Burnaby couple Yu-ta Lu and Evonne Cheng are hoping to one day buy a home for their family of four.
In the meantime, they live at their parents’ place – a situation they say won’t be changing anytime soon.
“As a one-income family, I find it simply difficult to buy a house here. When we look around, the price starts at $400,000, $600,000,” Lu said. “That’s just not something we’re able to afford.”
Lu’s story was one of many told during a roundtable event held in Burnaby on Thursday by B.C. NDP leader John Horgan. The discussion, aimed at holding the Liberal government’s feet to the fire, was part of his party’s Families Need a Break! tour being held throughout the province.
Horgan referenced February’s budget, when the government increased utility fees and medical service premiums, while giving a $236-million tax break to the top two per cent wage earners.
“They told the rest of us to tighten our belts and do a little bit more with a little bit less,” he said. “I think that’s wrong. … The end result of all of this, piling the costs onto regular families, is that people around this table are having a tougher time making a go of it.”
Local mother and daughter Hiruth and Tamala Mwandemere also spoke alongside Horgan, sharing their experiences of being saddled with student debt. Hiruth, who went to school for nursing, said she’s still paying off her student loan, while trying to keep up with her mortgage and put her daughter through school.
“If I didn’t have my parents, I would have really struggled to go to school,” Tamala explained. “It’s really hard to go to school full time and work full time.”
Horgan argued one of the factors contributing to less affordable housing is foreign investment, a problem he said is not being acknowledged by Premier Christy Clark.
“The government doesn’t have any data. The premier got together with a couple of developers, real estate speculators, said ‘What do you think we should do?’ and they said, ‘Let’s just wait and see.’ Not good enough,” he said.
The roundtable was held at the office of Raj Chouhan, MLA for Burnaby-Edmonds. The city’s other two NDP MLAs also attended.
