An open letter to Premier David Eby:
The NDP is governing the province well.
But there is one issue that has not been handled properly: housing.
Although affordable homes are needed, the housing policy has serious consequences in terms of the livability of our cities while failing to show results.
Condos are still beyond the wage of the average family and “a skyscraper is not a home for children.”
“Under the guise of affordable housing, we are creating dead zones for our children and grandchildren to grow up in.”*
The skyscrapers are generally in areas devoid of trees and playgrounds, with dangerous traffic and polluted air.
Studies show that children under the age of one never go out of their tower unaccompanied.
I’ve written about this last year but now the municipalities are adding their voices to my concern.
There has not been enough pre-planning for the increase of population and the change in our communities, from low and medium density to skyscrapers.
Removal of shade trees as part of development harms the most vulnerable in the core of our cities.
The problems are many: We are losing more affordable housing than we gain.
Parks, trails and green space that people love are crowded and no longer offer peace and quiet; health facilities cannot cope; and transit has not been extended to meet the increased and projected need of the many new residents.
The price of land in the Lower Mainland is extremely high.
The only way the province can ensure affordable housing is through federal social housing.
I was appointed to a CMHC housing council in the 1970s. We delivered housing that allowed a form of home ownership that was affordable to the lowest income earners. In Prince George, the program housed the people displaced from a flood hazard area. This took federal-provincial-municipal commitments, but it worked.
A more unique approach is to work with the federal government to direct newcomers to municipalities that have suffered loss of industry and have had little population growth. Increased immigration stimulates jobs and allows the towns and cities to use their existing facilities to their fullest and expand much needed infrastructure.
The province could stimulate growth outside the Lower Mainland by transferring departments away from the over-populated centres. This approach is being used in some jurisdictions to ensure there are jobs in the northern and remote communities.
The next time the province initiates a housing policy, first it must put the infrastructure in place — high-speed transit, health care, day cares, recreation facilities, schools, EV stations and consider the consequences on the environment: loss of mature trees, overcrowded parks and beaches, CO2 added to the air because residents of condos for the most part drive gas burning vehicles.
The housing policy removes land use decision-making from the people and municipalities. It will destroy beloved communities and replace them with a treeless sea of towers built of glass, concrete and steel. There is a better, more human way.
- Yvonne Harris, Coquitlam
* Harris, Y., excerpts from 10/09/2023 letter to Vancouver Sun
