Affordable housing continues to be a struggle throughout B.C. communities like Pitt Meadows, and the new interim housing needs report (IHNR) required by the provincial government, suggests that more than 5,000 new units could be required in the city by 2041.
Christine Carter, manager of strategic initiatives, presented this new report to city council on Nov. 5 and explained why these numbers might not be the cause for concern that many people might think.
She explained that the new IHNR used a much different model than the city's current housing need report, which was recently adopted in April of 2022.
The IHNR also required three new items, including a 20-year housing needs projection, a statement of housing needs in close proximity to transportation infrastructure, and a description of actions taken to help reduce the severity of housing needs since the adoption of the most recent housing needs report.
By using the required calculation methods, the city was given a total projected increase of 1,521 units by 2026 and 5,195 units by 2041.
This is a significant jump from the city's original housing needs report, which projected the need for only 400 new units by 2026.
By far the biggest contributor to these numbers was the anticipated growth category, which accounted for 3,626 units in the 20-year projection.
"The way this calculation was done is it took a B.C. stats projection on local household growth, and the province assigned a regional growth rate of 51 per cent for Metro Vancouver," said Carter. "The calculation takes the average of those two sources of data and applies it to the population."
Coun. Bob Meachen pushed back against such a high number for the anticipated growth category, stating he expects Pitt Meadows to be impacted by the trend many surrounding cities are experiencing right now.
"We're seeing a lot of people leaving Lower Mainland British Columbia because the costs are just too high," said Meachen.
Rather than focusing solely on the number of units, Coun. Tracy Elke said that there should be a big focus on making more units affordable.
"The rent costs are ridiculous and unaffordable in our community. You have to have several jobs just to pay rent," said Elke. "We've done a lot of work, but there's more that we can do to really look at housing in the future. This is going to continue to be an issue."
Despite the city of less than 20,000 people getting a housing needs projection of more than 5,000 new units by 2041, Carter explained that this isn't the major concern that it appears to be.
"I think it's really important that people understand that these numbers are not targets. We are not required to report on them and there's no repercussions if we don't hit the number," said Carter. "We have to demonstrate that we have capacity in our OCP and zoning bylaws to accommodate these units should we get that many people coming forward who want to build."
With the introduction of the province's new small-scale multi-unit housing legislature that allows for single-family lots to be transformed into multi-unit housing without the need for a rezoning process at city hall, the theoretical capacity for additional housing in Pitt Meadows greatly exceeds these suggested new unit numbers.
According to Carter, a detailed analysis shows that there is space for an additional 11,000 units in Pitt Meadows, without having to impact any properties in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
"We're very confident that we can demonstrate that we have capacity in our OCP and zoning bylaws," said Carter.
Mayor Nicole MacDonald addressed this 11,000 new units number, saying it's actually less feasible than it might seem on paper due to the additional space for the new services that would be required with such an increase in population.
"We know there is a need for housing, and diverse housing, and affordable housing," said MacDonald. "I do think we have a community where a lot of individuals want to stay and the issue becomes the restraint of our housing options."
