Photo courtesy UNBC

By Caden Fanshaw

HOUSING

Strong links between housing and economic development shown in new online portal: CDI

Jan 31, 2022 | 5:40 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – When you’re moving or thinking about moving communities something you may be interested in is the housing situation, or the population at your chosen destination.

Now all of that data for 39 non-metro communities in BC is publicly available thanks to the Community Development Institute at UNBC.

The new website includes a detailed data report along with webinar recordings that highlight the data by region: Northeast, Northwest, Central, East Kootenays, West Kootenays, Okanagan, and Vancouver Island.

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“The data will be of significant interest to local government, planners, developers, builders, and the provincial government,” said CDI Co-Director Marleen Morris, who led the study for the CDI. “We highlight the strong links between housing and economic development potential in non-metropolitan B.C. We need to focus on housing if we want to realize non-metropolitan B.C.’s economic potential.”

Much of the data revealed by the study was not a surprise to housing experts or those with ties to the sector, it was more or less evidence to prove what has been talked about for years.

The biggest surprise according to Morris was around the vulnerability of renters in non-metro BC.

Tenant financial vulnerability in non-metropolitan B.C. communities is almost as high as in Vancouver.

In non-metropolitan B.C., about 40 percent of tenants are vulnerable, which means they pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent. In Vancouver, 43 percent of tenants are in the same situation. And in 18 non-metropolitan communities in the sample, tenant financial vulnerability is about the same or higher than in Vancouver.

Tenants in non-metropolitan B.C. are also living in more vulnerable conditions than tenants in Vancouver. The study found that in 80 per cent of sample communities, the rental housing stock is in worse condition than in Vancouver.

This portal is the result of a two-year study, funded by BC Housing and conducted by the CDI.