We are in a housing crisis

Victoria is becoming increasingly unaffordable for primary homeowners and renters
4x
Increase in the average home price in the last 20 years
$2100
Average rent for a 1 bed apartment
15%
Of renter's moves are forced in BC, highest rate in the country

What's our goal?

We're a community advocacy group pushing to solve the housing crisis through local action. Local councils have the most influence over housing affordability, and are directly accountable to Victoria residents like you.

Why should you care? Because you...
are a renter
want to own a home
have/want to have a family
don’t want your kids to move
want vibrant neighbourhoods
want a strong local economy
care about the environment

How do we fix this?

Give non-market housing a leg up

Why?
While we need to ensure that market-priced housing becomes more abundant and affordable, the market will not be able to build cheaply enough to create homes for everyone.

Currently only about 3.5% of Canadians live in social housing, while the need is much greater. Investments in non-market housing lead to more affordable rents not just to start, but increasingly over time as rents are raised only to cover costs, not to pace the market.

Non-market housing providers should always be given an advantage over market housing to ensure affordable housing developers can compete and expand our affordable housing stock. Homes for Living supports Victoria's non-profit housing providers' calls to action.
How?
Identify government land for grants, and add housing to new government facilities (example)
Incentivize non-profit developments via fee exemptions, tax holidays, priority processing, and bonus density integrated into official community plans
Increase funding for social housing

Legalize housing more broadly

Why?
Though recent provincial reforms have made substantial progress towards ending exclusionary zoning, apartments and the amenities to support them remain banned on the majority of our land.

Concentrating apartments into centers where they largely already exist increases pressure to redevelop more affordable housing which increases displacement. With thousands of older apartment buildings from the 60s in Victoria, we need to ensure that new apartment buildings are legal on more land to reduce the risk that older apartments will be redeveloped before end of life.

Despite recent increases in rental construction, we have a lot of catching up to do. CMHC indicates that in the last 30 years, there has only been an increase of 4442 purpose built rental units while population grew by 103,000. That has forced more people to live in the less secure secondary rental market (basements suites and condos) where they face a much greater risk of eviction.
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How?
Revise our Official Community Plans to allow 6 storey apartment buildings in the walkshed of all centres and transit corridors
Allow apartments around municipal parks to ensure people without backyards have access to greenspace
Expand mixed use zoning to create new villages and allow more people to live within walking/rolling distance of amenities

Make housing more affordable to build

Why?
Legalizing housing broadly and encouraging non-market housing will drive down prices and rents. However the cost to build is a major challenge to making housing cheaper. Market housing prices can't fall under what it costs to build, and social housing funding doesn't go as far if every home costs more. Making housing less expensive to build will improve housing availability and affordability.

Many of our regulations unnecessarily add costs and delays (which translate to costs) for both market and non-market housing.
How?
Remove mandatory parking minimums, except for accessible parking and bike parking.
Revise the building code to allow single egress low rise apartment buildings which are more affordable and livable while still being safe.
Explicitly prioritize housing affordability in all related regulations as well as associated processing times.

Model Housing Platform, Elections 2022

We've highlighted a subset of the above policies that we believe should be priorities for the upcoming municipal elections. Check it out →
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Why these policies? Can't more be done?

There are many more policies that can be changed at the federal level. We have a local focus since we believe that it's a different set of problems that deserves its own approach. For federal policies (such as better taxation of investors, transparent bidding, etc) check out the Canada Housing Subreddit.

What can I do?

Things that can be done right now to help.

1. Follow us on Twitter ›

Help amplify our tweets with likes, retweets, & comments.

2. Subscribe to our newsletter ›

We will only send important and relevant updates to you. We respect your privacy and will send at most an email a month.

3. Contact your representative ›

Send them an email or call them to say you want bold and immediate action on housing in Victoria.

4. Share your housing story ›

Join one of our social channels and share how you've navigated through the unaffordable market in Victoria.

5. Join our Discord ›

Ask how you can help with one of our ongoing projects (vote tracker, zoning map, etc).

6. Support our work ›

To educate as many voters as possible on which candidates are the most pro-housing (via the results of our of our evaluation), we'd like to expand our reach with print & social media ads.

Passionate about affordable housing?

Come join the conversation on the Homes for Living Discord. We are a group of community volunteers that are taking action to make Victoria a better place to live for primary homeowners and renters.
Join our Discord