Council Backs Pressing Feds on Affordable Housing
Prince George, B.C.- With a rental vacancy rate of less than 2% in Prince George, Councilor Garth Frizzell is calling on his Council colleagues to support a resolution that calls for the Federal Government to do more to create affordable housing.
His Council colleagues gave him unanimous support.
Frizzell brought forth a motion that states “Stable and secure housing is essential to attracting new workers, meeting the needs of young families and supporting seniors and our most vulnerable citizens.”
Frizzell says with projections of increased growth in Prince George and the North as more workers come to the region, the current housing stock is under pressure. Frizzell says the Federal Government needs to develop a long term plan to address the housing shortage in Canada. Councillor Murry Krause pointed to the need for not only affordable housing, but safe affordable housing.
Council has endorsed a resolution that calls on the Federal Government to “develop a long-term plan for housing that puts core investments on solid ground, increases predictability, protects Canadians from the planned expiry of $1.7 billion in social housing agreements and ensures a healthy stock of affordable rental housing for Canadians.”
Comments
Please define the word “affordable”. If you are a Chinese National emigrating to Canada, a two million dollar (cheap) house in Vancouver is “affordable”. Please use that sum as a guideline if you cannot define the word “affordable”. To me a Costco tent would be affordable to me right now. Based on all property related taxes that are foisted on me. Start talkin’.
Frizzle says …”with projections of increased growth in P.G…..” What a funnee guy. Who told him that? BTW. Make that a “safe” affordable tent.
Not sure where Frizzel is getting his stats from. This current article in the Western Investor would suggest otherwise.
http://www.westerninvestor.com/index.php/spotlight/bc/1363-prince-george-more-than-affordable-homes
Come on council. You cannot being trying to sell peaches and cream on one hand and claiming poverty and hardship with the other.
Well this is the kind of work councilors should be doing. Finding a shortfall that limits growth in our city and the quality of life for its citizens, and then advocating the issue to the senior levels of government that have the capacity to contribute to a viable solution.
Safe affordable housing is a real issue in PG for any family that is looking to rent. Most apartment buildings are adult oriented and there are only a handful of condo rentals in the whole city outside of the ‘hood’. A lot of families leave as a result. With less families PG gets less services and future growth of the city is stunted. Its probably the number one issue facing PG in the decade to come… more so than roads and infrastructure.
Look to any of the cities with growth over the last decade… cities in PG’s population range… and they easily have 20/1 the new starts on affordable family housing starts like condo’s and family oriented neighborhoods.
PG is relying on a legacy of 40 year old housing stock, half of which is in neighborhoods that have gone to the dumps… and yet IPG advertises this fact of our city as a strength when it is not.
Anyone moving to PG, or considering staying, requires affordable housing options that are clean and safe… otherwise the workers become transient and the city demographics become that of an old city living in isolated mansions with minimal services that diminish from year to year because growth is stalled and families no longer make PG their home.
The school district 57 stats speak for themselves. A drop in students of nearly 50% over the last decade… at this rate PG will die off completely over the next few decades. When I was in highschool we had 550 graduates at PGSS now around 250 per year, and the average age in PG was mid 20’s… nowadays I think its near 50 years old the average age in PG.
Anotherside, I just read the article. I didn’t get your take on it. They say in the article that PG has a vacancy rate of under 2% and that although rental rates are low, that there is very little available housing stock… seems to me that is a huge choke point to future growth. Basically verifies the assertion Garth Frizzel is making.
Although article is not dated, it seems to me that it was written at least a year ago. Talking about a planned Old Navy store that has been completed and opened for months now. If anything rentals in the city have only tightened up in the last year. Of interest though was the plans for the highway 16 land near the Sandman… I thought that was going to be a retail development, but it talks of multiple housing/condo development, which I think is perfect for the area… will be nice to see some solid plans when they become available.
What exactly is affordable in PG these days?
UNBC students often rent houses and share with 3 or so students depending on the size of house. There is one close to us which has cars such as Subaru, BMW, etc. parked. So what is affordable to them?
When we came to PG in 1973, we lived in Upland Village. Coming from Toronto we thought we had died and gone to heaven with the little we had to pay for a 2 storey, 2 bedroom with basement and small yard townhouse.
Who is moving to PG these days? If, as one article states, people in the Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Terrace triangle are being displace by higher earning workers and are moving to PG as a result to take lower paying jobs because they no longer have the skills required for today’s job market, then that is a problem they have to face.
Builders obviously do not think there is a market for that, otherwise I am sure that new 3 story apartment units would be built as they were some 3 decades ago. Have not seen any of those going up for a long time.
Council pressing Fed for affordable housing? Really? Maybe the Feds will tell the city to give the landlords a 10 year tax break as long as they lower their rent 100/month! And stop that insane tax grab of a business license per unit or have they thrown that out already!
I’m backing Harbinger affordable :-considired to be within one’s financial means ,so that would leave both parents working 2 min. wage jobs each to support a family adding up to $20.10 per parent, in the past year MSP has gone up Child Care, Rent , groceries, to name a few so I would expect a great sale of tents at Costco . Lets also get the seniors in on this , I swear most of them are eating cat food with the city bills running rapit they can no longer afford to keep their homes .I have to phone Costco to get my name in for a tent today.
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