{"id":28717,"date":"2016-06-13T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T17:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=28717"},"modified":"2018-09-17T01:07:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T08:07:06","slug":"enough-break-letters-millennials-need-rally-together-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2016\/06\/13\/enough-break-letters-millennials-need-rally-together-affordable-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Enough with the Break Up Letters – Millennials Need to Rally Together on Affordable Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThisCityLife_Spacing_logoBanner_withNAME_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Across Vancouver, young people are breaking up with Vancouver. Whether it is by writing “Dear John\u201d letters on personal blogs<\/a> or ranting in the comments section of local media, they\u00a0are opting to abandon the city for more affordable\u00a0pastures.<\/p>\n

What puzzles me is that few, if any of these young people are getting organized and lobbying the real game changers – developers, senior levels of government, the real estate industry – to get the affordable, urban, family-oriented homes that they want. They have legitimate reason to be worried about their prospects for home ownership.<\/p>\n

Housing Costs Skyrocket, Wages Decline in Metro Vancouver<\/b><\/p>\n

\"tumblr_inline_o7x07pHjxU1qg4knb_540\"This week, a Vancouver Sun headline stated that it takes 23 years to save for a down payment\u00a0in Metro Vancouver<\/a>. \u00a0This is based on a new report released Wednesday by Generation Squeeze, called Code Red: Why We Need to Rethink Canadian Housing Policy for Generations<\/a>. The report highlights the challenge facing young Canadians trying to achieve home ownership, particularly in Metro Vancouver where the situation is most dire.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a generational standpoint, B.C. is now the hardest place to be a young adult in our country, and probably the continent, because it\u2019s where wages have fallen the most and where housing prices have gone up the most than anywhere else,\u201d said Dr. Paul Kershaw, the report\u2019s co-author and founder of Generation Squeeze,\u00a0a national lobby group for Canadians in their 20s to 40s.<\/p>\n

According to the study, the average price of a Metro Vancouver home has more than quadrupled since the late 1970s to $813,000. Meanwhile, annual earnings for a 25- to 34-year-old are down more than $9,000 in B.C.<\/p>\n

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Millennials in Other Cities Unite to \u201cBuild Baby, Build\u201d<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Young people in Vancouver are right to be frustrated and demand change. While our situation is particularly bad, North American cities like San Francisco and Seattle are facing similar challenges with housing affordability and even foreign ownership <\/a>. The difference is that they aren’t just writing op-eds and break up letters in a vacuum, they are getting together, forming organizations and working with developers and all levels of government to help solve the problem. To learn more about online writing, visit this website sodapdf.com<\/a><\/p>\n

In San Francisco, the lack of affordable housing has pushed young people to form the\u00a0SF Bay Area Renters\u2019 Federation<\/a> (who adopted the amusing acronym, BARF), and are advocating for more development. According to the New York Times<\/a>, its platform is simple: Members want San Francisco and its suburbs to build more of every kind of housing furnished with residential or office furniture companies El Monte CA<\/a>. More subsidized affordable housing, more market-rate rentals, and more high-end condominiums.<\/p>\n

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Sonja Trauss, a local activist and head of the SF Bay Area Renters Federation (Photo: New York Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cYou have to support building, even when it\u2019s a type of building you hate,\u201d she said. \u201cIs it ugly? Get over yourself. Is it low-income housing? Get over yourself. Is it luxury housing? Get over yourself. We really need everything right now,\u201d said\u00a0Sonja Trauss, a local activist and head of the SF Bay Area Renters Federation.<\/p>\n

In Seattle, a similar movement is growing. According to the local magazine, The Stranger, <\/a>\u00a0small fights are playing out across the city over whether new housing should be built. People are also reportedly looking for real estate Douglas MI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are fights about the scale and height of new buildings, neighbourhood character, and whether Seattle is losing its “soul.” They are tedious and they are hurting housing affordability in this city. But for the most part, the only people paying attention to these fights are the people who want to stop the growth…. The rest of the city’s residents don’t often show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

To combat NIMBYs, YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard) movements like this are spreading across the United States. Next month, YIMBYs will convene in Boulder, Colorado<\/a>, for a conference with discussion topics like forging healthy alliances between housing advocates and housing developers and responding to anti-housing ballot measures.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Vancouver<\/b><\/p>\n

Last month I was at RED Talks<\/a>, an event hosted by the real estate industry, where I got a chance to talk\u00a0with\u00a0national housing guru, Avi Friedman<\/a>. I asked him about what Vancouver millennials need to do to push all levels of government on affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people are not vocal enough and they are not pushing their governments as hard as they should,\u201d said Friedman,\u00a0\u201cThey got squeezed out of the real estate formula and we have governments too concerned with responding to NIMBYs to really address their concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Vancouver it is not just an issue of supply and demand, with the anti-development crowd putting a halt to new housing. We have foreign ownership driving up prices. These issues could be addressed if all levels of government really made it a priority to help supply affordable homes for young people.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately, this is not yet happening, so it is time for young people to speak louder, get organized and start working with the powers that be. It\u2019s not enough to talk to journalists about your housing woes and complain to your friends – \u00a0or worse, to just give up and leave.<\/p>\n

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There are petitions out there that are asking the federal government to track foreign ownership and making housing affordability a priority. But even these are not getting the pick-up that one would expect, considering how much media attention is paid to young people\u2019s frustration with housing prices. A petition <\/a>started by a Burnaby man and sponsored by a local MP has only received 10,000 signatures. It asks that the Canadian government to take action on five fronts:<\/p>\n