BRICKS & MORTAR or RENT SUBSIDIES? Future Directions in Affordable Housing Forum (May 2nd)

We all know that one of the biggest issues in Vancouver is whether there will be at any point in time, affordable housing in this city. We all love living here, but the cost of renting an apartment or a house in Vancouver is becoming prohibitive. Tikva Housing and several other non-profit organizations are currently in the process of preparing a Third Housing Forum to be held Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 at 6:00pm at the Peretz Centre (6184 Ash Street, Vancouver BC V5Z 3G9).

Panelists include: TIM WAKE, Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver, TSUR SOMERVILLE, UBC Centre for Urban Economics & Real Estate, BONNIE RICE, Katherine Sanford Housing Society, and NATHAN EDELSON, 42nd Street Consulting . The moderator will be PENNY GURSTEIN, UBC School of Community& Regional Planning.

As an academic who has done work on urban and industrial restructuring, I will do my best to attend, particularly because I love the work of Tsur Sommerville and of Penny Gurstein (two of my colleagues at UBC at the Sauder School of Business and UBC School of Community and Regional Planning). I’m keen to see what comes out of the discussion. Additional information that I received from the organizers:

Rent subsidy vs. building units has been a discussion topic for some time amongst housing advocates in Vancouver. As the housing affordability crisis has grown in Vancouver, organizations like Tikva and others have begun to examine this debate and its impact on their service delivery more closely. Tikva has received a $1M donation to purchase a building, but the high costs of real estate in Vancouver are making the search for a suitable site near impossible.
As Tikva looks to the future and how best to use this donation, the Future Directions in Affordable Housing Forum will provide invaluable insight and opinions in the best use of the donation in serving Vancouver’s most needy. The Forum will also provide an opportunity for other organizations to examine their own housing difficulties, and connect organizations with each other and concerned citizens to work towards finding a solution.

This is such an important topic that I hope that people in Vancouver will want to attend the forum. One of the most challenging issues in this city is also to make sure that the right people participate, so I would encourage you to attend.

More on Tikva Housing Society

Tikva Housing Society was formed in 1994 with a mission of providing safe, secure and affordable housing for working age people. In 2007, with the most generous assistance of Vancouver’s Guincher family, other community members and matching funds from B.C. Housing, Tikva Housing Society was able to purchase the Dany Guincher House, an 11-unit apartment building in Marpole. With the acquisition of the Dany Guincher House, nine apartments are now rented to working age Jewish singles and families.
As units become vacant, new Tikva clients are housed based on need.

You can register online