How about...

Stopping the unrestricted immigration that is driving a large part of the housing boom in the first place?

The new "great divide"

In the Lower Mainland the new "great divide" is-are you a homeowner or not?

Recently I ran into someone I used to know years ago in East Van.
I purposely did not inquire about where she was living.
I did not want to reveal that I owned a house if i was asked the same question in response.

I've learned that once people who are not homeowners find out that you are a homeowner-there is a shift in their perception of you.

My younger cousin who graduated at the top of his class is leaving Vancouver for the suburbs...just can't afford Vancouver.

I used to say Vancouver was great place if you were rich and dumb but i guess now it's if you are rich and old!

A question.......

.......would you want to raise children in a 20 story condo? The answer is no, yet this what densification is all about. Why all the hype and hoopla about densification in Vancouver? The answer is SkyTrain.

We built a light-metro on a route that did not have the ridership to justify the expense. In order to increase ridership, one needed to increase population and so came the politically correct mantra for densification. Today, SkyTrain is packed to the gills, but yet it still doesn't have the ridership to justify its construction, so again density is increased along the line to cascade ridership onto the light-metro.

RAV/Canada line is more of the same with (just check with the city who owns the properties at proposed RAV stations) friends of the government reaping huge profits with unrestricted densification around the stations. The only way to densify is to go up and property values escalate dramatically. RAV is just a vehicle to make a very few people very wealthy, not to alleviate auto congestion.

As Vancouver becomes more unlivable, people who can move away to where they can afford to live, driving up the population in the Valley. Thus the need for Gateway, to further the property boom, making a few more developers wealthy.

This why Vancouver and the region will never have a sustainable or 'Green' transportation plan as roads and 'rail' are built to suit development not to move people. Now with TransLink Mark 2 in the offing, with the likes of the Board of Trade and Mr. density himself, Mikey Harcourt as transit experts, no one - not the NDP or Liberals, will question the voodoo transit planning that will happen. Like Joni Mitchel's song - "we taking paradise and building a parking lot", complete with high-rise instant slums!

No matter what you do, it seems impossible.

I'm 26. I moved to Vancouver when I was 20 to start a full-time career. I have worked full-time now for 6 years in the exact same position, without a change in hours, or status. I've gotten small pay raises that are always eaten up by the rent increase (in fact they usually are less than the rent increase). Signed on to the company RRSP plan as soon as was possible and have been putting that away methodically. I've done everything right. Took a 2 year college course right out of high school for a technical job and got to work right away after graduating. I didn't waste ANY time. I love my job and have career satisfaction (aside from the usual BS that plagues any organization, the work is generally rewarding)

I ride a bike, don't own a car, have no kids, cook for myself, get clothing at second hand shops and clothing exchanges, and have never taken an expensive vacation or made any sort of big purchase. My couch is a new free couch (and quite nice, I might add). Yet, I cannot afford to do any more than this. I *like* my lifestyle right now, but would like to have a very small yard to grow a vegetable garden, while still being close enough to downtown to ride my bike to work in the West end. Truly, that is all I want. I am still paying off a massive student loan since M&D are working folks without a lot of extra money for tuition, and I just don't see how I'll ever have the money to buy a place. I dread having to live in the suburbs and commuting 2 hours a day. That would be my personal hell. But what can I do? It seems I have done it all right and I am still no further ahead. For now, I'll just keep renting and hope to hell that the giant housing blister bursts after the Olympics. I'm probably dreaming though.

I would also like...

10 square feet of space to make some arts and crafts! Creativity is truly hampered by living in a giant pile of stuff while 2 of us are crammed into a 500 sq foot space with no separate rooms and still struggling to make ends meet!

Not all density is "Vancouver density"

@Grumpy

I have to call you out there, Grumpy. Care to elaborate? Perhaps give an example or two? "The Europeans"? I know that there are some efforts to encourage companies and government offices to resettle outside of London. But London ain't Europe by a long shot.

Where I live, in Germany, the exact opposite is happening. There are tax incentives and subsidies to encourage the renovation of existing inner city housing stock and to attract young families back to the urban core.

