Could adding to existing co-ops ease Vancouver’s housing crisis?
A proposal coming to Vancouver city council this week is looking at building more affordable housing by expanding to co-ops.
As Vancouver renters continue to pay the highest prices in the country, Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung says co-ops could be a potential source of new supply.
“The really bright spot about co-op homes, unlike when you’re building market rental, for example, is that the affordability improves over time,” she told CTV News.
Low- and middle-income residents buy shares in the co-op but don’t have any equity or ownership stake in the property. However, they get to vote on policies like pets and parking priority, much like a strata, and can’t be evicted by owners looking to sell.
Kirby-Yung said there are about 7,000 units in Vancouver co-ops in Vancouver, with around 3,700 owned by the city.
She said many are on their last legs.
Groups representing co-ops said they want the city to look at fixing and expanding those properties.
On average, a co-op in Vancouver has around 56 units according to the Co-op Housing Federation of B.C.
"A lot of the sites we're looking at could easily triple the number of co-op homes on the land that's there,” said CEO Thom Armstrong.
Many of Vancouver’s co-ops were built decades ago with help from federal funding that has since dried up. The federal government stopped building co-ops in the early 1990s and wait lists have only grown for what is now an aging supply.
Armstrong said many were built with “low density”, meaning there could be room to fit more units onto existing co-op land.
He also told CTV news investing in co-ops makes sense long-term since they’re non-profits.
“A housing co-op doesn’t have to deliver a return to a shareholder, it just needs to provide housing to its members at cost,” Armstrong said.
“That means over time the cost of a home in an affordable housing co-op drops dramatically relative to the market.”
It's a sentiment echoed by Kirby-Yung.
“As the cost of building and the mortgages are paid down, that affordability improves so as you’re building those units today they become the most affordable homes of the future,” she said.
With older building's leases up for renewal, and no federal funding for co-ops, Kriby-Yung's motion asks the city to find partners to help support building thi s particular type of new housing.
The motion will come to council on Wednesday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.