Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee from the Greater Vancouver Regional District for this opportunity to address you this morning.
The Greater Vancouver Regional District is a federation of 21 member municipalities in the Lower Mainland. Our board is made up of the mayors and councillors of those 21 local governments. The GVRD—I shall use that acronym throughout my remarks—has particular roles in housing, and it is on the issue of affordable housing that I wish to address the committee this morning.
Probably next to transportation, affordable housing is the most critical issue local governments in our region are facing today, and have been for the last ten years.
The GVRD's role in housing is as a direct provider of social housing. Most of its housing is underwritten by CMHC. It has 3,500 units of social housing in the region. It's also an implementation partner on the homelessness programs that were initiated under the national homelessness initiative in 1999. It also is responsible for regional housing policy, so it works with the mayors and councillors of all the 21 member municipalities on regional housing policy.
There are four aspects to the housing crisis in this region that I would like to provide a brief background on with respect to giving some foundation to the requests and major messages we have for the committee at the end of my remarks.
The first aspect of the issue is of course poverty and income. In this region, the incidence and the rate of poverty have increased significantly in the last 10 years, and not only are the incidence and depth of poverty increasing, but the profile is markedly changing. Sixteen per cent of our regional households are in core need, and one-third of these core-need households are of persons who own their own housing. Core-need households that are paying more than 50% of their household income for rent are considered one rent cheque away from homelessness and are considered at risk of homelessness.
The profile of poverty in this region has meant that single-parent families, aboriginal households, and immigrant households are the three most overrepresented demographic groups in poverty in this region. Also with respect to poverty in this region, owners and renters of households are increasingly disparate in their circumstances: renters have one-half the annual income of owners in this region, and also have less than one-half of the assets or accumulated wealth. CMHC data have told us that those who move into home ownership almost double their incomes within six years of home ownership, so we know there is a direct link between long-term household prosperity and home ownership.
Finally, with respect to poverty, Human Resources and Social Development Canada just two months ago released a report that shows this region has the highest proportion of working poor families in all of Canada: 9.6% of our workers are considered poor, well ahead of Toronto, in second place at 5.3%.
The second aspect of the housing crisis has to do with housing costs. I don't think it's any secret to any of the committee members that Greater Vancouver continues to share the dubious honour of having the highest housing costs in Canada. The 2006 data shows us that the average selling price of a residence in this region was $508,000; in comparison, in second place was the city of Calgary, at $367,000. Less than 18% of renters in this region can afford first-time home ownership, given those costs of housing.
The third aspect of the housing crisis is housing supply. Rental housing continues to be the most critical need in this region: rental housing with respect to purpose-built market rental housing, social housing—we have 11,000 households in this region on the waiting list for social housing—and supportive housing. We need 5,000 units of supportive housing to address homelessness in this region over the next 10 years.
And that leads me to the fourth aspect of the housing crisis, which is homelessness. The number of absolute homeless persons in this region has doubled since 2002, and also the hidden homeless and “at risk of homelessness” numbers are alarming.
Our message to the committee is threefold. The first message is that homelessness is not an intractable problem. We urge the continuation of federal funding and involvement in the reduction and prevention of homelessness under the national homelessness initiative. Secondly—