‘Social Housing’ Is Leaving Low-Income People Out in the Cold

In May, Victoria’s Housing Justice Project released a report that supported what low-income folks have been telling us directly: when you’re low-income, you cannot afford to rent most new social housing.

Single mother of two Toni Love spoke at the project’s May 9 news conference at the legislature, pointing out that housing rules require her to rent a three-bedroom unit and make $85,000 a year to qualify for that unit.

When most people hear the words “social housing,” they imagine housing for low-income people.

But now the province — and many municipalities — don’t mandate affordability in social housing.

B.C.’s current definition of social housing is “a housing development that government subsidizes and that either government or a non-profit housing partner owns and/or operates.”

In Vancouver, before 2015, social housing was defined as “residential units bought by the government or a non-profit using government funding in order to house seniors, disabled people and low-income families or individuals.”

Now, it’s defined as housing owned by a government or non-profit that has 30 per cent of the units with rent below BC Housing’s housing income limits, or HILs, meaning your income should be between about $40,000 and $58,000 if you rent a one-bedroom or bachelor apartment, and more for bigger units.

The other 70 per cent of social housing units are generally rented at what’s called “low end of market” — about 10 per cent below market rents. Average market rent for a vacant apartment in Vancouver in 2023, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., was $2,212 a month.

Low end of market is around $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, which is more than the total monthly income of a person on social assistance, disability or basic pension, about 74 per cent of the total income of a person earning minimum wage and 57 per cent of the income of a single person earning the median Vancouver income.

As a result, many social housing buildings in Vancouver actually exclude low-income people.

Except in the Downtown Eastside. There, back in 2014, low-income people on the city’s Local Area Planning Committee fought tooth and nail for a definition of social housing that would include them. They didn’t get all they wanted, but they did get a definition in the Downtown Eastside Official Development Plan that says one-third of social housing has to be “rented at rates no higher than the shelter component of Income Assistance,” which is $500 a month today.

But a city council motion passed last year has asked Vancouver city staff to report back on aligning the city’s definition of affordability with the province’s.

This is backwards. Instead, the city and province should align their definition and funding of social housing with the Downtown Eastside definition, not the provincial one.

In July, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction told me via email that there are about 3,530 people in Vancouver with no fixed address. That number represents homeless people on social assistance. Some homeless people, including seniors and people who do not receive social assistance, aren’t counted in that number. We desperately need housing for them, but it doesn’t exist. Vancouver doesn’t even have enough temporary shelter beds for everyone who is homeless.

If current social housing projects were required to house people at the shelter rate, we could house a lot more people who are homeless.

But a city memo from December 2022 listing all the social and supportive housing buildings approved through rezoning or with a development permit shows that of 40 buildings, only 13 are planned to have any shelter rate units. In other words, 27 of those new 40 social housing buildings could exclude low-income people. If those 27 buildings required at least one-third of their units to be rented at $500 a month, we could house almost 1,200 precious humans who have low incomes and are either homeless or struggling to afford rent beyond their means.

All levels of government should align their definition of social housing, at a minimum, to the DTES definition of one-third at shelter rate.

In addition — and this is a crucial addition — senior governments need to provide adequate funding to enable housing providers to build housing that rents at this low rate. A recent city report says that about $3.2 billion in funds would be required over the next 10 years from the provincial and federal governments to achieve housing targets for lower-income people. The federal government needs to step up with grants and subsidies high enough to ensure that the social housing they fund doesn’t exclude low-income people.

The B.C. government’s Community Housing Fund is a step in the right direction. But its $3.3-billion investment, meant to last until 2032, is earmarked for the whole province, not just Vancouver.

The CHF funds projects that have 20 per cent of the units renting at the income assistance shelter rate, 50 per cent at the housing income limits rate and 30 per cent at the low end of market rate.

This mix isn’t perfect — I would argue that the 20 per cent shelter rate number should be higher until we end homelessness — but specifically including low-income folks in social housing projects is crucial, and this is one of the few government funding sources that require low-income units.

A recent report from the Parliamentary Budget Office says that in 2019 federal funding covered a measly 14 per cent of planned spending to address homelessness. Another report found that “only three per cent of units funded through the [federal National Housing] Strategy’s largest program are affordable to low-income households.”

If you’re a person who is concerned about housing homeless and low-income people in B.C., it’s not enough to say we need more social housing. We need to pay attention to the details — and push for social housing that low-income folks can actually afford. 

Jean Swanson is a former Vancouver city councillor.

[Top photo: Of the 77 units at 5250 Ash St. identified by the City of Vancouver as ‘social housing,’ 30 per cent will rent below housing income limits set by BC Housing and 70 per cent at the low end of market rents. Neither is affordable for low-income renters. Architectural rendering by NSDA Architects via City of Vancouver.]