British Columbia invests $4 billion in affordable housing
The provincial government believes that social housing should be affordable for the middle class.
The Ministry of Housing in British Columbia is launching a new program. It's designed to provide affordable housing for the province's residents. The full plan for the program, called BC Builds, will be made available later this year. Now the budget for the project has been announced: CAD 4 billion.
As part of this plan, lots will be allocated for the construction of new affordable homes, contractors will be involved, and the provincial laws and the very notion of social housing will be reviewed. Previously, it was thought that only low-income people were entitled to social housing. Now the middle class can count on it. Lots for the construction of new houses will be allocated from municipal property. Now authorities are creating a registry of lands that belong to the province and are suitable for building. Then the regional authorities themselves will act as customers for the construction, entrusting it to contractors. They will not have to come up with something on their own, but only build housing as conceived by the Ministry of Housing.
B.C. is also revising the laws on site development. Previously, only one dwelling (unit) could be built on one lot. Now up to four units can be placed there.
And the local authorities are also trying to borrow the experience of countries and cities that successfully house a large number of people in a small area. Now they are studying the housing policies of Vienna and Singapore.
The B.C. government wants to affect the housing crisis because there is too much "turnover" in the province. People often come there, but they don't stay there long. And old residents of the province, who were born there, eventually move to other, more accessible regions. One of the main reasons for this behaviour is the lack of affordable housing. Most B.C. residents have come to terms with the fact that they can't buy their own home, but renting an apartment is now also expensive. Provinces benefit from the influx of new population, but a sustainable community is just as important to them. For people to really take an interest in their region and care about its well-being, they need to consider it their home, not a staging area.
