Streets have become housing museums
Re: “Victoria’s densification process raises concerns,” comment, June 30.
Michael Bloomfield raises a vitally important question — who we are building all these housing units for? Most construction in Victoria is to create luxury units.
The young people of Victoria need basic homes, not luxury condos — or worse — the opulent mini-mansions for two springing up everywhere.
We don’t need more housing for wealthy retirees or investors. We need to put a roof over the heads of the next generation. This point has been utterly lost on successive city councils.
Once that is understood, we must embrace intelligent densification.
The single-family homes of Victoria were a reasonable way to house people in the 1930s to 1980s. These streets are now housing museums — cute, and they show us what worked in the past.
But we can’t all live in our own little Garry oak meadow surrounded by 3,000 square feet of grass. We need that space to house 30 people, not two or three, as is currently the case.
We are in a full-blown housing crisis. The next generations do not have the same opportunities for housing ownership that we had. They will not have the security of owning their own home in retirement. They are lucky to find adequate shelter.
We can continue to close our eyes to the housing plight of younger people.
Or we can accept that change is overdue, embrace that change, and ensure that our neighbourhoods remain wonderful, welcoming places to live — with room for the next generation.
Richard Brunt Victoria