This week’s edition provides more evidence that the scarcity of housing on the Sunshine Coast has reached crisis proportions.
For buyers, reduced inventory of detached homes for sale and higher median prices, exacerbated by bidding wars, are proving major challenges. Resident Olivia Kingsbury says she and her husband are considering leaving the Coast, even though they can afford to pay $400,000 for their first home. At the same time, more properties valued at over $1 million are being listed, with 41 selling so far this year, representing almost 10 per cent of all detached homes on the market.
On the rental side, the outlook is so grim that one Gibsons woman has started a Go Fund Me page to create a development with up to 46 “tiny homes” in Langdale. Displaced renters, Pamela Robertson said, are moving into boats, tents and tree houses. A family of four has to live in a one-bedroom suite due to what’s available and what they can afford. People are settling for accommodation that is “uninhabitable,” she said.
Local governments are wrestling with the problem. A Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) planning report, presented at the committee level this week, identified 2,458 parcels in the five electoral areas that are eligible for building an auxiliary unit or second dwelling. “Yet only 249 (10 per cent) parcels have such additional dwelling units,” the report says. “There is still an untapped potential of approximately 2,209 units that could be built.”
The SCRD is looking at a range of possible measures to address the housing crunch, but the potential for secondary dwellings that already exists under current official community plans is significant and should be encouraged in every way possible. Incentives should not be ruled out, given the pressing needs of the community.
The Town of Gibsons has been a leader on the housing file, moving on a variety of fronts to take concrete action. Council has passed a bylaw to allow carriage homes in certain areas; is working with the Sunshine Coast Affordable Housing Society to develop a project site within the town; and is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to acquire the former RCMP building on School Road for affordable housing.
There’s no magic wand. Established neighbourhoods understandably resist moves toward densification, and zoning bylaws are put in place for a reason. Council has to balance immediate need with long-term planning, and decisions, one way or the other, usually come with some controversy.
In the District of Sechelt, several major housing developments have been stalled, for various reasons, in the application stage. We would like to see elected officials in the district pick up on some of Gibsons council’s sense of urgency.
There is, after all, a crisis out there.
