‘Missing middle’ housing helps families stay in Victoria

The Missing Middle Housing Initiative represents one significant reform that the city can implement to help families stay in the city.

It will create an abundance of new family housing in the city by re-legalizing more affordable housing forms like houseplexes and townhouses. This is perhaps best illustrated by the letters of support from Housing Minister David Eby, MP Laurel Collins, MLA Grace Lore and University of Victoria president Kevin Hall.

The initiative must be viewed within the wider context of housing initiatives taken by the city, as it is not a panacea that is intended to fix every problem in the housing ecosystem. No single policy can accomplish that. Instead, it is an important initiative that fits in among other policies already passed or under review.

In April, for example, Victoria council brought forward the initiative only after passing the Rapid Deployment of Affordable Housing, a landmark reform aimed at expediting non-market housing projects by removing barriers for nonprofit and public housing providers.

Those non-profit and public housing providers are focused on higher density projects. Their mandates and funding streams do not align with missing middle housing forms.

The city is also proposing the Village and Corridor plan, which aims to grow areas of the city along transit corridors and around existing amenities. The goal of the plan is to create vibrant urban communities as well as expand opportunities for purpose-built rental apartments and non-market housing projects.

Lastly, Victoria and the province are exploring how to provide better universal tenant protections. The city staff are conducting analysis to determine what type of rental construction incentives are required to help tenants return to a new unit at their previous rent when displaced. Burnaby, for example, already does this. Collectively, these initiatives and tenant protection policies will improve the housing prospects for families across the income spectrum.

Missing middle housing is important because it will enable more young people to stay in the neighbourhoods where they grew up. While many concerns have been raised about displacement within the context of the initiative, it is important to note the aforementioned safeguards and policies, and to recognize that widespread displacement is already occurring in traditional residential neighbourhoods.

Young people and their families are currently being displaced by the lack of housing options and forced to leave the region.

Today, when an existing detached home is redeveloped and replaced with a new detached home, it does not require public consultation or offer the city more housing.

Instead, tenants are forced out with no protections and the city gets no new housing supply. The initiative simply aims to provide more housing choices.

Instead of replacing a single detached home with another single detached home, owners and builders would have the option to build additional housing types such as townhomes or houseplexes. The initiative will also require that new projects contain a minimum number of units with three bedrooms to ensure family-suitable homes are built.

The initiative includes mechanisms to deter land speculation and to capture value for the public. The proposal includes a bonus density structure that requires builders to pay into an affordable housing fund, or build below-market or rental units.

Currently, there are no requirements for developers to contribute to affordable housing in traditional residential neighbourhoods. The initiative will not only legalize new forms of more affordable family-suitable housing options versus single detached homes, it will also generate funding for affordable housing projects.

Between budget feedback at the city, the Vital Signs survey and the initiative survey, the public has been clear that there is a significant deficit of familysuitable housing in the city.

According to recent Statistics Canada data, neighbourhoods like Fairfield-Gonzales are not only shrinking, but they are losing families in particular.

This week, the cheapest three-bedroom home for sale in Fairfield-Gonzales is $1.22 million, while the average price for a family-suitable home is $1.83 million.

The missing middle housing forms, on the other hand, are estimated to range from $650,000 to $1.7 million, and those forms will either incorporate rental units, below-market units or cash contributions for affordable housing projects elsewhere.

Council should vote this week to move the initiative to a public hearing where a proper and full public debate about its merits can take place.