De-densifying

What is happening in Europe and the UK is that the high-rise, high density apartments are being "reduced to produce" in favour of modest 3 or 4 story garden style apartments. The planners I have communicated with with have said to me that the massive multi story high-rise brought more social problems and pressures into the areas where they were built.

All through Europe, established moderately density housing is being renovated (very strict planning laws) to higher standards.

When I live in Nottingham in the 70's, one could get a vintage (1850's built) council house for 1 pound and not pay taxes for 10 years, if you improved the house to modern standards.

All I am saying is that massive high-rise dream of Eco-density (TM) is a pipe-dream, driven by the Liberal and the Liberal farm team, Vancouver's NPA desire to help their political friends make massive profits by up-zoning property to accommodate higher density. Soon Vancouver will rival just about every former 'East' European city with dismal high-rise after dismal high-rise.

In London the massive high-rise Council estates such as 'Roundshaw' as well as other East London locations are tearing down high-rises in favour of low-rise 3 or 4 story garden style apartments.

In Sheffield, after building the most expensive portion of the their new LRT line to service a nest of high-rise apartments, transit officials were aghast that soon after opening the line the high-rise apartments were torn down!

Not all high-rise apartments are being torn down, but planners in Europe are aiming for moderate densities, not massive densification that is being spoon fed us here by the 'property pimps'.

Once again

Vancouver: The city whose flower should be the narcissus.

The house I grew up in which my parents bought for $2,000 in the 40s and sold for $14,000 in the early 60s now shows at over $700,000 on the assessment rolls. A similar sized lot on the other side of the street now has been split and the properties both show around $1.3 mln.

I don't live in the city now nor would I ever again even though I could afford to if I really wanted. There are just so many other things to spend money on other than high rents or mortgage payments.

The city does not have a monopoly on all that it likes to crow about and due to some fortuitous planning does not even have a freeway that forces people to drive through so the place is real easy to bypass.

Rising river

When Vancouver Whistler "won" the 2010 bid the river started rising and only those boats with enough power could navigate it.

All other were left to swirl among the debris and eventually get washed out to sea.

Pretty soon the rising river will recede, and when it does the big boats will be the only ones left plying the lonely waters.

A modest proposal revisited

Is it not time to modernize Jonathan Swift's insights???

A Modest Proposal

For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland
From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

By Jonathan Swift (1729)
rf. http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

Great article once again from The Tyee!

Greedy developers

In the May 31,2002 issue of the Georgia Straight, VANOC's Jack Poole is quoted as saying (in 2002) to Frank O'Brien, Western Investor editor," the real purpose of the 2010 Olympic bid is to seduce the provincial and federal governments and the long suffering taxpayers into footing a billion-dollar bill to pave the path for future real esate sales."

Consider yourself seduced. How does it feel?

The only sort of rent

The only sort of rent control currently available in Vancouver are crack dealers and prostitutes standing on a corner in your neighbourhood. In that sense I hope more crack dealers and prostitutes set up shop in my neighbourhood. Vancouver": "The Best Place On Earth."
This article hit the nail on the head on why this city is going down the toilet really fast. The only way to really deal with it is to confront the legitimacy of 'Private Property Rights' head on. Otherwise I think it will be a total waste of time even discussing it. While about a 3rd of the downtown eastside population is 1st Nations - living in such squalor that the UN has to step in - almost whole buildings by English Bay in the Westend sit empty because the 'owners' of those condos live elsewhere. Where does one even begin? How about people squating as much unused land/property as possible in this city so the police cannot respond to all of the occupations?
I also don't see a future for myself here.

monty's seduction

Hey monty,

Those of us living in The Interior have given up many services and amenities while watching our mountains turn to tailings, our forests turn red or reduced to stumps and slash piles, and our roads destroyed by overweight trucks hauling the booty that was once nature. This thievery, dubbed "progress" or "economic development", funds the insanity that is called Greater Vancouver, the Sea to Sky highway, and 2010. (We still pay a toll on our highway, while those owning or spending in Whistler, get their road funded for free.)

It looks and feels a good deal less like seduction and lot more like rape from where I stand. I never wanted any of it!

