The BC government’s new $516 Million affordable housing plan is said to create nearly 2,900 new units across the province.
The number has one critic concerned for future buyers, saying the plan doesn’t have enough funds and that alone will cause a problem moving forward.
“The number of units that the government has promised will be eclipsed by an entirely new demand for affordable housing in BC,” says Integrity BC’s Executive Director Dermod Travis.
“So we’re going to be back to square one unless the government forward and puts more money out.”
Travis believes while the new investment by Premier Christy Clark may seem impressive on the surface, 47,000 housing units will likely be required to meet the predicted increase in population for BC in 2017.
He says that won’t happen unless more money is added to the pot.
“Even though the government has promised 2,900 units, many of these projects will not go ahead unless the sponsor organization can come up with additional funding.”
In Northern BC, the main issue will be who gets priority in the market when the new units are completed.
Travis says the region may see an unfair scale.
“Some of the people who are most in need in some communities are going to find out, that the number of units that are going to be targeted towards them are less than some of the other groups in the same communities that don’t have the same needs and the same demand.”
He adds Northern British Columbians are lucky to have enough MLAs in government to get $5.1 Million towards new housing units.
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