City urged to put more money into affordable housing
More taxpayer money should be earmarked for the development of affordable housing in Kelowna, city council will hear Monday.
Staff suggest tripling the annual taxpayer contribution to a municipal housing fund from $200,000 to $600,000.
The money would be used to buy land upon which low-income rental housing projects, funded by other levels of government, would be built.
“As home ownership becomes more outof-reach for many residents, rental housing is likely to play an increasingly important role in providing stable housing in Kelowna,” planner James Moore writes in a report to council.
From 2011 to 2016, almost three-quarters of people who came to Kelowna moved into rental units, Moore says. That was more
than double the percentage who moved into rental housing in the previous five-year period, he says.
“Additionally, rental housing is becoming more expensive, with market rents in Kelowna rising between 7% and 10% annually from 2016 to 2019,” Moore says.
More than 30,000 people over age 15 in Kelowna earn less than $20,000 a year, Moore says, citing the 2016 federal census.
Subsidized housing units, built by senior governments on land provided by municipalities, generally are geared toward people who would otherwise spend 30% of their annual income on housing.
Of the 20,000 rental households in Kelowna, about 13,500 spend more than 30% of their annual income on rent, Moore says.
If council approves staff’s suggestion to phase in a tripling of annual taxpayer contributions to the housing fund, $2.2 million would be generated over four years. That would be enough money to buy land for the construction of one, 40-unit affordable housing complex, Moore estimates.