The preoccupation with the cost
of housing in the Lower Mainland of BC, which has been going on for the last
possibly 20 years already, has simply been increasing as housing prices
continue to rise. I am concerned here more with single family and detached
homes/townhomes then condominium stratas, which bring with them their own
issues and considerations of somewhat different nature. The media locally and
across the country just seems to focus on Vancouver. I have heard comments
suggesting that the single-family issue there is no longer as high because
there simply are not places to build single-family homes. Of course, what does
happen is that older homes, sometimes in perfectly good shape or certainly good
candidates for renovation, are simply torn down to replaced by larger more
expensive structures. However, in Richmond, there are still plenty of lots that
seem to be available for building single family homes. At the same time, it
should be noted that many South Asian families, who seem to build the largest
residences, often do fill them with three or four generations of family.
Chinese owners do this as well, but to a lesser extent.
The issues as I see them are as
follows:
1. Price
The
simple fact is that the price of housing now in Vancouver and some of the
adjacent suburbs is simply way beyond the reach of the average working Canadian
citizen or new immigrant.
What is driving this?
The main thing is that Canada is seen as a safe haven for
those who have made a lot of money elsewhere, often through corrupt means,
which means they need to hide their money elsewhere. Indeed, I have heard from a
Chinese immigrant that he estimated that 80% of those who were on the run from
the Chinese government with their cash were living, or at least had purchased,
in Richmond. Canadian real estate has been seen as a good choice in this regard
particularly by many buyers from mainland China who made a lot of money,
largely through land sales during the years of the economic boom when land was
needed for factories and housing for factory workers. Many of these individuals
and families come to Canada, literally with briefcases and bags full of cash. Urban
legend abounds with stories such as them taking a taxi or limousine straight
from the airport to a luxury car dealership, purchasing a car and then going
house-hunting, or, like as not, to the house or lot that they have already
purchased from overseas. My wife personally spoke to a woman who actually
chartered a helicopter to fly over one of Vancouver's suburbs to identify lots
she wanted to purchase and develop. Many of these new immigrants, some also
from Hong Kong and Taiwan, purchase multiple buildings. Some of these are
rented but many sit empty as speculation. Again, I have heard of individuals
who have purchased whole floors of new high-rises for resale.
As long as there is this kind of money to be made in China
or other, particularly Asian, and sometimes Middle Eastern (Iran) or even
Russian, developing economies, and Canada is seen as a place to deposit the
money in real estate, these trends will not change. They will only change if
our Canadian governmental structures look beyond free enterprise and capitalism
and see that there are reasons of ethics, morality and social justice to
intervene.
One also observes here that many homes that in the rest of
the country would be renovated and brought up to a better standard without
giving it a second thought, because of the values of real estate here, I simply
torn down. It is simply obscene to see these many very good homes that are
dismissed as "teardowns" by these rich new immigrants who just want
to build their monster homes on the site.
2. Affordability
It is one thing to
leave the market set the price for those who work and earn reasonable income
that might allow them to consider
entering the home-buying arena. However, there are several
classes of individuals and units that this does not cover.
Some will flippantly say that no one has a right to live in Vancouver or the
lower mainland. This simply speaks to the ignorance of the speakers’ knowledge
of the facts. Others say that the prices are going up in neighboring
communities such as Abbottsford and Chilliwack just as well. What they are not
saying is that this is being driven by individuals and families moving out of
Vancouver and adjacent suburbs because the prices here are too high, or there
is not enough space.
Many who work in the service and support industry, in
sales, in emergency services and even educational and healthcare professions
can no longer afford to live in the city where they work. This creates several
problems. It means a long and stressful commute (and we know there is enough
stress in this world already without this) which is also wasteful of energy and
time (which could be better spent with family and in renewal) and further
negatively impacts global warming because we do not have adequate and
appropriate rapid public transit networks to facilitate their work commutes.
That is another whole large issue. It means these workers are not readily
available if necessary in a large scale such emergencies such as a flood or
earthquake.
It is also simply morally unjust. It causes people to lose
their homes and become homeless, even when they are employed. If they are
already in such dire straits, we can hardly expect them to pay further for
commuting from places where perhaps they could afford to live. So, they couch
surf and live out of their cars, whether workers or students. I have seen them
and heard their stories.
Two other points need to be made here. The first is that we
are now hearing of many senior citizens who have put their equity into their
home and hoped to live there until they were unable to any longer. Because of
the rising value of the real estate all around them, including the land on
which their homes sit, they are now facing tax bills that they cannot afford.
This means they either have to move or figure out a way to defer taxes, which
will always come back to bite you in the end. And moving is not an easy
proposition to consider, because you are probably not going to be able to
afford to buy anyway. It is not fair that these individuals who are the
backbone of our society and have worked all their lives to make it what it is are
punished in this way.
The second has to do with the younger generations. As a
psychiatrist, now retired, and even from personal experience, it is my
observation that we are already into the third-generation often of families
that are fractured by mobility and distance. There is no longer extended
family, let alone a village, to raise a child. We live in increasingly sterile
neighborhoods where no one knows their neighbor. This is only made worse by
many new immigrants who come from backgrounds where this may not be the custom
or where neighbors were never to be trusted, e.g. under communism which always
encouraged spying on your neighbors and family. Of course, they may also have
difficulty integrating with their neighbors because of differences in language
and culture. So, just when young people need the support of their parents,
their elders, as they move out into the workforce and want to begin having
their own families, they have to move elsewhere, robbing them of the support of
their families and their parents the joy of having the younger generation
(grandkids) grow up among them. Only those whose parents are well off enough to
support them, either by letting them live at home, which has its own problems,
or because they can help them get into the real estate market, can continue to
live near their families of origin and the communities in which they grew up
and are familiar with.
