scrubbedexpat091

Seems BC is home to 4 of the 5 city's in Canada with the lowest vacancy rate for housing rentals.

Kelowna, Abbotsford-Mission, Victoria and Vancouver all have vacancy rates under 1%.

They say average 2 bedroom rent in Vancouver is 1,552 but I am not so sure, we rent a 1 bedroom for more and we are not exactly in what one would call a good area.

B.C. cities have some of the highest rents and lowest vacancy rates in Canada - British Columbia - CBC News

dbd33

I saw a clip of a tent city in Surrey this week, amazingly good quality tents, not like a refugee camp at all.

Aviator

Good news for landlords!

scrubbedexpat091

No doubt. They might be the only ones who benefit in a positive way from this situation.

scrubbedexpat091

Yeah some have good tents, not sure if they are bought, given to them, or stolen or a mix, I know there are working homeless who do have jobs, but cannot afford to rent housing so end up in tents, cars etc, but majority of homeless don't seem to fall into the working homeless category.

I work with a few people who have 2-3 employers at the airport and basically never leave as they don't have anywhere to live due to rent being too high, so they just work, and sleep in the break room between shifts.

Shakyuk

I just had to google that to see what it was. Wow, that is a sad situation.

Shard

I saw a clip of a young student permanently parked in a camper van so "he could afford to study". Obviously the media like to spin these tales into hard luck stories, but it's all down to personal choices.

dbd33

Poverty, except in the case of monks, is not a personal choice. No one chooses to live in a tent in a light industrial estate, where, I suppose, they need a Costco card so they can have a shit.

I'm not particularly attacking BC in this regard. All of Canada is bad. Here in small town Ontario I know of an initiative to give homeless people backpacks of supplies at Christmas. The company involved is making up 300 backpacks suggesting that something like 1% of the population lives on the streets.

Shakyuk

I don't think poverty is personal choice. I'm surprised anyone would say that.

Shard

I was referring to a student who chooses to go to university in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Personal choice. Obviously, I'm not referring to the poor people in general.

Aviator

That is the point of their investment, otherwise, why do it? Social housing is down to the government, who in BC seem to fail monumentally on this point.

Then we look set to get a $15 min wage, prices will rise. Many businesses price on a cost plus basis, if costs go up, the plus remains constant, equates to higher prices. The biggest losers in this will by folks on social security and disability. The hypocrisy of this, is the govt should be correspondingly increasing disability and social payments, doing what they expect business to do. The tax revenue will increase with the rising wages, so they will have the money to do it.

scrubbedexpat091

BC has a major housing issue on it's hands, there really is nowhere left with affordable housing unless it's up north or some economically depressed area like Port Alberni with few jobs.

To be fair to the current provincial government they have done more for those on provincial disability in the last 6 months then the bc liberals did in a decade and have raised rates and also increased the earned income exemption amount to a more reasonable level.

scrubbedexpat091

I had to leave for work so did not have time to finish.

Shard there could be a multitude of reasons why a student has to go to school in Vancouver.

A couple of reasons could be they have a scholarship to a specific school, the program of study is only available in Vancouver and such.

Despite what people may think at times the place where one lives isn't always by choice, sometimes it's simply beyond ones control. If you say have medical issue and the services needed are not offered elsewhere one may be forced to stay in Vancouver. Same with disabled. If on provincial disability one is tied to that province.

Indeed govt needs to build a lot of social housing however people then complain about taxes being raised or the money spent on it by govt or people complaining it's built in their neighborhood.

Raise min wage and business complain, those who can easily afford a bit higher prices complain.

Raise disability rates and people complain.

Its no wonder social housing was pretty much ignored for so long, govt almost seems afraid to spend the money on it and risk ticking off voters.

There needs to be a solution found or the homeless situation will only become worse and more working folks will have no where to live resulting in business not having employees.

Real estate may be an investment but currently it's only for the wealthy, no working class person can buy in Vancouver at current prices and even Fraser Valley and interior are pretty much out of reach for all but 6 figure earners.

Quite sad the state of affairs currently.

We rent below market but not subsidized and it takes 80 hours pre tax income to just cover rent.

I am sure once taxes are accounted for, and medical insurance and CPP and EI it's closer to 3 weeks income.

And I am certainly not the only one in this boat, so many are and I meet so many with one foot on the street who have jobs.

Lots of smart people in the world, but none seem to be able to solve the housing crises.

scrubbedexpat091

Saskatoon is opposite. Too many rentals.

Although surprised rent is still pushing avg of 1k a month.

Biggest cities in Sask. have some of Canada's highest vacancy rates - Saskatoon - CBC News

BristolUK

That became my problem. Looking at vacancy rates over the time I had my duplex I can see that an increase in "problem tenants" coincided with a sharp increase in vacancy rates.