Metro residents want leaders with housing solutions: survey
Housing continues to be a top issue for most municipal election voters — but some residents want more affordable options and others want less development, which will require some “strategic” ideas from candidates running for office, says a new survey.
“Residents’ concerns about affordable housing were most pronounced in the City of Vancouver, the North Shore and Burnaby/ New Westminster,” says a new report VoteLocal, based on a recent survey by the Mustel Group, FleishmanHillard Highroad, and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
“Despite concerns about housing affordability region-wide, many voters believe too much housing is being built. This suggests that politicians will need to be very strategic in how they address housing policy solutions.”
Worrying about overdevelopment is most common in the TriCities and Maple Ridge, Richmond, South Delta, Tsawwassen, Surrey, North Delta, Langley and White Rock. In some of those areas, the fear of density is tied to the loss of agricultural land.
But this housing “disconnect” between residents of different cities could be solved, according to Board of Trade president Iain Black, by addressing transit and transportation — the second key issue among voters. Many of the cities that argue development is happening too quickly, such as Surrey, also say the current transportation system can’t handle all those new people.
“Transit is the key,” Black said, noting both the provincial and federal governments in power right now are “pro-transit administrations.”
Indeed, Ottawa and Victoria have pledged a combined $3 billion for light-rail transit in surrey and a SkyTrain extension in Vancouver.
The survey polled 533 Metro residents, 184 business owners, and 93 politicians, including current mayors and councillors, as well as new candidates. It was conducted July 9 to Aug. 23, to peg key issues in the Oct. 20 municipal election.
Surrey Coun. Bruce Hayne, who is running for mayor, agreed that long-standing Surrey residents may be prepared to embrace more housing growth in the future if the provincial government provides key infrastructure at the same pace, such as hospitals, schools and transit.
“South of the Fraser has been completely underserved (for transit) for decades and we are taking a majority of the population growth increases,” he said. “So that’s got to be one of the number 1 priorities for all the municipalities south of the Fraser.”
Residents said the most important transportation projects were expanding transit such as buses and SkyTrain, and replacing the Pattullo Bridge. For businesses, it was transit and replacing the Massey Tunnel.
On Wednesday, Chief Ian Campbell, the Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate, announced that, if elected, he would like the Broadway subway to continue all the way to UBC, rather than the current plan to stop at Arbutus Street.
He said a feasibility study would have to be completed before he knows the cost of such a project, but wanted to have those answers before the 2019 federal election.
Campbell also said affordability is the biggest issue he hears from residents, and that housing has caused “a sense of urgency and crisis with people in Vancouver,” which he would like to turn around into optimism for “a city that people can call home again.”
He said he would work with other Metro mayors on this file, noting that if Vancouver was the only one building social housing, laneway homes and modular housing then it becomes “a beacon” to everyone looking for a cheaper place to live.
Voters are keen for solutions to Metro’s sky-high housing rates, as the survey found nearly half of residents and more than a third of its business owners have considered moving away from the region because of affordability concerns. Residents most likely to move include those under age 45 in Vancouver and Burnaby/ New Westminster; those the least inclined to move are in Richmond and South Delta.
Three-quarters of business owners say affordability has made it harder for them to hire workers. And a clear majority of both residents and business believe quality of life in Metro has declined in the last five years.
While housing is a high-priority worry for voters, they listed three other topics when asked where city halls should spend their money: road maintenance and traffic reduction; social housing and poverty reduction; and city services such as garbage, water and policing.
Addressing the opioid crisis, which is killing an average of four people daily in B.C., is the lowest priority for spending municipal tax dollars, according to residents and politicians who answered the survey.
Residents are more likely to think their local city halls are on the wrong track in Maple Ridge, the Tri-Cities, Surrey/Langley and Vancouver, while voters are generally happier with their mayors and council on the North Shore and in Burnaby/New Westminster, the survey results said.