housing & how we grow

The Township of Langley, like many communities across our region, is facing a housing affordability crisis and while the issue is complex there is in my opinion a definite role that municipal governments play in mitigating it. I believe the relationship between supply and demand plays an integral role in housing affordability. It is imperative that municipalities look at ways in which municipal governments can help ensure an adequate supply of new housing stock enters the market. New development applications should not and cannot take years for the completion of the application process. We need to take real action to ensure an adequate housing supply while also holding the line to ensure it is the right kind of supply for our community. I believe that developer site specific applications to amend the planning work which has taken place during our official community planning process; should be in the minority, not the norm. Too often we are seeing piecemeal changes to the communities overall plan where piece by piece one day we may not even recognize the plans we once set out for our community. Too often residents, who after researching what is planned for the new and upcoming parts of our community before moving there, find themselves feeling like there has been a bait and switch when years later the plans they once understood would be occurring around them have now been changed to what is often a considerable increase in density. The municipal government's role must be to focus on what is best for our community as a whole. We must ensure we keep focused on our residents as well as those who will one day live here, their children, grandchildren and so on. We also have a role to play in regards to the rental crisis we are facing as a region. There are measures local governments can put in place to help encourage a more robust rental market in order to assist those living in our community who by choice or by circumstance are in the rental market. We should be utilizing the new legislative powers in place which allow rental zoning to be used where rental units are not merely encouraged but are required. We can put in place measures to ensure new housing developments have an adequate component of affordable housing requirements, using the 30% formula (costs are 30% or less of an area's monthly median household income or at least 30% below market rent in that area ((whichever is lower in a given community)) to ensure developers incorporate housing opportunities for all, not just the most wealthy. These should be done in a way that is inclusive and provides a seamless transition between fair market housing and affordable housing. We can as a municipality fast-track affordable housing construction, providing an accelerated permitting process for both the construction of affordable housing as well as rental housing. We can offer development cost waivers and provide targeted incentives for affordable rental construction including waving fees. We can build new affordable rental housing on municipal and school district owned lands. The B.C School Act explicitly allows school districts to acquire and use district owned lands for the purpose of providing housing for students or employees. School districts can look for approval under the act to provide development partnerships with municipal governments where the act permits joint board and community uses to provide non-market housing for employees on district owned lands. The act also allows districts to provide housing units which are not required by employees to be rented to the wider public with the same conditions that apply to their students and or employees. Utilizing local government owned lands and school district owned lands differently than what has been the status quo for years by thinking outside of the box could allow for unique and beneficial opportunities to provide affordable housing at the doorstep of both work and school. Section 226 of the B.C Community Charter provides the authority for local governments to provide 10-year property tax waivers for public and non-market affordable rental housing through the establishment of a revitalization program where the government enters into an agreement with property owner in which taxes are exempt once all of the specific conditions of the program are met. This is something other communities in Canada are utilizing and it would not only encourage an increase in the construction of rental units but also the renewal and preservation of existing units. This is also an area of incentives which would help to encourage whole home rentals to accommodate larger families who would find a secondary unit like a basement suite or a smaller condo unsuitable. As a mother of four, I look back and I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to buy my first home at the age of 20 years old. I now look to the future for my four daughters, with my oldest being now at the age where I had already sold and bought my second home. I worry like many others do if my girls will ever be able to know the rewarding feeling that home ownership brings. I believe that it is crucial a parent be at the table during the important conversations that need to occur around housing and affordability and the future of our community. While I feel privileged for the experiences I have had, I found myself after a divorce and years later the loss of my business during Covid, starting all over again. I too now along with many others am dealing with the reality and often vulnerable position of being a tenant. It’s a perspective I now bring to the conversation, one that 11 years ago when I first entered politics I would have never been able to speak to so passionately. I fully believe that the strength I have taken from the experiences I have gone through only benefits me as the next mayor of the Township of Langley.