The Sunshine Coast’s Housing Needs Report has been in the hands of the community and local governments for a year. That document details a crisis in the supply and affordability of local housing. It points out that, in 2016, more than 40 per cent of renter households were in unaffordable housing. In the years that followed, increases in rents outpaced increases in average personal income. That percentage is now likely higher.
The report also states that as of 2019, purchase of a detached single-family home, the most common form of housing in our local supply, is unaffordable for median income earning households.
It follows that to better meet existing and future housing needs, the Coast must look at housing development and the way we use our existing stock of homes with fresh eyes. To help with that, the report was followed up with an implementation framework identifying how Gibsons, Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast Regional District could each address areas of local need and housing priorities. With the one-year anniversary of that document fast approaching, I look forward to an update on where each stand with their efforts.
I see signs of progress on housing supply in the current development proposals for downtown Sechelt. A click through the municipality’s online development tracker shows applications to build over 240 mostly apartment units.
Those developments appear to be responding to a need identified in the report for a shift in the type of housing being added to the Coast’s supply. In 2016, one-bedroom and studio units made up less than a quarter of local housing stock while about three quarters of our households were either lone singles or couples living without dependents. With an already high percentage of seniors living here and an aging population, the report predicts that the one- and two-person household will become even more common in the future.
In the downtown Sechelt project proposals, 104 of the new units are smaller apartments aimed at seniors, so steps to address at least one of the report’s identified local housing supply gaps are being taken.
Housing affordability is an issue throughout the province. Addressing it will take more than local government initiatives. An idea from Westcor Lands suggests Sechelt could collaborate with others to make the proposed Mills Road townhouse project more financially attainable for mid-range income earners. Here’s hoping there will be full discussions about what could be possible as that project is considered.
Local governments sponsored the housing needs assessment and follow-up report. They need to use the information they garnered and work to improve the situation. There are real people on the Coast without housing, in unsafe housing or in housing that they struggle to afford waiting for answers.
