Home > Your Government > Citizen involvement > Agencies, boards, and committees > Find an agency, board, or committee > Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability

Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability

Housing Strategies: Homelessness & Affordability

The mandate of the Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability is to examine conditions that exist in Vancouver which may act as barriers to the creation of affordable housing and the steps necessary to protect existing affordable housing, and to identify opportunities for increasing affordable housing.  

The task force will:

  • Develop innovative recommendations from an evidence-base that will help Vancouver become a more sustainable, diverse, and affordable city
  • Prioritize affordability for those households with low to moderate incomes (which currently range from $21,500 to $86,500)

Task force milestones

  Deliver interim report by 12 March 2012.

  Gather public input from late March through May 2012.

  Deliver interim report by 25 June 2012.

  Review public feedback through summer 2012.

  Deliver final report by 30 September 2012.

Academic Working Group reports released

Friday March 15, 2013

The task force's Academic Working Group released two reports on March 15, 2013: its summary report, and its foreign investment report.

Tuesday October 4, 2012

The task force presented their final report to Council on October 3 and 4, 2012. Task force recommendations provide a framework for progress, delivering a set of bold and pragmatic actions to confront out city's lack of affordability. Council directed staff to implement the Task Force's action plan with revisions to Actions 1, 2, 3 and 13.

Interim report released

Monday June 25, 2012

The task force released its interim report.

Priorities identified:

  • Increase supply and diversity of affordable housing
  • Enhance the City's and the community's capacity to deliver affordable rent and social housing
  • Protect existing social and affordable rental housing, and explore opportunities to renew and expand the stock
  • Streamline and create more certainty and clarity in the regulation process, and improve public engagement

For more details, read Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability: Bold Ideas Towards an Affordable City  

Draft for Discussion: Building Form and Design

Wednesday April 11, 2012

Michael Geller and the Building Form and Design Roundtable released their discussion draft.

Priorities identified:

  • Create new transition zoning categories to accommodate townhousing, stacked townhousing, and higher density ground-oriented housing
  • Modify C-2 zoning
  • Create more housing choices in RS zones
  • Appoint an Affordability Ombudsman

For more details, read the Roundtable discussion draft on Building Form and Design

Interim Progress Report released

Monday March 12, 2012

The task force released its initial recommendations, which include the following:

Quick Start Actions for the City:

  • Fast track applications
  • Use inclusionary zoning
  • Leverage City assets
  • Wield influence

For more details, read the Progress Report

Working Groups

Working groups are struck for 3 months, from the start of March 2012 to the end of May 2012. The groups will meet bi-weekly to examine issues in these four areas with the goal to expedite and expand affordable housing starts:

Finance Working Group

  • Ensuring long-term affordability, investigating the use of City assets (particularly land), innovative financing vehicles, delivery models, and ownership (tenure) arrangements for affordable housing 

Form Working Group

  • Design flexibility, optimizing asset value, and understanding the barriers to affordability in the current building code and City policies, and how they could be altered to improve affordability

Flows Working Group

  • The wide range of City processes required before approvals are given to construction of affordable housing, including rezoning, development permits, building permits, and procurement of partners

Partnerships Working Group

  • Effective taxation policies and incentives by senior governments, legislation needed to enable a variety of ownership (tenure) models, optimizing support for renters, optimal use of social housing and non-profit assets

Task force roundtables

Task force roundtables provide input and expertise to the working groups.

Building Form and Design Roundtable

  • Led by local developer and architect Michael Geller, this roundtable identifies design and building code requirements that are adding costs to the provision of quality affordable housing, as well as design changes that could increase the supply of affordable housing in Vancouver.

Academic Roundtable

  • Led by UBC School of Architecture Adjunct Professor Erick Villagomez, this roundtable of distinguished academics studies the conditions that make it difficult to build affordable housing in Vancouver, as well as international best practices for improving housing affordability. 

Task Force Co-chairs

  • Mayor Gregor Roberstson
  • Olga Ilich: former BC cabinet minister with extensive experience in the real estate sector

Task Force

  • Al Poettcker: UBC Properties Trust (Finance WG Chair)
  • Nathan Edelson: 42 Street Consulting (Flows WG Chair, Finance WG)
  • Marg Gordon: BC Apartment Owners and Managers Assoc (Partners WG Chair, Flows WG)
  • Alan Boniface: Dialog Consulting Architects (Form WG Chair)
  • Michael Lewis: Canadian Centre for Community Renewal (Finance WG)
  • Geoff Meggs: City Council (Finance WG, Flows WG)
  • Mark Guslits: Mark Guslits & Associates Inc (Finance WG, Form WG)
  • John D’Eathe: Real Estate Counsellor (Finance WG, Partners WG)
  • Colleen Hardwick (Nystedt): New City Ventures (Finance WG, Flows WG)
  • Eric Martin: Bosa Development Corp (Finance WG, Flows WG)
  • Howard Johnson: Baptist Housing (Flows WG, Partners WG)
  • Bradford Tone: Tone Management (Flows WG, Form WG)
  • Karen O’Shannacery: Lookout Society (Flows WG, Form WG)
  • Peter Simpson: Great Vancouver Home Builders Assoc (Flows WG, Partners WG, Form WG)
  • Kenneth Kwan: SUCCESS (Flows WG, Form WG)
  • Leonard George: Tsleil-Waututh Nation (Partners WG, Form WG)

City Staff

  • Penny Ballem: City Manager
  • Mike Magee: Chief of Staff
  • David McLellan: Deputy City Manager (Lead)
  • Jim De Hoop: Managing Director, Social Development
  • Abi Bond: Assistant Director, Housing Policy
  • Dennis Car: Assistant Director, Social Infrastructure

Support

  • A facilitator and City of Vancouver staff are providing support to each working group.
  • City of Vancouver Communications and Engagement team will assist with the public engagement process

Ask. Tell. Connect.

Phone 3-1-1 to ask, tell, and connect with the City

Outside Vancouver:
604-873-7000

Speak your own language

When should you call 9-1-1? Click to find out       Deaf? Have difficulty speaking? Click to learn how to make a TTY call

More ways to contact us

Contact the Task Force

housingtaskforce
@vancouver.ca

Big City, Big Challenge

Bold Ideas: Towards an Affordable City

Bold Ideas

The Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability delivered a set of bold and pragmatic actions to confront Vancouver's lack of affordability.

Get the report

Housing and Homelessness Strategy, 2012-2021

housing-strategy

Read the complete Housing and Homelessness Strategy, and learn how Council is ending street homelessness while providing affordable housing for all residents.

Download the strategy 

Taking care of each other

Housing and homelessness

Housing and homelessness

Learn how Council is working to make Vancouver a city of communities that cares about its people, its environment, and the opportunities to live, work, and prosper.

Last modified: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:20:43

Arbutus
Downtown
Dunbar
Fairview
Fraserview
Grandview
Hastings
Kensington
Kerrisdale
Killarney
Kitsilano
Marpole
Mount Pleasant
Oakridge
Point Grey
Renfrew
Riley Park
Shaughnessy
Sunrise
Sunset
West End