Housing crisis: Asking ‘can I afford to live in the Lower Mainland?’

During the coming weeks, through multiple stories, multi-media journalist Neil Corbett will be looking at the housing crisis.

It’s a province-wide issue that is sharply felt in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

On May 30, the City of Maple Ridge will be hosting an affordable-housing summit, to examine the problem, and what role local government can play.

To kick off the feature series, this week we talk to a local politician who has taken a deep and personal interest in what – for people who don’t own property – is truly a crisis that impacts life decisions.

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Maple Ridge city Councillor Jenny Tan is passionate about finding solutions to the housing crisis.

She has a unique perspective. Tan is one of the seven people who vote to approve or reject new subdivisions, townhouse developments, and condo towers in Maple Ridge.

She is also a 30-year-old woman who not long ago was living in a travel trailer in Vancouver, and hosting a podcast about housing issues. She titled it “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” because she wasn’t sure she could afford to have the life she wants in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

Her podcast gave the one-time journalist the chance to interview experts and stakeholders. Last June, she even had a conversation with now premier David Eby, back when he was the provincial housing minister.

Tan grew up with her family in Maple Ridge, attended UBC, and got a degree in economics. But she soon saw it was going to be tough to get ahead living in Vancouver.

“I was putting an awful lot of my salary down to rent a room in a house with nine people,” she said. “I was sharing a bathroom with three guys. That gets very old, very quickly.”

Tan’s solution was to buy a vacation trailer and park it on a friend’s property.

That also was not a comfortable way to live. Her pipes froze when the temperature dipped, and she soon tired of having cold showers, but was still living paycheque to paycheque. Hence the podcast.

“I wanted to understand the root causes of it (the housing crisis),” she said. “Can I afford to stay here? Is there even hope for me?”

READ ALSO: 660 new affordable homes coming to Pitt Meadows and other Metro Vancouver sites

She is far from unique in being a young professional who finds housing unaffordable.

After Tan won her seat on council during the 2022 municipal election, a Maple Ridge friend who is in law school implored her “please make it so I can stay in Maple Ridge.”

The crisis covers all demographics. A woman in her 70s, who Tan described as “a regular senior,” approached the new councillor with the problem that she couldn’t find a place to live that she can afford.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reports this month that prices are rising again, despite eight consecutive interest rate hikes that made houses throughout the region more unaffordable.

The benchmark price of a house in Maple Ridge is now $1.2 million, a townhouse $747,000, and an apartment $525,000.

Interest rates vary, but at a rate of 4.64 per cent, and a mortgage of $475,000 for 25 years, the payment for an apartment would be $2,666 per month.

A jump to a $700,000 mortgage for a townhouse would bring monthly payments of $3,930 per month.

The median household income in Maple Ridge is $92,000 per year, according to Stats Canada, based on 2020 numbers. That allows for take-home pay of approximately $5,500 per month.

Purchasing a house, for more than $1 million, would take that entire monthly income.

According to 2021 census data from Statistics Canada, B.C. ranks as the most unaffordable province for housing in Canada. Between 2011 and 2021, home ownership in the province dropped from 70 per cent to 66.8 per cent.

But the rental market in Maple Ridge offers little reprieve.

A look at homes for rent in the city this month shows a two-bedroom apartment at the Brickwater building downtown going for $2,500 per month, and others in the same price range. One bedroom units can be found for $1,500 per month. There is a three-bedroom townhome up for rent at $3,475, and a four-bedroom house for $3,995.

Eby outlined the roots of the problem as he saw it on “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” back in June 2022.

• Senior governments were once involved in building thousands of units of housing annual in co-ops and other ways. That funding largely stopped in the 1990s.

• B.C. is in a population boom that saw a 60-year high of 100,000 people move to the province in 2021, and homes are not being built fast enough to accommodate them.

• These factors have contributed to the “financialization of housing,” leading to more investment, and inflated prices.

“The scarcity, the lack of federal and provincial involvement in building housing, combined with the population increase, means that housing is now a lucrative investment,” the former housing minister told Tan.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission calls financialization of housing – property being treated as a vehicle for wealth – a human rights issue.

Tan can be heard at the council table pressing developers to build more two- and three-bedroom apartments, and fewer one bedrooms. That way, families can fit into the most accessible housing type.

But that is just one part of the solution, along with affordable housing supplied through senior government incentives, and the involvement of non-profits to manage affordable housing projects.

Other cities in the Lower Mainland require developers to provide non-market housing, affordably priced, in their buildings. They have agreements to ensure they stay non-market.

“Maple Ridge needs to catch up to that,” she insisted.

“This is solvable – it’s incredibly complex and challenging,” said Tan. “We need multiple solutions – we are in a crisis.”

Tan is glad that Mayor Dan Ruimy and the rest of council have decided to host the Affordable Housing Summit on May 30, but offered a “spoiler” – they’re not going to solve the housing crisis.

“I’m looking forward to thoughtful conversations that will help us move our city forward,” she said, “so whoever you are, you have a shot at a good life in Maple Ridge.”

READ ALSO: City of Maple Ridge to host affordable housing summit