Affordable housing is a key issue for voters, but parties aren’t getting their message across.

In Canada’s most expensive real estate market, parties aren’t getting their message across

So, of the four main parties battling for your vote in this off-the-charts expensive real estate market, which one has wowed voters with its policies on affordable housing?

None of them, according to the surprising results from an Insights West poll conducted this week for The Vancouver Sun.

Between Tuesday and Thursday, 453 Metro Vancouver residents were asked which party has best outlined the issue of housing during the 11-week campaign.

A whopping 32 per cent of respondents said none of the parties had done so, while 29 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know.

This is surely a lukewarm response for the New Democrat, Liberal and Green parties, which have made housing a fairly central plank in their political platforms.

Just 15 per cent of respondents said the Liberals have done a good job outlining housing policies, followed by the NDP (11 per cent), Conservatives (eight per cent) and Greens (five per cent).

When asked if respondents approved of the way the parties discussed housing, 65 per cent said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied. Seventeen per cent were somewhat satisfied, and none were satisfied.

“Just 17 per cent are satisfied with discussions about housing during the campaign, 15 per cent with poverty, and nine per cent with homelessness. Voters are looking for more from the political leaders,” said Insights West vice-president Mario Canseco.

“It is certainly disheartening to see how many residents are unable to pinpoint who is doing best at tackling issues that are affecting their daily lives.

“Considering how much of our salaries in Metro Vancouver are devoted to living arrangements, housing could have afforded parties an opportunity to establish an emotional connection with voters. The fact that most residents are unaware or undecided certainly suggests that the campaigns are not moving voters on this issue.”

Interestingly, respondents thought the provincial government should play the biggest role in addressing housing issues at 57 per cent, followed by federal (21 per cent) and municipal (19 per cent) governments. Federal governments built affordable housing until two decades ago when the program was cancelled, and since then, in B.C., both Victoria and the City of Vancouver have stepped up to ensure social housing is still being built.

But social housing is mainly for residents with low incomes and, often, other challenges. What many Metro Vancouver voters in this election want to know is: “I make an average wage, so will I ever be able to afford to own my own home?”

Vancouver is the epi-centre of the housing affordability debate in Canada, according to professor Penny Gurstein, director of the University of B.C.’s School of Community and Regional Planning.

“There is a crisis going on here in terms of people being adequately housed,” said Gurstein, who is currently researching strategies for affordable home ownership and rental housing in Canada and internationally.

Could or should politicians try to ease the affordability crunch, when real estate is a marketdriven business?

Yes, Gurstein argues, there are ideas politicians should pursue.

But there is likely a quandary for those campaigning for office: Do you back policies that benefit older residents who typically own their homes and don’t want to see their equity reduced (and who are more likely to vote), or do you back policies that benefit young people who are struggling to enter the home ownership market (but who don’t vote as reliably)?

“It is a generational issue. It’s significantly a generational issue,” Gurstein said.

In her opinion, the incumbent Conservatives are campaigning on policies that encourage home ownership without addressing the larger issue of many people in cities like Vancouver and Toronto being unable to get into the market.

The Tory platform has mainly focused on collecting data on foreign homebuyers, tax credits to help buy or renovate a home, and a goal to add more than 700,000 new homeowners in Canada by 2020. The party also announced Friday it would consider adopting Australian rules intended to reduce foreign buyers snapping up local real estate.

Gurstein believes it is crucial for the next federal government to get involved again in the building of affordable housing, to encourage the construction of rental buildings, and to renew subsidies for co- operatives, whose contracts with Ottawa are expiring.

“This is not just for low-income people, but also for middleincome people and young families who are moving into their parents’ homes because they can’t afford another place,” she said.

The other three main parties, to varying degrees, have been more proactive on this file, she added.

So what do their platforms say?

The NDP vows to restore investment in social housing, provide incentives to build 10,000 rental units, and improve aboriginal housing in remote areas.

The Liberals pledge to spend billions constructing new affordable housing and seniors facilities (financed by running deficits), tax incentives to improve rental housing, and review escalating home prices in markets like Vancouver.

The Greens promise to create a National Housing Strategy, extend subsidies for coops, and ensure a percentage of new multi-family buildings are reserved for affordable housing.

The real estate industry would like the federal government to reconfigure capital gains and other taxes to encourage the construction of rental buildings, said Cameron Muir, chief economist with the B.C. Real Estate Association.

It is also important for government to realize that in a city like Vancouver, condominiums represent the growth in housing stock, not single-detached homes.

“Providing the conditions so the market can supply housing in a more efficient manner is always an important component of any kind of housing policy,” Muir said.

“Rising home prices and rising rental rates are a function of a scarcity of homes.”