Dear Mr. Garrison:
I attended your town hall meeting on the 23rd of February, while I missed my chance at the mike I wish to make the following observations regarding the state of housing in Victoria BC.
First off I just want to present my positioning this housing crisis. I work at a local NGO where my job is to find rental accommodation for people on income assistance. My job would be impossible if my program where not funded by BC housing, which provides a rental subsidy to our clients. The extra $450 provided by BC housing makes it possible for our clients to consider the rental market.
While I am grateful that BC housing has these initiatives, the basic employment of this program is still neoliberal in its conception. It is still public funds going subsidizing private landlords for a net loss of the public. While it is a good thing that our clients do obtain housing in this program, the program cannot give them a diversity of choice, as we are limited by the reality of the market, and it does not protect them from rental increases which can rabidly eat away on the available funds of those on a fixed income, leaving our clients with the lingering questions of rent, utilities, food, or (in some cases) medication. Often the end of the month brings with the question of: “Which of these four do I skip out on?”
To illustrate the bleakness of the Victoria Rental market let me tell you about two buildings. One is a recent development that is being constructed in the uptown area. Their brand new bachelors with in suite washer and dryer, a murphy bed, a dishwasher, hydro and water not included, go for $1100.00 a month. The other building is View Towers, located on View Street between Quadra and Vancouver, the building has gained a level of notoriety in the city as Victoria’s vertical skid row. Upon googling the building I found this review on YELP dated 4/14/2016:
The good: it is cheap there and the bathtub fills pretty fast, and in the past that would have given it two stars. But a number of tenants including myself were removed from the building as part of a renoviction process after a fire in 2014. Prior to that there were infestation issues including bedbugs and mice. One mouse proved to be particularly smart at avoiding all traps, and they eventually had to seal the room up; so the mouse might still be alive in the building somewhere. Mandatory to take the elevators to enter the suite, though you can take the stairs down. There is a hot tub and sauna area but it was closed down years ago. Dried urine in the stairwell can stay there for days; needles also not unknown in the stairwell. One-door fridge and freezer (so not separated), so needs to be defrosted regularly. Police make regular visits there.
When I last checked, about three weeks ago, these suites are also going for an $1100 a month.
A brand new “out of the box” building is at the same price point as a 40 year old building that, once upon a time, was the “when in doubt” option for people on income assistance. In this environment tent cities should not be seen as anomalies but the natural evolution of a rental market gone mad.
From my vantage point I would make two suggestions to help alleviate the difficulties of the rental market. One would be to encourage landlord certification - as restaurants are licensed, as drivers are licensed, as day cares are licenses – as every other service in which the essentials of human life are handled - are licensed – so should the Residential Tenancy Board have the option of suspending a landlord’s ability to provide housing if they are falling short of the Residential Tenancy Act. A landlord without a license could not legally collect rent, and would still have to provide the upkeep of their suites. That is my dream.
The other would be for the assistance issued through the ministry of social development and poverty reduction actually reflected the cost of the living. Presently through BC Housing there are rental subsidies made available to those on income assistance, but these subsidies subsidize the Ministry of Social Development, and landlords, more than the clients they are meant to aid. Do not misunderstand me, I am grateful that they subsidies are out there and they do make it possible that those on income assistance can consider being housed in Victoria, but, fundamentally, this is still public money going into private coffers without creating any kind of public equity.
If you were a member of the liberal party I wouldn’t be bothering with this letter, but as your party still espouses some level of socialism, and has a vision of the public good, I bring these points to your consideration in good faith that the party that arose out of the social needs of the working will be a voice to confront the harsh realties of a housing market governed by wolves.
Sincerely,
Matthew Cook, RSW
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