BC NDP
- Build 2,200 more units of supportive housing.
- Provide rent supplements for residents of supportive housing who are ready to move on to independent living.
This is a page from the 2020 British Columbia general election.
Housing & Homelessness platforms
Here's what the BC 2020 parties are promising.Homelessness
BC Liberals
Invest in getting homeless British Columbians a home and connecting them with the health and social service supports they need.
We don't have any BC Greens policies on Homelessness.
Housing affordability
BC NDP
- Continue work to provide 114,000 new, affordable housing units.
- Provide remaining portion of 1,750 new homes for Indigenous people on- and off-reserve.
- Provide more low-interest loans and expand the Housing Hub.
We'll streamline and modernize housing construction by eliminating outdated parking minimums in projects close to public transit, develop a single-window provincial permitting process, and work with communities to streamline approval processes at the local level.
— From Working for You.
Controlling the rising cost of strata insurance: [...] If rates have not corrected by the end of 2021, we will develop a public strata insurance option, similar to Saskatchewan.
— From Working for You.
Providing more homes for Indigenous people in BC: We will deliver the remaining units in our $550 million commitment to building 1,750 new homes, both on- and off-reserve [...]
— From Working for You.
Getting more affordable housing built through Housing Hub partnerships: Through the Housing Hub we launched in 2018, we'll provide additional low-interest loans to add tens of thousands more homes for middle income families. We'll expand the role of this innovative team to partner with non-profit and co-op housing providers to acquire and preserve existing rental housing. We'll also instruct the Housing Hub to look for new pathways to home ownership through rent-to-own or other equity-building programs.
— From _Working for You_.
BC Liberals
- Establish an incentive fund for municipalities with policies that increase the construction and supply of new housing.
- Implement tax and permitting changes to boost housing supply.
- Review current property tax structure to incent affordable housing and prevent speculation.
Require reviews of Official Community Plans every five years that are public, robust and transparent; require that zoning bylaws then be updated to reflect changes to the plan within one year after adoption; and allow for the waiving of hearings for Official Community Plan compliant projects.
Support zoning reform to provide inclusionary (sic) zoning and to ensure that the Residential Tenure Zoning (RRTZ) tool cannot be used to devalue and downzone property.
Ensure no net loss of rental units in real estate redevelopment projects.
Implement split assessments for the commercially-rented portion of buildings through a new commercial property sub-class.
Create a new residential property sub-class for rental housing of three or more units.
Change BC Assessment practices to ensure rental properties are no longer valued based on the highest and best use, but rather on actual rental use.
— From Restore Confidence. Rebuild BC.
Use provincial and municipal land for affordable housing.
— From Restore Confidence. Rebuild BC.
Enable affordable condominium strata insurance by: encouraging and facilitating self-insurance models for stratas; eliminating the practice of "best-terms" pricing; and reducing statutorily-required insurance for strata properties from full replacement value to a level in line with actual claims cost history.
Reduce delays in building-permit approvals and new homeowner costs.
Improve the municipal development approval process, based on best practices.
Strengthen and enforce Regional Growth Strategy targets so they are robust and effective.
Provide provincial funding to create a digital tracking tool to allow municipalities and applicants to track the progress of individual applications and identify roadblocks.
— From Restore Confidence. Rebuild BC.
Support and develop co-operative housing and other alternative ownership models.
BC Greens
- Accelerate investments to affordable, supportive, and social housing.
- Extend leases for extant co-ops and create a land bank for new co-ops.
- Establish a capital fund to support the acquisition and maintenance rental housing by nonprofits.
- Close the bare trust loophole.
These steps include:
- Taking a housing first approach and accelerate investments to affordable, supportive and social housing on a priority basis;
- Expanding supports for co-op housing through extending leases for existing co-ops about to expire, create a land bank for new co-ops, and provide security of tenure for co-ops on leased land;
- Work with local governments to expand the "missing middle", such as townhouses and triplexes;
- Establish a capital fund to support the acquisition and maintenance of rental housing by nonprofits to maintain affordable rental units and address the financialization of the rental market;
- Close the bare trust loophole
— From The BC Greens' Plan for a More Equitable and Sustainable BC.
Housing speculation
We don't have any BC NDP policies on Housing speculation.
BC Liberals
- Change the real-estate speculation tax to a condo-flipping capital gains tax.
- Implement higher property-taxes for non-residents of Canada.
BC Greens
Change the speculation tax to include more foreign owners and satellite families.
Rent and evictions
BC NDP
- Freeze rents to the end of 2021 and capping increases after that.
- Provide a renter's rebate of $400/year for households earning up to $80,000 annually that are not already receiving other rental support.
BC Liberals
Implement a short-term commercial-rent relief plan that flows relief directly to tenants and supports small businesses unable to access current relief programmes.
BC Greens
Introduce a rental supplement to close the cap between affordable rent and what renters actually pay and introduce means-tested grant that applies to low and moderate income earners who are paying more than 30% of their income in rent.
Stratas
BC NDP
- Control the rising cost of strata insurance.
- If rates have not corrected by the end of 2021, we will develop a public strata insurance option, similar to Saskatchewan.
BC Liberals
- Encouraging and facilitate self-insurance models for stratas.
- Eliminate the practice of "best-terms" pricing.
- Reducing statutorily-required insurance for strata properties from full replacement value to a level in line with actual claims cost history.
BC Greens
Convene a taskforce, including insurance brokers, insurers, and strata owners, to deal with the rising cost of strata insurance and develop solutions as soon as the BC Financial Services Authority finishes their investigation.