What are your thoughts on the new Census 2021 housing data?

BY DANIELLA FERGUSSON SENIOR PLANNER, CITY OF POWELL RIVER

Since November 2018, the City of Powell River has completed a Housing Needs Assessment and a Housing Implementation Plan. So, we now have a much better idea of what the actual demand for housing is for people who already live in our community. City staff estimate that 1,032 new units of residential are needed from 2016 to 2026. This would be a level of construction Powell River hasn’t seen since the 1970s and 1980s.

From 2021 to 2026 and accounting for units built since 2016, staff estimate that 770 new units of residential are needed. Of those 770 units, 390 should be rental units for individuals and families earning less than $80,000 a year, which means for very-low, low, and moderate-income families.

Due to current land economics and what form a development would have to take to be affordable, this would look like eight to 12 medium-sized, mixed-income apartment-style buildings. The remaining 380 should be homes for people seeking shared-equity ownership (co-housing), attainable ownership (i.e. stratified developments), and market ownership.

Housing prices, land prices, and construction costs have all gone up, but incomes have not. Secondary suites and carriage homes are a great way for intergenerational families to live together. The City can keep encouraging people to build them and also find other ways to encourage a substantial amount of new purpose-built rental housing. Most new construction has been single-family homes. This type of construction primarily serves out-of-town buyers, because most people with local jobs and local incomes can’t afford them.

Something that stood out to us is that since the 1980s in City of Powell River, about 60% of households have been very-low, low, and moderate-income households. This 60% figure has held steady for more than 40 years.

What has changed is that moderate-income earners used to be able to buy a single-family home. This isn’t true anymore. So, we need to talk about what the right kind of housing supply is.

Little families, huge houses: qathet’s housing conundrum

On September 21, Statistics Canada released housing data from the 2021 Census. Of the 10,060 private dwellings in qathet:

• 70% of homes here were built before 1990 – more than 30 years ago

• In the last decade, 825 new homes were built

• There are more single-income homes than dual-income homes

• Major repairs are needed in more than 10% of homes

• About 12% of renters live in subsidized housing

• The vast majority of homes – 86% – have two or more bedrooms

• But just 24% of households have three or more people living in them.

• Three quarters of homes here are single detached houses

• Just one in nine households has four or more people in it.

• Of families with children, the average number is 1.7

• There are 205 multi-generational households here

• 50 households have more than one family living together

Since the 1980s, on average three out of four homes have been single-family. As economic conditions have changed, our building supply has stayed the same and construction volume has slowed down.

So, in the planning department, we’re looking forward to working with people who recognize the change and are willing to try something new.

There is a proverb that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second-best time is now. The same is true for housing, because older multifamily buildings and rental units tend to be more affordable.

On top of needing to build affordable units on purpose, today’s market-rate units are tomorrow’s affordable units. That’s why the Housing Needs Assessment recommended that the City look into developing 7104 Barnet Street as rental housing. Staff recently completed a feasibility study for the property, and are looking into this further.