A closer look: Politics are personal on the housing front

Some are renting. Some have opted for condos rather than houses. And others consider themselves fortunate to have bought homes before prices went through the roof.

When it comes to housing, the candidates running in Burnaby’s four ridings in the May 9 B.C. election have stories that will be familiar to their voters.

The Burnaby NOW sent all 16 candidates in Burnaby’s four ridings a brief questionnaire on housing and received 15 responses. (Garrison Duke, the Liberal candidate in Burnaby-Edmonds, did not respond by deadline.) Of those, five candidates live in rented accommodation, three in condos and seven in homes.

And, perhaps tellingly, none who own their homes report having bought those houses in the past decade. Several of the candidates, in fact, were quick to recognize their good fortune in having bought before the Lower Mainland real estate market went bonkers.

Peter Hallschmid, running for the B.C. Green Party in Burnaby North, owns a home in East Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

“We bought our home in 2003,” he said. “We’re fortunate enough to have bought before the current housing affordability situation.”

Other candidates told similar stories of longtime home ownership in Burnaby.

Richard Lee, running for the Liberals in Burnaby North, has lived in his current home at Sperling-Duthie for 18 years – a home he bought in 1999 after selling a previous Burnaby home, first bought in 1986.

Raj Chouhan, running for the NDP in Burnaby-Edmonds, has owned his home for 15 years.

“I worry about the ability of young people to stay in our community because housing costs have skyrocketed; even young professionals are being priced out of the market,” Chouhan said.

Karen Wang, running for the Liberals in Burnaby-Deer Lake, owns her home in Burnaby but said rising property taxes and a lack of affordable housing have impacted everyone to some degree.

“I have been fortunate to have opportunities to grow my business and raise a family here in Burnaby,” she said. “I hope to keep this city vibrant so other young families can prosper.”

Joe Keithley, running for the Greens in Burnaby-Lougheed, expressed his doubts about the ability for young families to buy in Burnaby. He owns a home in Eastburn that he bought in 2005 but said the same is unlikely to happen for his kids.

“The housing inaction of the B.C. Liberals has made it very unlikely that our three children could ever purchase a home in their hometown of Burnaby,” he said.

More than one candidate acknowledged the important role of families in paving the way for home ownership in the current market.

 “Our house is the family house I grew up in,” explained Anne Kang, running for the NDP in Burnaby-Deer Lake. “Because it has been in the family for so long, it was not impacted by the overheated housing market.”

Kang and her family are currently living in the Bonsor neighbourhood, in an older condominium they purchased in 2015, to allow for major renovations on the family home in the Inman neighbourhood.

“The current market situation resulted in us putting our plans to do necessary renovations on our home on hold,” she said.

For Janet Routledge, who’s running for the NDP in Burnaby North, housing prices have affected the next generation of her family. The Burnaby Heights resident has owned her home since the mid-1990s.

“My son, daughter-in-law and their two children are working on a plan to move in with us so they can continue to live in Burnaby North,” she said.

Elias Ishak, running as an independent in Burnaby-Deer Lake, lives with his family in a home they own on Oakland Street, across from Deer Lake.

“We own our family home thanks to determination of my strong single mother, Nada Ishak,” he said, noting the housing market had less of an impact on them since they bought more than a decade ago. “The only impact is that we’ve had to work very hard to settle and remain here.”

Other candidates, like many residents, have opted to buy into the condo market instead of choosing single-family homes.

Among them is Rick McGowan, the B.C. Green Party candidate for Burnaby-Deer Lake, who owns a three-bedroom condo with his family – a home he bought about three years ago.

“When we bought it, we felt the pressure to offer a premium to ensure we were not outbid,” he said. “We wanted to stay in the neighbourhood, but there were limited numbers of three bedrooms.”

Katrina Chen, the NDP candidate in Burnaby-Lougheed, owns a small condo in the Edmonds area “that promotes energy conservation and sustainable living,” she said.

“My husband and I bought our small condo five years ago,” she said. “We have been searching for a slightly larger place for our growing family, but we can’t find anything affordable because under Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals, they have done nothing to stop the price of homes from skyrocketing.”

Steve Darling, the Liberal candidate in Burnaby-Lougheed, is currently living in Port Coquitlam, where he is “currently paying rent in a home where we are caring for my grandmother,” he said.

He took the opportunity to address criticism of skyrocketing housing prices by looking on the bright side.

“The current market has its challenges for people, but it also shows how well B.C. has done to attract people to our province,” he said. “Continuing to provide good-paying jobs and working with municipalities to improve supply is the way forward.”

Neeraj Murarka, who’s running as a Libertarian in Burnaby-Lougheed, isn’t buying any justifications for the high housing prices. Murarka currently rents in the Crest neighbourhood.

“The current situation is unacceptable and symptomatic of gross negligence on both the provincial and federal levels. Professionals with middle or advanced educations earning great salaries have no chance to buy a house, unless they own one already,” he said. “It is difficult to imagine buying a house unless things change dramatically.”

Other candidates are also renting – Sylvia Gung, an independent candidate in Burnaby-Lougheed, lives in a rented B.C. Housing townhouse; Valentine Wu, who’s running for the Greens in Burnaby-Edmonds, rents in Metrotown.

And Graham Bowers, who’s running for the B.C. Conservatives in Burnaby-Deer Lake, currently rents at the west end of the riding, near Burnaby Hospital and Central Park.

“I have been fortunate to live in an affordable home for the past 10 years,” he said. “I know many of the houses and apartments in this area have risen in price dramatically over the past decade. Many neighbours have moved away to the distant suburbs.”

To see candidates' full answers to the questionnaire, click on the tabs for each riding.