Dear Mayor and Council of West Vancouver,
My
name is Paul Kershaw. I’m a UBC Professor, and Founder of Generation
Squeeze, which is building a voice for Canadians in our 20s, 30s, 40s
and the children we represent in the world
of politics. I was born at Cherbourg Drive, and started school at
Caulfield Elementary. In Caulfield, I was raised in a home with a
beautiful back yard and swimming pool purchased by my mom in the early
1970s. She worked as a teacher, and raised me as a
hard-working single mom. As a result of her great parenting and
sacrifices for me, I have enjoyed much educational success and greater
earnings than my mom did at my age. But so much has changed in the city
where I was born that I, along with most others
in my cohort, have been squeezed out of West Van. I now live at 17280
Ford Road in Pitt Meadows.
I
write today on behalf of my organization, a coalition of more than
26,000 talented, hard-working Canadians. Our constituency would love
the opportunity to live in your municipality,
and hope that you will consider our voices in support of developing
purpose-built rental at 195 21st Street alongside the voice
of current residents in that neighbourhood. Normally consultations only
listen to the latter. But that privileges the
voices of those who won out in the lottery of good timing in the
housing market – often people who started out as young adults some
decades ago – while silencing those of us who enter the market more
recently.
West Vancouver is now the least affordable district in the Metro Vancouver region. BC Assessment data show that there are
no homes in West Vancouver that cost less than half a million dollars and provide access to more than two bedrooms.
Back
in 1976, after adjusting for inflation, half a million dollars would
have bought two entire homes. Now it doesn’t by two bedrooms. This is a
massive deterioration in the standard of living
for younger generations, and puts at risk the sustainability of West
Vancouver.
For
the typical 25-34 year old, BC has experienced the largest decrease in
full-time earnings of any province in Canada since 1976 (when today’s
aging population started out as young
adults). All the while, it is our province where home prices have
skyrocketed more than anywhere else. Nowhere is this problem more acute
than in West Vancouver.
Whereas
it used to take 5 years of full time work for a typical young adult to
save a 20% down payment on an average home in 1976, now it takes 23
years in the region of Metro Vancouver,
let alone in West Vancouver specifically. The implication is that many
more talented, well-educated, hard-working young Canadians will be
renters for long periods of our lives, if not indefinitely. Our
municipalities must begin planning for this transition.
This requires prioritizing now the construction of purpose built
rental, and scaling up such developments in the years ahead.
Purpose-built rental provides far more security for tenants than does
renting from small-scale condo owners who purchase the units
as investment opportunities.
If
West Vancouver wants to set itself on a path to intergenerational
fairness, and intergenerational sustainability, it should approve the
Hollyburn proposal for 195 21st Street.
This development will represent the first purpose-built rental
construction in decades. Not only is the development necessary to meet
the backlog in demand for rentals in your municipality
now, it boldly anticipates the future transformation in
our housing market that will be required to deliver an efficient supply
of suitable homes that are in reach for what typical young people can
earn in our region – including those of us born
here.
For
further information about the data illuminating the #CodeRed housing
crisis in West Vancouver and throughout Metro Vancouver, along with 10
propositions for policy reform to ease
the housing squeeze, please see our study: "Code Red: Rethinking Canadian Housing Policy."
Kind regards,
Dr. Paul Kershaw
University of British Columbia, School of Population & Public Health
Founder, Generation Squeeze
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Suit Up. Spread Out. Squeeze Back.
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