For someone who sticks their nose into all kinds of housing, it’s incredible to me that I just recently learned of the BCNPHA — The British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association.
As I learned from their website
The BC Non-Profit Housing Association provides leadership and support to members in creating and supporting a high standard of affordable housing throughout British Columbia.
BCNPHA members are primarily non-profit housing providers. Other members include individuals and organizations who care about affordable housing.
If you are interested in providing or living in non-profit housing, these are the folks for you. They offer training and help at each stage.
I heard about them in correlation with the Rental Housing Index. This is a very comprehensive index that shows you the affordability of rental housing for each area throughout the province:
And within each area you’ll find a table showing the cost
The affordability for each level of income
which shows that
in Greater Vancouver, a total of 47,410 renter households are living in conditions that are too small for their household size and composition
And the bedroom shortfall
which shows that
Greater Vancouver would need at least 63,480 more bedrooms to house all renters suitably.
Even at the highest income level, $71,583 +, renters might not find accommodation suitable for their needs.
We just had a civic election where the term “housing affordability” was tossed around by all sides.These figures from the BCNPHA show just what that term means in hard figures.
When people have to spend over half their income on housing, and even the most affluent renters can’t always get what they need, there is truly need to work on this issue — immediately
The Lady Who Lives Down the Lane 