Laneway housing permits up in Vancouver
Posted December 28, 2013 7:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The demand for alternative housing is on the rise in Vancouver.
The number of laneway housing permits continued to climb in 2013 with 348 given the green light.
That’s almost 19 times higher than the 18 total permits issued in 2009.
Vancouver councilor Kerry Jang says although they aren’t cheap, they are an easy way for young people to get their own detached dwelling.
“Most importantly, it’s in different parts of the city so if you feel like living in Marpole, you have an option of living in Marpole. If you feel like living in Renfrew Collingwood, you can do that too. Often rental buildings are built in one area of town at the expense of others but the nice thing about these laneway houses, they are spread around the city,” says Jang.
The City requires all laneway houses to be rentals and there have now been over 1,000 permits issued for the little detached houses since 2009.
It usually costs between 250 and 270-thousand dollars to build a laneway house. The small homes are part of Vancouver’s eco-density plan.
Jang says they are making it easier for home owners to build by changing bylaws.
“We’re trying to reduce the costs of having them built by allowing the sewer from the laneway house to attach to the main house sewer as opposed to separate ones, things like that to make it a little bit more affordable and a little easier for people to build.”
But more permits don’t translate into more affordable housing according to some advocates.
“It might make a difference for people who can afford the laneway housing but it doesn’t make a difference for people who can’t,” says Jean Swanson, with the Carnegie Community Action Project, a Downtown Eastside housing advocacy group.
“We’re interested in housing that people on welfare can afford which is $375 a month. So the laneway housing is renting for a lot more than that like $1,000 probably.”
Swanson says even if built, the laneway houses aren’t headed to city’s poorest neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside.
She says they wouldn’t even be close to affordable for those most in need.
“How can you make them $375, you can’t,” says Swanson.
And, she blames the city’s housing taskforce for inactivity.
“It didn’t deal with housing for people who are under the poverty line which is over a quarter of the people in the city and it’s the people that have the worst housing problems.”
