Editor: Re: Burnaby council takes a new approach to housing, NOW, June 28, 2018
An open letter to Coun. Colleen Jordan:
I hope Burnaby council’s declared intention to include more non-market rentals in Metrotown redevelopments is only the prelude to a comprehensive review of Burnaby’s approach to housing.
Reality is the vast majority of Metrotown’s demovicted households are lower-income market renters. Those households do not qualify for non-market housing, nor can they afford Metrotown’s secondary condominium rental market. Rents in the new condo towers approach $24,000 per year for one bedroom. In contrast, Burnaby’s median renter household income is $45,839, according to the Housing Data Handbook 2018. That the median income of Metrotown’s demovicted households is much lower stands to reason. Those households will continue to be squeezed out from Burnaby as we tear down exactly the kind of housing they need.
No amount of subsidies by the provincial government can close the rental affordability chasm that Burnaby’s condo-centric approach to housing continues to widen. The city’s Rental Housing Summary 2017 suggests that Burnaby’s housing supply under construction or under rezoning favors condo units over purpose-built rental units (market and non-market) by a ratio of 11 to 1. This excessive commodification of housing just cannot work for Burnaby’s own average Joe.
In light of this lopsided condo-centric approach to housing, the question arises whether Burnaby’s housing strategy is indeed primarily motivated by social needs, or, perhaps, by Burnaby’s condo development capacity in its four town centres. The latter view is reinforced by the fact that city planning does not substantiate their growth projection of 125,000 people over 30 years with a meaningful, socially motivated housing needs analysis. Their technical growth presentation in the Burnaby Housing Profile 2016 is meaningless by any statistical standard.
If Burnaby council truly wants to take a new approach to housing, they have to start refocusing on the needs of people they call constituents.
Reinhard Schauer, Burnaby
