city where 44 per cent of residents live in rental accommodations) and the price of single-family homes has skyrocketed and made home ownership but a dream for many.
And just where do local candidates fit into that housing landscape? The Record sent questionnaires on housing to 10 candidates in the New Westminster and Richmond-Queensborough ridings and discovered they’re living in a variety of different housing situations.
While some own single-family homes or condos, some rent and others live in extended family arrangements. Those who own homes or condos consider themselves fortunate and worry about what soaring prices mean for current and future residents – including their kids.
“I have friends that have moved out of the city and others that can’t find or afford the cost of rental accommodation,” said James Crosty, a Social Credit candidate in New Westminster. “This is changing the social fabric of our city and breaking up longtime relationships.”
A 27-year resident of the Royal City, Crosty and his partner own a condo at the Quay where they provide home care for their 92-year-old mother. After renting for many years, the couple was able to buy a condo in 2002 when the owners wanted to sell and they were able to exercise an option to buy.
New Westminster Green candidate Jonina Campbell and her husband bought a home in Queen’s Park nearly 11 years ago – at a time when the housing market was more accessible than it is today.
“I worry, like many parents, that our children will not be able to afford a home in the city they grew up in,” she said.
Like Campbell, New Westminster Liberal candidate Lorraine Brett and her husband bought a house in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood in 1997, long before the neighbourhood was filled with million-dollar homes.
“Now, like many ‘empty nesters,’ we wrestle with the concept of downsizing. Due to the relative unaffordability of other housing options, we’ve found that ‘aging in place’ is our best option,” she said. “The affordability of aging-in-place is an issue, which may be helped by densification strategies such as laneway housing.”
New Westminster NDP candidate Judy Darcy and her partner own a two-bedroom condo in the Victoria Hill neighbourhood.
“We bought our condo in 2013. We sold a townhouse to move to a condominium and it was a surprise how the prices had risen,” she said. “Our son is now grown, but if we were a young family starting out now looking for two or three bedrooms, we would be in a very different situation.”
The New Westminster candidates all own homes or condos in the riding, but it’s a bit of a different story among the Richmond-Queensborough candidates.
Green Party candidate Michael Wolf rents two places, one in Vancouver’s Cambie Village and another in Richmond’s West Cambie. While both he and his wife are secondary school teachers, he said the market situation is pricing them out of the market in communities where they have lived for years.
B.C. Conservative candidate Kay Hale rents a house in Richmond East/Steveston, just across the street from the riding boundary.
“I don’t want to buy another property here,” she said. “Renting is a better option for me.”
As a renter, Hale said paying a fixed rent on a monthly basis enables her to budget on her fixed income and she doesn’t have to pay the “overly inflated property tax, which have increased for homeowners based on the recent overstated property value.”
Liberal candidate Jas Johal owns a home in Tsawwassen that he and his wife were able to purchase in 2006.
“My wife and I rented for many years, and worked hard to save for a down payment,” he said. “We know how daunting that first mortgage feels like.”
NDP candidate Aman Singh said he lived in East Richmond for 23 years, but currently lives in an extended-family situation with his parents at their home in North Delta.
“After 16 years of neglect by this government, even as a successful lawyer who has been working as such for almost 18 years, I can’t afford buying into this housing market,” he said. “I am fortunate that I live in an extended family system. Not everyone is so fortunate.”
New Westminster Libertarian candidate Rex Brocki and Richmond-Queensborough Republican Party candidate Lawrence Chen didn’t return the questionnaires by deadline.