For all you Vancouverites not fully enamoured with the charade, I suggest getting out while the getting is good. Sell your overpriced Vancouver house, take the profits and buy some cheap land/housing in The Interior or on the East Coast. Set aside enough money to invest in some sort of business/farm equipment and put yourself to honest work.

I would love to own my own farm!

Ok, I'm going to get a few people choked
at me but here goes. My family is of
Italian descent, therefore, I spent a lot
of my twenties living at home. This was
an enormous luxury that I realize most
kids don't get. I was able to work and
save up money and buy my own house in Burnaby, with a mortgage of course, totally on my own. However, my family helped me out in other ways. Free room and board, somebody to come home to, mom's Italian cooking and other stuff. I have paid for my own post secondary schooling and my own transportation. But in my family theprinciple is, mine is yours and and yours is all ours. That's the basic idea we agree on. Its been a while since I've lived at home but paying a smaller mortgage than others, I would have to say,
that if I didn't have that family support,
and, had I had to buy a house today, I wouldn't even be able to pay a mortgage and live in the house even in Maple Ridge. I would have had to buy a condo or townhome.
As for living on a farm, I wish I could
raise a family on one. I grow some of my
own vegetables now but I would love to
work my dayjob and go home to do some
gardening and ranching. I think children
learn some of the best experiences and lessons while working alongside their parents on a farm. I have to admit, I am really contemplating on selling my house and actually buying some acreage in the interior!
But a note on Beer's article. I honestly
feel that we are all in a tight spot but
we all know a little on business cycles and they go up and down. I honestly believe that there will come another time when places will be affordable again, very soon. But I feel very much for those families that just bought into places. I think that anyone who works hard should be rewarded. I'm sure that there will come a time and with patience, those wanting their own places will get it.

Good on you, Jen. I can

Good on you, Jen. I can really relate to the experiences & issues you describe.

Every pay raise or promotion I ever got was from switching jobs, not from sticking it out in the same position - and most of my colleagues over the years have reported the same experience. I think that has to do with the nature of the sector we were in. It really calls into question the validity of the "meritocracy" in the job market. Outside of certain "blessed" sectors in Vancouver (like the computer gaming industry, to name one) everyone's been frozen into place irrespective of their relative output. Also, no matter what the government statistics say, BC salaries are way behind everywhere else. It's the only place in Canada where you still see postings for specialized jobs requiring a 3-yr post-secondary technical degree for the unrealistically low salary of $28K/yr "plus benefits". Sometimes even lower. Yay. Like anyone can live on that in the Lower Mainland and pay off their student loans...let alone experience some modicum of "quality of life" in the "best city to live in".

Good article.

State Policy causes high housing prices

The Tyee has run many stories about the affordability of housing for those on the lower end of the spectrum. This article illustrates the exclusion from housing opportunities of a much wider spectrum of people. If housing prices are so overheated that they are depriving Canadians of a basic opportunity for security and shelter, maybe we should review the policies that are creating this distress. Perhaps our mass immigration policies should be tailored to reflect the impact of such immigration of local housing.

Or perhaps we should look at the

Or perhaps, Percy, we should look at the tax policy and stuctures that got us into this mess...immigration has very little to do with it.

Not that I expect you'll admit that.

Transferring more and more of the country's wealth into fewer and fewer hands is the real problem for the Jens and nightblooms out there - and for the homeless.

Vancouver eats its young

Vancouver is good for a visit now and then but otherwise get the hell out! My parents were wise enough to take the hint and move us into the northern interior in the late 60's while I was a toddler. Would not seriously entertain the idea of the lower mainland or the okanogan for that matter. The climate is fabulous in the south but not worth the lifetime(s) of slavery required to buy a home. The current realestate boom has driven prices up all over the province but prices in the interior are still a fraction of those in Vancouver. Rest assured that when the next recession or maybe even depression comes, prices in the interior will crash much harder than those in Vancouver. It may be hard to beleive but just 4 years ago in the last recession (yes Virginia the economy does crash) I purchased my current homestead of 5 acres with a home and shop for $25 thousand just 10 minutes from a small town with no traffic jams. Many people in Vancouver seem to be unaware that there is a world outside of their city. Just follow #1 east past Hope, then head north beyond Hells Gate and don't stop till you are north of Cache Creek. So go on a money diet and save a few thousand by then the next crash should have arrived.

urban unustainabiliy?

