VANCOUVER: The City of Vancouver’s Council passed Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s “Making HOME: Housing for all of us” motion, paving the way for new homeownership options for Vancouver’s middle-class across the city.
“To all the young people and hard working families who love Vancouver but are feeling pushed out, my message to you is this: Making HOME is about giving you hope, and giving you choice. It’s about giving you a future in our great city,” said Mayor Kennedy Stewart.
“Making HOME is the single biggest shift in housing policy Vancouver has seen in a generation,” said Stewart. “It not only helps make homeownership a reality again for the middle-class, it also generates funds to build rental housing, fight homelessness, expand childcare, and tackle the climate emergency.”
Council has asked staff to report back on a framework to implement these changes, including zoning updates and development guidelines.
Mayor Stewart was elected on a platform to expand housing affordability and choice in Vancouver. Since becoming Mayor, Vancouver has dramatically expanded rental approvals for working families, secured over a billion dollars in investment for homelessness action and below-market housing, and developed a framework to retain and expand co-op housing city-wide.
“In order to tackle our housing crisis, we need to build homes for all of us. That means for people who want to buy, people who want to rent, and people who simply need to get off the street,” said Mayor Stewart.
Experts are weighed in with their support for the motion. Dr. Paul Kershaw, UBC School of Population Health & Generation Squeeze said, “It’s time to make room for more residents in all of our neighbourhoods if we want the city to be vibrant and affordable – and a place where people can visit their children and grandchildren without hopping on a train or plane. Making HOME is promising policy because it advances these important goals.”
Alex Boston, Renewable Cities, SFU, said, “Making HOME is not a silver bullet, and it has the potential to generate a lot of silver buckshot to hit multiple city priorities: climate action, affordability, congestion management and neighbourhood revitalization.”
