Coordinator Matt Thomson says it’s been “a year of capacity building” for the Sunshine Coast Affordable Housing Society.
Thomson gave Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors an update on the activities of the society, which was incorporated last October, at the Nov. 10 planning and community development committee meeting.
Thomson said the society has also taken over managing the affairs of Coast Housing Society, which has 23 units of housing for low-income tenants in Sechelt. “The great thing about the Coast Housing project,” Thomson said, “is that we are up for a potential land transfer from the province next year … They’ve started a process of transferring assets back to community organizations and that allows the community organizations to leverage those towards further development. We see that as a really positive next step for us.”
The society is now at work on its first strategic plan. “We have an amazingly long laundry list of potential projects that we’d like to work on, but not the capacity to do it [all], so this will give us a framework for deciding what we pursue and what we don’t.”
Work continues on a project with the Town of Gibsons and Click Modular to put small rental homes on unused Town land that was being held for roads that are no longer going to be built.
And the society is keeping its ties with the Sunshine Coast Homeless Advisory Committee, which is trying to expand shelter options and get long-term supportive housing for the area.
Thomson also urged the SCRD to look into what it can do to better regulate the short-term rental market (municipal councils in Gibsons and Sechelt have already asked their staff for reports on the issue).
In a letter sent to the SCRD ahead of the meeting, Thomson said there’s a growing belief that a trend toward renting out homes through reservation services such as Airbnb and VRBO is reducing the stock of long-term rentals on the Coast.
Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell said the SCRD is in a slightly different position than Gibsons and Sechelt. “It’s been frustrating trying to identify tools that may be available, because many of them are only available to municipalities. Areas like Tofino and Nelson have addressed it using a tool that is not available to regional districts, in terms of business licensing, for example.”
West Howe Sound director Ian Winn, who chairs the committee, said, “Airbnb is not the problem. It’s much deeper than that. It is systemic to what people want to do with their properties. If people want to convert it from a long-term rental to a short-term rental or if they want to build something like a carriage house and make it a short-term rental, then they can use the tools that they have – the platforms, like Airbnb, like VRBO, like Booking.com.”
The committee voted on two motions that will go to the Nov. 24 board meeting for ratification.
One called for a staff report looking into opportunities to use land-use planning to increase and densify affordable housing in rural areas, make better use of planning tools to allow for things like housing agreements with developers, and collaboration with the province and First Nations on Crown land.
The second motion would have SCRD staff review previous reports on regulating short-term rentals and look into what’s being done in other communities.
Lebbell, however, voted against the second motion arguing that it should have been more specific. “It’s very important to be clear on what issue you’re trying to solve,” he said. “Whether it’s a party house issue, whether it’s an impact on services issue, whether it’s a safety issue.”
