Vancouver's Mayor Still Rents & Plans To Break Up Giant Homes To Make Them Cheaper

Vancouver's Mayor Kennedy Stewart says that bold actions are needed to create more affordable housing in Vancouver.

His proposed "Making HOME" pilot project would take 100 homes and split them up to make multiple units inside.

"I didn’t grow up in very wealthy circumstances, and in fact, I’m still a renter myself," the Mayor in an interview with Narcity.

He went over the project and explained why he feels it's so important to get it approved by city council and get the ball rolling.

"I don’t want it to be like Monaco where everybody drives a Lamborghini and, nobody gets to enjoy the beach — it has to be for everyone," he said.

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What's the Making HOME project?

By changing zoning regulations, the Making HOME (Home Options for Middle-income Earners) project would take land originally meant only for a suburban-style single-family house and allow people to build more units on it.

It's a flexible, adaptable project that has a ton of possibilities for homeowners to change their property completely.

Imagine if a group of friends came together to buy a house. Through the project, it could be broken up into multiple units. and each friend would get to live in one.

How will there be affordable homes?

“It's not just turning one home into six homes — there's one or two that are always protected from the forces of the market," said the Mayor.

These units would always have the price kept low and affordable for households that earn a combined $80,000 to $120,000 a year.

"The United Nations says nobody should pay more than a third of their income for housing," he said.

"So we took the median income of households in the city and we said — look, a third of that, that's what you should be able to pay."

When can I buy a house in Vancouver?

The Mayor hopes that the project gets approved in the final week of September 2020.

Then, next fall, people will be able to apply for the project.

Details aren't finalized yet, but for example, a non-profit like BC Housing could be asked to help connect people to the affordable units.

"These houses actually wouldn't take very long to build, they usually take about a year," he said.

Although it's not possible to predict costs now, if the project goes according to plan, you could get a portion of a home for a fraction of the cost of a traditional home in Vancouver.

"I don't want this place to become some kind of luxury resort town, I want it to be a place for everybody," said the Mayor.