Province to deliver 670 affordable homes to Metro Vancouver

The B.C. government says hundreds more affordable homes are coming to Metro Vancouver.

Premier David Eby announced Thursday the second phase of a housing partnership between the province, Metro Vancouver, and non-profit housing providers that will deliver 670 below-market rental units. This includes 87 new units with affordable market rent, rent geared to income, and subsidized accommodation by the fall of 2025.

He says Phase 2 follows a memorandum of understanding signed last year between the governing bodies to create 2,000 affordable rental homes over the next decade.

“Safe, secure and affordable housing lifts up families, communities and our entire province,” said Eby. “That’s why our government is taking action with a clear plan that puts people who live and work in our communities ahead of speculators who just want to make a quick buck at the expense of hard-working people. By partnering with Metro Vancouver, we are helping thousands of people find homes they can actually afford, so they can build good lives in our growing communities.”

The provincial government will provide $226 million, and Metro Vancouver will contribute land and cash worth more than $367 million towards Phase 2.

Phase 2 projects are planned for the following sites:

• 1144 Inlet Street, Coquitlam (Malaspina Village Phase 2)
• Old Dollarton Road and Riverside Drive, North Vancouver (Riverside Drive)
• 2933 Heather Street, Vancouver (Heather Place C)
• 100 Nelson Street, Coquitlam (Park Court)

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Eby says the partnership is a good example of the type of cooperation between levels of government needed to address the housing crisis.

“Without question, to address the housing crisis, all levels of government have to work together. The municipal governments, the provincial government, the federal government, First Nation governments… If we’re not all pulling together, we’re not going to be able to address this the way that we should.”

Metro Vancouver Housing says it is one of the largest non-profit housing providers in B.C., with more than 3,400 affordable rental homes on 49 sites, serving close to 10,000 people.

Heather McNell, deputy chief administrative officer for Metro Vancouver, says there is a waitlist for subsidized housing of over 20,000 people.

“For all of our rent-geared-to-income units, we use the BC Housing waitlist for that, and it is an extensive list for the lower mainland,” McNell said.

Monikka Tayag has lived in subsidized housing her whole life and says she is grateful for the affordable housing as she was raised by a single parent.

“When all of our focus is just trying to get by, I don’t know how we could have experienced this beautiful city and live a life worth living,” Tayag said. “I think without housing, I don’t know how far mom could have gone, don’t know what my life would have been like.”

The province says the Phase 2 projects are part of a $19 billion housing investment. Since 2017, the province claims to have delivered — or be developing — nearly 40,000 homes in Metro Vancouver.

With files from Angela Bower.