Supporting the calculations behind the blog on solving the Metro Vancouver housing crisis :

 

Estimated rental rates costs are such that for a two-bedroom unit, a renter needs to earn around $30 to 35 dollars per hour in wages. At this level of income, the rental cost is 30% of total earnings.

 

Total households in Metro Vancouver is 917K (thousand)

 

Looking at the actual wages earned – which are much lower – the estimate is 12.8% of households earn less than $30K per year. Each of these households is estimated as a $15K shortfall each year to bring current rents under 30% of total annual household earnings. Assuming about 90% in this income level are renters, the subsidy required for this group is 105K households times $15K each or  $1.5B (Billion) a year total.

 

 

 

 

Similarly households earning between 30K and 60K a year is 20.3% of households. Assuming 30% are renters then these 56K renters need a subsidy of $7K a year which totals $0.5B for Metro Vancouver.

 

The two groups of subsidies together total  $2.0 B per year required to reduce rental costs for these low-income households to 30% of annual earnings. 

 

 

For further information write Cam@FutureLegacies.ca

 

Sources:

Rental Rates: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/rentalwages?Centre=Vancouver

Housing units projected from Port Coquitlam statistics. (https://www.portcoquitlam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Population-Growth-Fact-Sheet.pdf)

https://www.portcoquitlam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Housing-Action-Plan.pdf

 

Income levels per Tri-City News https://www.tricitynews.com/news/household-income-on-the-rise-in-the-tri-cities-1.23050755

 

Populations estimates:

For Vancouver from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District

For BC  from: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/statistics/infoline/infoline-2019/19-46-quarterly-pop-highlights

For Canada from:

 

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/canada-population/