The City of Burnaby has reconvened two groups who participated in the 2019 Mayor’s Task Force on Community Housing.
Their job? To ask how the city is doing so far in its goal to improve housing affordability.
Facilitated by the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University, the task force met 10 times over a six-month period in 2019 and delivered its final recommendations that July.
At the same time, SFU led the Your Voice. Your Home. community engagement process that provided input into the task force’s work.
The task force is convening again Monday to review the city’s progress in delivering on its 18 final recommendations and 10 quick starts.
The task force includes housing advocates, local unions, co-operative housing organizations, developers, builders, and renters as well as members of city council.
Some actions to taken by the city in an attempt to improve housing affordability and accessibility include:
Adopting a tenant relocation policy to help people stay in their neighbourhood at the same rent;
Adopting B.C.’s first rental-use zoning policy which requires a minimum of 20% below-market rental housing to be in most new developments, city-wide.
Identifying and initiating pre-zoning of five city-owned sites for 1,150+ units of non-market and affordable housing, which would increase non-market housing in Burnaby by 20%.
Partnering with BC Housing to open two shelters (one emergency, one temporary) and a supportive housing facility for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
“This process has been transformative for Burnaby,” said Mayor Mike Hurley, in a news release. “It’s replaced the winners-and-losers dynamic that often dominates debate about difficult issues with an open dialogue where everyone’s voices are heard and valued, and people are willing to make the tradeoffs necessary to benefit our entire community.”
Last month, a group of 13 residents who participated in an all-day recommendations workshop in May 2019 as part of the Your Voice. Your Home. process also reconvened to review the city’s work in delivering on their Community Recommendations. The feedback from both groups will be summarized by SFU in two “What We Heard” reports to be presented to city council this spring.
