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B.C. says its new housing strategy will help 15,000 low-income families. So why all the glum faces?

She hopes the new rental assistance program announced yesterday by the province will let her finally afford rent.

“I’m definitely going to look into it and see if it applies to me,” George said yesterday afternoon, after another day of house hunting turned up nothing.

She just might qualify for the $40-million program. But it’s unclear how many other families will be helped by what the province is touting as the main component of a renewed housing strategy that seems short on building actual housing.

To qualify, families must have dependent children, make less than $20,000 annually, and not be on income assistance.

“It’s kind of close to laughable, when you look at who’s going to qualify for it,” said Alice Sundberg of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association. "There's very few people that are actually going to be eligible for it."

In addition, there’s a rent ceiling: $825 a month for a family of three like George and her two kids. By comparison, the average rent for a three bedroom apartment in Vancouver last year was as much as $1,499, according to October 2005 numbers from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Combine that with Vancouver’s microscopic 1.4 per cent vacancy rate, among the lowest in Canada, and you have a few raised eyebrows.

“If people get more money to spend on the same supply of housing units, that just drives the price higher,” said Don Littleford, regional housing manager for the GVRD. “In such a tight market, won’t that money just flow through and become increased income for landlords? Is this not, heaven forbid, maybe inflationary? I don't see how it can't be.

"I would say the government's efforts at providing money in people's jeans gets a nod as a good thing. But it shouldn't be to the exclusion of helping the non-profits provide dedicated housing for low-income people."

We're fortunate to have a housing strategy at all. We have to be grateful we've got something instead of nothing

But industry groups say rental assistance programs will work.

“It's immediate," said Al Kemp, CEO of the Rental Owners Managers Society of B.C. "If the government was in a position to build 10,000 new units, maybe 5-7 years from now they'd be available. But five years from now isn't going to help a family that needs housing now."

But the plan likely does little to address immediate housing concerns in the Downtown Eastside, says prominent Pivot Legal Society lawyer David Eby.

"Nobody in the Downtown Eastside in these residential hotels are going to benefit from this because the announcement is targeted to low-income families," Eby said. "Most of the people who live in the residential hotels are on welfare and low-income singles. These are the people who are the most at risk."

Still, there are other elements to the plan the critics like. A commitment to building 450 units of supportive housing and 550 new assisted living units for seniors, for example.

"We're fortunate to have a housing strategy at all," said Sundberg. "The only other province in Canada actually doing soemthing about housing is Quebec. We have to be grateful that we've got something instead of nothing."

Either way, Amanda George is counting on the new rental assistance program.

Guests at the Vancouver-area shelter she's been staying at are normally allowed a month's stay. She and the kids have been there two months already, their second extended stay in recent memory.

They've been asked to leave within days. Another family needs their spot.

Tags: vancouver, homeless, downtown eastside, housing