VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC’s housing minister says a coalition’s challenge to see him commit to 10,000 new social housing units a year is unrealistic.
Rich Coleman says it’s an idea that could cost billions of dollars.
Social Housing Coalition BC issued the challenge yesterday, admitting it would cost $2 billion a year, but adding that the province is in a crisis with 100,000 people homeless or close to it. Coleman isn’t sold.
“It’s about a $3-billion capital cost and would probably cost you half a billion a year to operate,” he argues. “It’s certainly not part of our platform or program and I haven’t heard from the opposition whether it’s theirs or not.”
“It… isn’t realistic and… it blew through my desk as just a comment from somebody on the Downtown Eastside, I think it was Jean Swanson, and we haven’t done enough analysis on it,” adds Coleman. “Jean is a member of the NDP but I think she has her own notions on this.”
Coleman tells us it’s challenging to get projects going when you consider public consultation, funding plans, and construction. He adds the province has increased the BC Housing Budget by $400 million a year in the last six years, just to add a dozen new social housing developments.
Today, he announced 100 interim units have been secured at a former Howard Johnson Hotel on Kingsway for those transitioning out of homelessness.
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I have worked for more than forty-five years at good paying jobs. I am now retired and I could certainly not afford to live in Vancouver the most expensive city in Canada, even if I wanted to relocate. Where do the drug addicted, the poor and the unemployed get the idea that they have a right to live in Vancouver and be subsidized by the rest of society. Why do we continue to expand services for this segment of society in Vancouver encouraging others in a similar situation to move to this beautiful location? There are many other parts of Canada that are far more affordable.
$300,000 per apartment for social housing? For that money they can buy brand new condos in Yaletown: http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/reb/3589087241.html
$50,000 per year per unit to operate? You can pay rent for 2-3 families for that amount of money.
So, the rent for 10,000 families for entire year would be 200 millions…
Doesn’t anyone stop to ask why this non-market housing needs to cost $200,000 a unit and $50,000 a unit per year to operate. These are stupid numbers. Obviously you could simply give each homeless person $50,000 a year and skip the capital cost altogether. Of course this leaves the professional charity sector without work. Quelle dommage! Can’t anyone count anymore?
There was a feature on social housing in a local paper. They interviewed a guy from Winnipeg who was very happy with his new suite.
Want to lower costs? Stop building social housing in the downtown core…there are plenty of more affordable areas within the lower mainland, and even in Vancouver itself. The money saved could be used for rehab & other facilities close to the new social housing. Provide transit passes, if necessary, so that they can still travel to downtown (and each other) if they so need.
What a lot of these “coalitions” seem to forget is that a right to affordable housing does not extend to dictating it must be in Canada’s most expensive real estate.
As for Coleman, he’s simply stating the obvious…credibility lacking or not.
I totally agree. Move these people out of the downtown core. Most people who work downtown don’t live downtown. Why should homeless people feel like they have the right to live down there when most of us can’t?
What you say is true, however I’m note in favour of providing transit passes. Also, If you eliminate the cheaters in the Social Housing system there would be no shortage of housing. You’d be astonished know how many loafers hide there net worth so they can qualify for Social Housing. It’s in the bank accounts of offspring, it’s offshore and it’s in numbered companies. There is no shortage of means that these people use to get a free ride from the rest of us. Worse yet, BC Housing doesn’t seem to care that many of there “tenants” drive new Lexus’ and SUV’s. Next, get rid of the many clueless morons who work for BC Housing and hire people that actually know what they are doing.
Does Coleman have any credibility left????
The NDP will jump right on this!
why is this man still in politics, he has never done anything for British Columbians, it is all about him, and when he doesn’t get what he wants he throws a tiss fit, I know I have never voted for the idiot.
Since when does the lieberal party consult with the public on issues Mr. Coleman? Did they consult the public when they slid the HST on us after promising not to? Did they consult the public when they sold BCRail after Campbell promised it would never be sold. Did Christy Clark consult the public when she dicided to spend 12 million dollars on a fake Bollywood party?
I agree with most of what you say, but I’m ok with them sliding in the HST. It was a good system. Too bad so many fools voted against it.
Really, I don’t think anyone was “foolish” about their trepidation around the HST. The Liberal party, which I’ll add that I am a supporter of, simply did not consult with the public about it which turned out to be a horrible mistake. The public didn’t know why it was so good to move to the HST format, So it’s a good thing that we are not just a bunch of sheep and automatically think that what is presented to us is good without some explanation and justification.
I would hope that all politicos learn from this costly mistake. But foolish, no. I do respectfully disagree.
100% agree
+1
the removal of HST will cost more in the long run