Metro Vancouver‘- Social Housing’ Is Leaving Low-Income People Out in the Cold. When you think of that term, are you picturing a person earning $85,000?Jean Swanson, a former Vancouver city councillor.10 Sep 2024The Tyee  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 the 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 percent 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 for a two-bedroom apartment in purpose-built rental housing in Vancouver in 2023, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., was $2,181 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......read on   https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/09/10/Social-Housing-Low-Income-People/