HOUSING CRUNCH
How lives are being wrenched by Victoria’s shortage of affordable homes
The 35 people forced from their homes after a fire at the Evergreen Terrace complex in Victoria in November have found new places to stay — but the problems in housing people in Greater Victoria remain. There is high demand for affordable accommodation, but little supply. The working poor, seniors on fixed incomes and people with disabilities have been hit especially hard by the shortage of spaces, by rising rents, and by “renovictions” — evictions that occur when a building owner makes massive upgrades to rental units.
The fire at Evergreen Terrace, formerly known as Blanshard Court, helped bring attention to the problem. Eight units were destroyed or left uninhabitable, and 35 people — the official number, at least — were forced to move. Former residents say the number of people displaced is actually higher, because some people who were couch-surfing do not appear in the official count.
A homeless count last fall found 1,400 people “sleeping rough” in parks or elsewhere in Greater Victoria, and another 1,800 living on the street.
Some people are sleeping in their cars, on quiet streets or in church parking lots.
In December, Victoria-Swan Lake MLA Rob Fleming tried to find help for a 71-year-old woman who was living in her vehicle after she was evicted from a rental residence in James Bay because of renovations.
“I see people like that all the time,” Fleming said. “Seniors are being displaced.”
Housing Minister Rich Coleman said the government is doing all it can to help provide accommodation.
“There is no time in the history of this province that has seen the investment in housing that this government has made in the last decade, and nowhere else in Canada,” he said. “And we’ll continue to do it.” Coleman said that about $4 billion has been invested in construction over the past decade, along with money spent to expand shelter spaces and buy buildings to deal with the most vulnerable citizens.
Between April 1, 2006, and March 31, 2016, more than 19,000 “new units” were created, according to the Housing Ministry. That includes housing units, beds, spaces and rent supplements for clients from individuals through families.
The B.C. government has committed $855 million to support the construction of 5,000 units of affordable rental housing, including $119 million for 18 projects on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
“That’s 2,900 units on top of the 2,200 I’ve got under construction already,” Coleman said. “On top of that is another $355 million going out over the next four years to do another 2,000 units of housing.”
Coleman said economic downturns in Western Canada have increased homeless numbers in B.C. In the past 24 months, more people have been using shelters and securing housing via homelessness, he said.
“We’ve had to significantly increase our budget,” he said.
Opposition members such as Fleming and David Eby, the NDP’s housing critic, say that the government needs to do more.
Fleming said housing problems are “creating all kinds of anxiety and financial stress for working families” in Greater Victoria.
“There are so many factors all happening at once,” Fleming said. “There are people who are working with children and need three bedrooms and family housing is even in more acute shortage than units for single people so we’ve neglected that also.”
The government should have been building hundreds of nonprofit housing units every year, he said.
“Now, in an election year, they’re making all kinds of promises, but we’re already well into the crisis and it’s going to be very difficult to dig our way out,” he said.
Eby also says housing is in a crisis.
“I’m not sure what word is better than crisis to describe the situation of multiple tent cities … rental markets where families can’t find adequate housing on