NDP touts $400 annual grants for renters
Prospective grant would cost province $216 million a year, according to Landlord B.C.
A $400 renters grant the B.C. NDP promises to implement if elected could cost taxpayers up to $216 million annually, according to Landlord B.C.
Speaking to media in Downtown Vancouver during a stop on his campaign bus tour, leader John Horgan said providing the grant and closing a loophole on fixed-term leases would help his party tackle the housing affordability crisis in B.C.
“Help is on the way,” Horgan said. “If homeowners can have a homeowner grant, renters should be able to have a grant as well.”
A homeowner grant gives a $570 property tax break to people who own homes worth less than $1.6 million. Horgan said that a $400 rebate for each rental unit in B.C. — coupled with the NDP’s proposed hydro rate freeze — should give renters a “little bit of hope.”
He gave no estimate of what the $400 grant would cost taxpayers, saying the details would be included in his party’s platform to be rolled out Thursday.
David Hutniak, CEO of Landlord B.C., said the agency recently tallied 540,000 units of market-rental housing in the province. At $400 per unit, the NDP’s grant would put taxpayers on the hook for $216 million annually.
The province already expects to spend $821 million on homeowner grants in 2017-18, up from about $809 million in 2016-17.
Horgan also pledged to “beef up” B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act to protect renters by closing a fixedterm lease loophole that has allowed some landlords to hit tenants with higher-than-legal rent hikes. Housing Minster Rich Coleman said in October he would work to block the loophole this spring.
The act allows a landlord to increase a tenant’s rent only once per year at a rate of two per cent above inflation — set at 3.7 per cent in 2017 — but some landlords are trying to skirt the limit, forcing tenants to sign one-year leases with clauses that require them to move out at the end of the term.
A March 2017 report on rent by PadMapper named Vancouver the most expensive city in which to live in Canada with a median price of $1,900 for a one-bedroom rental. Victoria was third at $1,250 and Kelowna was eighth at $1,000.
Meanwhile, vacancy rates in Metro Vancouver are hovering below one per cent in Vancouver, according to a fall report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
CMHC said the increasing popularity of short-term rentals in Vancouver has taken some units off the long-term rental market and with rental demand outpacing supply, the vacancy rate could drop to 0.5 per cent in 2017.
Liberal Leader Christy Clark was quick to slam the NDP’s grant announcement, calling it an example of how the party is “flying by the seat of their pants with no plan for the province.”
Clark said it wouldn’t be fair for a person renting a Downtown Vancouver penthouse for thousands of dollars to get the same subsidy as every other renter. Horgan said the grant would be available to all B.C. renters, regardless of their income.
“That isn’t right,” Clark said. “We shouldn’t be redistributing our tax money to the very rich. We should be making sure that we spend our resources supporting people who are having trouble staying in their homes.”
Clark said that if re-elected, her government would work with city governments to ensure they contribute to the rental supply through zoning.
Norman Ruff, associate professor emeritus of political science at the University of Victoria, said he was struck by the NDP’s grant announcement because it shows a return to the notion that social services aren’t just for the deserving poor.
“There’s not going to be a cumbersome means test,” he said.
Ruff said he understands arguments that the grant would be wasted on the wealthy. But a grant that helps all British Columbians would bring back an “equality value” that’s been lost on governments, he said.
“It would mean more to the young, the old and those that are on limited income as a proportion of their income,” Ruff said.
“In my mind, it’s a welcome return.”