Affordable Housing tax meeting disappointing
Re: CVRD meeting May 22, 2018 to present its Affordable Housing Plan to justify a new tax
I attended the presentation meeting expecting to see a presentation with slides and hear what the CVRD plans for affordable housing were, how the analysis had been structured, what properties, (land only, and land with existing buildings) had been identified as possibly suitable, some projected costs and a summary of benefits that all the citizens in the Cowichan Valley might derive from this exercise sufficient to sway people to accept another property tax increase.
As it turned out, there was no agenda. No attempt was made to provide an outline of the business model/methodology, no attempt to explain what the goals might be, there was no action plan, and no timeline. Just one big blank canvas!
Bev Suderman, senior planner at the CVRD started the session by bringing up a slide showing several years in individual boxes but no data; the audience was invited to ask questions as she proceeded. Within a few minutes questions started and the proceedings went right off topic. People spoke of their personal difficulties and their needs, others of similar economic status talked of how they coped and bluntly stated they did not want and could not afford any additional taxes, and emphasized the housing issue is fully the responsibility of the B.C. government, and the federal government.
One questioner, when his turn came, wanted to know when the Cowichan Housing Association was formed and with what funding. The answer we received surprised the people in the room. The Housing Association has been in existence since sometime in 2015, it was funded with $500,000 by Island Health and a further $100,000 from grants received — I didn’t hear the source. When asked what they did with this money there was no coherent answer. We did hear from the executive director of the Cowichan Housing Association that about $330,000 is still available. When pressed how $270,000 had been spent, again no answer.
The mood of the assembly was not good. The CVRD Chairman Mr. John Lefebure had to pour oil on troubled water and attempt to calm matters down. A significant amount of time was given to concerns other than the task at hand. While I was still in the room, we did not hear how CVRD or North Cowichan/Duncan intended to approach the provincial government for funding — it is available.
The provincial government has budgeted “$5 million for local government to help fund housing need assessments — the first step to building housing for people.” (This is an extract from the B.C. government Ministry of Housing paper with a 30-point plan for a fairer housing market.) This sum of money is to help local governments “fully define the problems as the first step to building housing for people.” So why does CVRD need more taxes?
This Housing Ministry paper is a wide-ranging document (well over 40 pages), which unfortunately takes the focus off the “affordable housing” issue. Nevertheless, it has a stated plan of “making a $6 billion-plus investment in affordable housing.” No timeline when this will be available or end.
In addition, the government has published a joint paper “Housing-Hub” (Building Partnerships. Building Homes) which is available online, “The Housing Hub is a new division within BC Housing” — its mandate: “The Housing-HUB will work in partnership with non-profit sectors, faith groups, other levels of government, Indigenous organizations and others to confront the most serious barriers to the creation of affordable homes in the province for middle-income earners. The hub’s mandate is to increase the supply of homes in partnership with these groups using BC Housing’s extensive technical knowledge in housing development and to support the momentum in new housing (my emphasis) across this province.”
This shows some promise, but I couldn’t find anything in the document about connecting with local government, though they have a budget of $20 million to establish the Housing HUB. Therefore, I conclude the municipalities must go and ask for financial help and I suggest, while asking for money, they should ask for some guidance on how to proceed — the government states it has something useful for local governments, and to include what the process is to secure the real hard cash for development projects.
Lastly, the province is going to “expand the use of MRDT (municipal regional district tax) derived from online accommodation providers on short term rentals to be used by local governments to fund housing initiatives (my emphasis). Previously these funds could only be spent on tourism marketing” (think Airbnb). The tax is three per cent of the rental which goes to the local governments. The province takes eight per cent for itself.
I fear the public is not being served well, ineptness is only how it can be described. Perhaps an audit of municipal/regional districts by the B.C. Ministry of Housing is required before more money is frittered away.
Disappointed, I left the meeting a little over an hour after it started.
Christopher Carruthers
Duncan
