What is affordable housing? Housing is generally considered affordable if families can spend less than 30% of their budget on housing expenses including rents or mortgages, basic utilities and property taxes. Since households often make trade-offs between housing and transportation costs, many experts now define affordability as households beig able to spend less than 45% of their budgets on housi
ng and transport combines, which recognizes that a cheap house in an automobile-dependent location is not truly affordable due to high transport costs, and households can spend more than 30% of their budget for a home in an accessible, multi-modal neighborhood where transport costs are low. What types of housing are most affordable? Single-family housing requires lots of land, and high rise buildings are costly to construct, so in urban areas where land is costly, the most affordable housing is usually low-rise (two to six story), including carriage houses, multi-plexes, townhouses, live/work lofts, residential above commercial, and courtyard apartments. This is sometimes called the missing middle, since it is medium-density. Who is to blame for high housing prices? The fundamental cause is a lack of lower-priced housing development due to restrictions on infill development. Although Victoria is currently experiencing significant development (more than 1,000 units annually), these are mostly high-rise condominiums in the city core, which are costly and unsuited to many households; little affordable housing is being built in residential neighborhoods. What reforms can increase affordable housing? Three specific policy reforms can increase affordable housing supply in our region:
1. Significantly increase the portion of urban land where affordable housing types are allowed by removing zoning restrictions that prohibits secondary suites, townhouses and apartments.
2. Allowing parcels to be subdivided, so it is possible to build two or three houses on a parcel that previously contained just one.
3. Reduce parking requirements, so households are not forced to pay for spaces they do not need. What can you do to increase housing affordability?
1. JOIN US! With your help, we'll work to help increase housing affordability by asking our local elected officials to support policies that allow more affordable infill housing to be developed in Victoria. Additionally, you can vote for city councillors who promise to expand where multi-family housing may be built, reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements, and improve walking, cycling and public transit in our urban areas.
