New data are shedding light on the plight faced by Canadians struggling to afford housing in Canada’s most expensive province.
According to a recent report by the Vancouver Sun based on the Canadian Rental Housing Index, more people are living precariously close to homelessness in B.C. than in any other province.
The index showed that B.C. and Ontario have the largest share of renters spending over half of their income on rent and utilities, a situation that puts them at risk of homelessness.
B.C. has more than 660,000 renter households, according to the latest census. Within that figure are over 105,000 households that contribute 50% of their income for utilities and rent, while another nearly 150,000 households pay more than 30%.
CEO of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association, Jill Atkey helped create the index and she says that the rental crisis in B.C. is worse than anywhere else in the country.
“The rental crisis is worse here (in B.C.) than pretty much anywhere else in the country,” said Atkey.
“Those sorts of things have real long-term impacts for people.”
The analysis revealed that the average rent in B.C. rose by 30% from 2016 to 2021, the highest increase in the entire country.
“A quarter million renter households in British Columbia who are struggling to afford rent don’t need a new unit of housing,” Atkey said.
“They need help affording their current rent.”
Atkey explained that paying too much for rent forces people to cut back on other basic necessities, such as food, education, and health care.
The analysis also found that the number of renters in Canada has increased significantly due to population growth and high home prices.
Last week, the Community Food Centres Canada released a study showing that 22% of single working-age Canadian adults were living below the poverty line.
