Election - Housing and Islands Trust
The Trustees we elect will shape the future of housing on Saltspring.
Currently, there are no affordable housing starts. The most advanced project, Kings Lane, is still working to secure funding and is years from completion. The project was launched in 2016. It represents five per cent of the overall need.
The IT Housing Needs Assessment says Saltspring needs 821 homes by 2030. Four years from now. It’s not adding up.
And at least one candidate, Gary Holman, claims affordable housing with housing agreements (rent geared to income) like Kings Lane, is the only type of housing that should be developed.
While non-market housing is an essential part of the housing continuum, making it the only part excludes those in our community whose incomes make them ineligible. This includes many working professionals or seniors wanting or needing to downsize. This intermediate cohort, often referred to as ‘the missing middle’ are excluded from the housing discussion.
What appears less understood is that regulating housing development to one specific framework does satisfy the vocal minority who oppose housing development in general.
Over regulation of housing is as problematic as under regulated.
We need to elect candidates who understand it’s about finding the right balance, one that responds to the needs of all residents. Housing that allows young people a pathway to secure housing, rented or owned, that doesn’t force them to move when their incomes improve; particularly when there is no housing for them to move to.
We also need housing that allows seniors to stay in their community, where they are not forced to leave because there is no smaller scale, manageable housing for them.
Concerns for these members of our community are currently absent from the conversation.
OK. Discuss.