Win! Victoria and Saanich vote unanimously for Rapid Affordable Housing

Michigan Square Affordable Housing Development - Capital Region Housing Corporation

This month Victoria City Council voted unanimously in favor of the Rapid Deployment of Affordable Housing policy, which will expedite and lower the cost of building affordable non-profit, government and cooperative housing. “This makes Victoria the first municipality in B.C. to approve an accelerated process for affordable housing city-wide,” according to CHEK news.

GVAT, several GVAT member groups, and several non-profit housing agencies all supported this policy. The public feedback on this proposal was also overwhelmingly positive. Despite some Councillors expressing reservations and voting against the policy at earlier stages, to our pleasant surprise the vote was unanimously in favor.

Then the District of Saanich, the municipality with the greatest population and the largest land area in our region, considered a motion to follow in Victoria’s footsteps. Saanich Councilor Susan Brice initiated the motion “That Council direct staff to examine the Rapid Deployment of Affordable Housing plan in the City of Victoria and bring recommendations that would see Saanich make the necessary amendments to achieve the expedited application timeline for not for profit, government and co-op housing agencies with the same requirements as established in Victoria.”

GVAT’s Housing Team mobilized to support this motion on short notice, and wrote this letter to Saanich Council. Multiple GVAT member groups also wrote letters of support, including Climate Justice Victoria whose letter was quoted by a Councillor during the discussion of the motion.

We were happy to see a second unanimous vote on this precedent setting policy. However, we know that the requirements approved by Victoria will not have much effect in Saanich without changes to the District’s Official Community Plan (OCP) and linked local area plans. We will be watching closely to be ready to push for effective implementation.

We will also be encouraging other municipalities in Greater Victoria to adopt similar policies.

This policy is just one small step towards overcoming the housing affordability crisis in Greater Victoria, but these unanimous votes show that we can achieve much bigger things in the future if we act together.

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