But NDP says $40m program fails to address homeless problem
Frank Luba
Province
As many as 15,000 low-income families could get help from a $40-million rental-assistance program that the B.C. government is expected to announce today.
But the opposition NDP said yesterday the new housing strategy, dubbed Housing Matters B.C. in a draft document obtained by the NDP, does not address the bigger problem of homelessness.
To be eligible for help, according to the draft, you would have to have at least one dependent child under age 19 and an annual income below $20,000, with some or all of it derived from employment.
Singles need not apply. You must have lived in B.C. for the last 12 months and filed a tax return.
You also need a bank account.
Not eligible are the homeless or anybody already in subsidized housing or on income assistance.
Jenny Kwan (NDP, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant) said rental supplements drive up rental costs.
She said a U.S. study completed in 2002 found that rent supplements had the effect of raising rent for private, low-income housing by an average of 16 per cent. The research looked at 90 metropolitan areas over two decades.
“The study showed that while $5.8 billion had been provided in rent supplements, the program had actually cost an $8.2-billion increase in the total rent by low-income non-recipients,” Kwan said.
Just paying out money isn’t good business sense, said Kwan.
“At the end of it, the government will have no public asset to show for future generations for the investment they have made in housing.”
NDP housing critic Diane Thorne (Coquitlam-Maillardville) said the plan could help the working poor. “It’s a good thing if you can find accommodation,” she said. “But the vacancy rate is about half-a-per-cent right now.”
The Liberals cancelled an affordable housing building program after assuming power. Restarting it would show that decision was wrong, said Thorne.
She said the rent-supplement program “is easier, it’s quicker. People apply, they get accepted and the money goes into their bank account.”
Thorne said the $40 million should be spent on 2,500 affordable housing units.
Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for housing, could not be reached.
© The Vancouver Province 2006