3. Occupancy
and impact on the neighbourhood
We have heard
many stories about empty houses and apartments. I see two main reasons for
this. A certain percentage of these are homes and
apartments that are bought for speculation or between renters. Many of these
owners are wealthy enough that they do not have to pursue buyers and renters
that keenly and so there are periods between ownership and rental where the
space is that empty.
The other reason why many of these homes sit empty is that
many of these new owners and even immigrants are not really that interested in
becoming part of the fabric of our society like many immigrants before them
were. Again, I have heard many stories of people who only spend as little time
here as possible to meet immigration requirements. And the only reason they
want that, at least in the case of many older individuals and seniors is to
finally be able to get all the benefits of older age such as Old Age Security and
Even Guaranteed Income Supplement. Because many of these people make their
money and continue to keep it overseas, the bottom line on their tax
information suggests they have no or very low income. Thus, they are eligible
for benefits that most hard-working Canadians are not, including free aspects
of healthcare, local public transportation costs, subsidized community
amenities etc. the worst part of this is that they are also less eligible for
so-called low-cost or affordable housing, when really they can afford pretty
much anything on the market. Thus they actually take up housing that should
really be meant for people who really our poor enough to need that kind of
residence. This is entirely unfair, but as long as our governments do not
change the taxation rules, of course it will continue. In spite of government
and other leaders trying to speak to the contrary, I believe these inflated low
income figures also contribute to the impression that we have a high level of
child poverty in BC. We do have problems in that area but many of these
families who have children in schools also fill out income tax as above,
suggesting that they have no or little income here. This then puts their
children at the poverty level, which is entirely true as one can see from the
size of their homes and the cars they drive.
Indeed, on the one hand these newcomers, who are very well
educated on all of this by immigration agents in their countries of origin, or
on arrival, brag about the pocket money that they can spend on shopping and
eating out every day as these benefits are simply icing on the cake for many of
them. On the other hand, they complain about the time they have to spend here
as opposed to their country of origin, whether it be, as it is in most cases,
China or Taiwan, actually referring to it as a prison.
Now the impact of all of this on the neighborhood, which is
often written about in places like Letters to The Editor, is that it detracts
from the friendliness of the neighborhood and also from the sense of safety in
the neighborhood if you are surrounded by empty and dark homes. This is a
concern.
4. Impact on the environment and
neighbourhood
Again,
many complain about the expensive and large homes that are built in
neighborhoods into which they do not really fit by their design and size. Now,
housing styles and fashions do change and this has always been somewhat of an
issue as time has gone on. However, there are several ways in which the
situation now is different. Again, and this is largely I believe the municipal
level of government's fault, they're allowed to build a home that takes up too
much of the lot. Between that and the fact that so many of them pave or cover
with paving stone the rest of the lot, they create situations where water
runoff to neighboring yards causes problems. Between these many square meters
of brick and pavement and the lack of real trees that many of these new homes
exhibit is the fact that this also adds to global warming because of the heat
that is reflected off of these surfaces instead of grass or groundcover. Real
trees are an important source of oxygen as well as absorption of carbon
dioxide, which can help reduce Global warming. Furthermore, they act as a
humidifying and therefore cooling force in the environment. The ornamental
shrubs that seem to be allowed to "replace" trees do nothing to help
these problems. Certainly, I am not advocating for more traditional lawns
because that calls for cutting which takes energy and also calls for extra use
of water and sometimes pesticides and herbicides. With the also often-spoken
about issues arising in food supply and transportation, spaces around houses
could be used to grow food.
When it comes to possible
solutions I think we have to begin by looking at who can help us solve this
crisis beyond the many voices, now becoming organized and therefore more
powerful and no longer just crying out in letters to the editor or to call in/talk
shows. Who really has the power to bring about change and what are their areas
of jurisdiction? This needs to be researched:
1. Federal
government
The federal
government does enact some laws around housing and support for housing
historically through agencies
such as CMHA. The federal government also has a role to play in taxation that
could affect the situations described above in a positive direction.
2. Provincial
government
The provincial
government also enacts some laws around housing and support for housing
historically. The provincial
government also has a role to play in taxation that could affect the situations
described above in a positive direction.
3. Municipal/city
government
This a level of
government his responsible for bylaws around things such as lot frontages,
house
sizes, house footprint sizes etc.
Recently, to help with affordable housing, they have also been able to enact
bylaws that do things such as require developers to either include a certain
percentage of such housing in their projects or provide an equivalent amount of
cash to the city for the city to use to makes it housing.
Perhaps we can also consider
speaking to the following directly, which is being done at some level and at
times:
1. Real estate agents and their
companies and governing or associative bodies
2. Purchasers
3. Builders and developers.
Most of all, we need to unite and
work with one another to speak to our governments and possibly the entities
mentioned at the last. There are such organizations beginning and we can all
look within our neighborhoods and cities to see what they are. Metro Vancouver
Alliance is a large consortium of many establishments, agencies and unions that
is working on housing among other things. In Richmond we also have, besides the
city's own Affordable Housing Strategy, agencies like The Richmond Poverty
Response Committee which looks at affordable housing among other things.
