Times Colonist

Taxpayer-subsidized housing units probed after rents soar

- KATIE DeROSA

A provincial affordable housing program that was supposed to provide taxpayer-subsidized units with rent caps is undergoing a review to determine why some units are listed for hundreds more a month and whether some ended up on Airbnb.

It has led the official Opposition to brand the B.C. NDP’s HousingHub program a “massive housing flub” and a clear example, they say, of B.C. Housing’s mismanagem­ent of affordable housing programs.

The B.C. Liberals listed six buildings across the province in Merritt, West Kelowna, North Vancouver, Nanaimo, Maple Ridge and Victoria where — despite developers receiving low-interest loans from the province — the units are now renting for considerab­ly higher than the promised rent cap.

Olympic Villas in Merritt — which in 2020 received $16.6 million in low-interest financing from the government in exchange for setting aside 45 of the 75 units for below-market rent — has units listed on Airbnb and Expedia for up to $250 a night and units renting for up to $2,380 a month.

That’s well above the $1,650 a month for a three-bedroom

unit in that building guaranteed by David Eby, then the attorney general and housing minister, in 2021.

“Affordabil­ity in these units is ensured for middle income households in Merritt for a decade at least,” Eby wrote in a 2021 letter to B.C. Liberal MLA Peter Milobar explaining the HousingHub program. “When you see the Airbnbs and when you see the rents that are being charged, none of it lines up with the intent and the spirit of what the lowinteres­t loan was supposed to be,” Milobar said this week.

HousingHub, a division of

B.C. Housing, was establishe­d by the NDP government in 2018 and provides low-interest loans to developers to build housing for middle-income families with a household income of less than $99,000 per year. The loans are repaid once constructi­on is complete.

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told reporters all properties funded by B.C. Housing have a covenant that states they’re not allowed to be used for short-term rentals like Airbnb. “So if there’s someone doing that they’re breaking the law,” said Kahlon.

Tom Davidoff, executive director of the Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business, said the problems with the HousingHub point to the need for a dramatic rethink of the way the B.C. government delivers affordable housing.

Instead of fruitlessl­y trying to control the real estate market and provide a limited number of truly affordable units, Davidoff said, the government should give developers free rein to build market-rate units in return for tax dollars. The government can then use that money to give out rental rebates to those who need them.

“Trying to tell the market who is going to get what unit is a fraught exercise,” Davidoff said.

 ?? FRANCIS GEORGIAN, PNG ?? Tom Davidoff wants a dramatic re-think of the way the B.C. government delivers affordable housing.
FRANCIS GEORGIAN, PNG Tom Davidoff wants a dramatic re-think of the way the B.C. government delivers affordable housing.

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