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
India's foreign minister reacts to murder charges, claims Canada welcomes criminals
India's Foreign Affairs Minister accused Canada of welcoming criminals from his country in response to the RCMP's recent arrests in a homicide that has roiled tensions between the two countries.
15-year-old boy stabbed in Ottawa on Thursday dies
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Dash cam catches moment suspected drunk driver hits parked car, sends it careening into North Shore flower shop
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
Actor Bernard Hill, of 'Titanic' and 'Lord of the Rings,' has died at 79
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
'A tiny city:' Pro-Palestinian campus protesters organize for another week
Pro-Palestinian activists have set up tents at universities in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, following a wave of similar protests at campuses in the United States linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
Lawsuit against Meta asks if Facebook users have right to control their feeds using external tools
Do social media users have the right to control what they see — or don't see — on their feeds?
A Holocaust survivor will mark that history differently after the horrors of Oct. 7
This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Sunday evening in Israel, carries a heavier weight than usual for many Jews around the world.
Princess Anne lays wreath at Battle of Atlantic ceremony; honours late Queen
Princess Anne saluted Canadian veterans and current forces members and honoured her late mother during separate ceremonies Sunday in Victoria as she wrapped up a three-day British Columbia West Coast royal visit.
El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.