How much affordable housing does a city actually require? Made-in-B.C. system aims to assess needs
University of British Columbia researchers have designed new tools to help assess how much affordable housing is needed in a city.
They have developed the “Housing Assessment Resource Tools,” or HART, to fill what they call a gap in the strategy to help the more than 1.7 million people in Canada currently living in unaffordable, overcrowded or poor condition housing, says a news release sent out by UBC on Tuesday.
UBC expert, Penny Gurstein, the head of the Housing Research Collaborative at UBC’s school of community and regional planning, says there’s no standardized method in Canada to assess needs by income and future population growth at any level of government
So, she says, up to now, city planners have used a used a variety of tools with mixed results.
“HART is designed to provide planners with a simple, robust, equity-focused tool that will work across different locations and jurisdictions,” says Gurstein in the news release.
She says the tool assesses population and does a land assessment to find the best locations to deliver affordable housing.
Her group first tested HART in the city of Kelowna. It found Kelowna has a good housing supply, but among lower-income households, more than half of the families are paying an unaffordable amount of their income on rent.
“We also found that close to 30 per cent of single mothers and almost 20 per cent of Indigenous households live in need of housing or need more affordable housing,” added Gurstein.
Gurstein says she and her team developed HART after winning Stage 1 of the “Housing Supply Challenge, ” a callout from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for new ideas to help more people find affordable housing.
She says the next step is to win Stage 2 and roll the idea out into other cities.
“Regardless of the outcome, we hope to disseminate HART widely, and one of the ways to do that is by training planners and other professionals to use this tool through an online certificate program,” says Gurstein.
Gurstein worked with researchers from the University of Ottawa and University of Waterloo on the project.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
Box tree moths have infested Ontario and experts say more are coming. Here's what to do to protect your garden
An invasive moth species is on the rise in Canada and, if you've planted a certain shrub, it could stand to ruin your garden.
Lyon-bound Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Montreal turns back midflight due to pressurization alert
Passengers heading from Montreal to Lyon, France on Friday were forced to return home and depart the next day after a pressurization indication was detected in flight.
Oilers dominate Canucks, win to force deciding Game 7
The Edmonton Oilers avoided elimination from the NHL playoffs Saturday night, beating the visiting Vancouver Canucks 5-1 in Game 6 of their second-round series.
The eight most expensive homes for sale in Ottawa this spring
Ottawa's ultra luxury housing market is blooming like the tulips this spring, with a significant increase in the number of homes sold worth more than $2 million.
B.C. pipeline company argues its 'haulers' are not trucks, for tax purposes
A contractor working on the Coastal GasLink pipeline has been denied more than $333,000 worth of tax rebates because pieces of machinery it purchased – and claimed were not trucks – were deemed sufficiently truck-like in B.C. Supreme Court.
$500K-worth of elvers seized at Toronto airport
Fishery and border service officers seized more than 100 kilograms of unauthorized elvers at the Toronto Pearson International Airport on Wednesday.
Usyk beats Fury by split decision, becomes undisputed heavyweight champion
Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury by split decision to become the first undisputed heavyweight boxing champion in 24 years.
To plant or not to plant? Gardening tips for May long weekend
May long weekend is finally here, and with the extra time off you may be getting the itch to head out to your garden and plant. However, the old debate whether you should plant now, or wait, is still ever-present.