The simple fact is that Vancouver is unsustainable, consuming far more of the Province's wealth than what it produces itself.

The key numbers relate to the GNP produced per capita in rural vs urban areas, which is approximately two-to-one. I remember reading this years ago in a report by David Baxter of the Urban Futures Institute.

This gives rise to the syndrome initiated by the great civilisations of the past, endlessly repeated ever since, and now by ours.

As wealth and power inevitably gravitates to the cities, the countryside steadily becomes stripped of its resources and loses its proportionate population of producing citizens in the process.

When hard times hit, there is not enough resiliency left in rural areas to carry the demands of the cities, and overall collapse ensues.

I could not find the report I've referred to here, nor the list of other ones which once graced his sites. Perhaps a more diligent search might reveal it.

At any rate, a very useful report by Baxter which is germane to the topic at hand can be found by Googling : The Urban Futures Institute - Homes in British Columbia’s Future:

Home on the Range

After the recent opposition to limited low-rise in-fill housing in the Vancouver, Norquay neighbourhood it's difficult to imagine how the dense and affordable modest dwellings in most of Europe will ever come to Vancouver. The sprawl of Vancouver seems to be preferred by residents of most areas, so I guess, prices will stay high.

WAGES HAVE TO RISE ALRIGHT

Also, no matter what the government statistics say, BC salaries are way behind everywhere else. It's the only place in Canada where you still see postings for specialized jobs requiring a 3-yr post-secondary technical degree for the unrealistically low salary of $28K/yr "plus benefits".

You're right, nightbloom, there's a bit of unreconstructed Victorianism among B.C. employers, that you wouldn't find in Alberta. I think it's part of the colonial heritage.

However, government figures do confirm what you're saying. They show that Alberta's average hourly wages, previously lower than B.C.'s, have now moved ahead. If B.C. employers want to attract and retain skilled people, they will eventually have to raise wages.

But many of these employers figure they can resist that by getting the Federal Govt to bring in large numbers of unskilled temporary foreign workers, even for big tunnel and bridge projects, and yes, even for the very lowest and least skilled hospitality positions in housekeeping and food services.

Mothers are attempting to care for those young

As a mother who doesn't have a choice to move away and still care for her (younger) children, I am shocked at the lack of media attention given to single mothers and their children, as a unit, in this housing crisis being faced by the region. Single mothers have to care for their children and also attempt to earn sufficient income to pay for housing.

I also know a mother of three who is living in subsidized housing run by a private non-profit society who has had her subsidy removed, because of administrative mismanagement. She has been forced to pay market value to continue to have a roof over her head. She, and her three primary school aged children are living on so little each month, I am outraged!!!. Her disposable income after housing could be compared to the poorest nations on earth. But because she is lucky to have a roof over her head in this time of homelessness, her vulnerability, her stoicism on behalf of her children, and the way she is treated by the system, is...
invisible.

You people who jump on the bandwagon of homelessness should also not forget that for the most vulnerable of society, finding a home is no guarantee of being treated with dignity. In some cases, it just makes the indignity less visible, the lack of choice more oppressive, and sets up conditions where people can be bullied and treated unfairly, simply based on fear of losing their housing.

Well said, David

A very on-the-mark piece of writing that hints at the reality of the work world: two tiers. The upper tier is the professionals who earn $50,000 per year and up. The lower tier is the people who work in retail, restaurants and other service economy, making $8 - 10 per hour.

If you can fit into the professional world (right degree, "fresh" {see http://www.boldcareer.com/blog/archives/2005/09/27/are_you_fresh.html} , have the right experience and great timing, you'll do fine. Otherwise, you're probably SOL, stuck with making a third of what a 'pro' can earn.

Take it from a 50ish white male struggling with a career change, it's tough out there!