The City of Victoria is well ahead of pace to meet its five-year provincial housing target of building just over 4,900 units, although it falls short of affordable and affordable housing. family size.

A city report says 1,477 net new units were completed in the first year, exceeding the target of 659 new homes, meaning Victoria is now 30 per cent of the way to reaching the target. five-year objective.

Advice. Matt Dell highlighted that while many municipalities are falling short of targets, Victoria is exceeding expectations, with around 7,000 homes and “a lot of big developments” underway. But he said the province must do its part and support infrastructure such as recreation centers and bike paths.

“As much as I’m happy to build housing, I think there’s an expectation that building housing there will come with funding for equipment and project financing,” he said. he declared.

Mayor Marianne Alto noted that the province initially indicated there would be rewards for communities that met or exceeded targets, but “that seemed to fade as the conversation continued.”

Alto said once the new provincial cabinet is named, such awards would be “a welcome change or perhaps addition to their housing policies.”

When the targets were announced last year, the province suggested that municipalities that met their targets would be more likely to obtain funding for equipment, while communities that did not meet the targets or did not show enough progress could face provincial intervention.

The province has threatened to appoint an independent advisor to help lagging municipalities, or to overturn a municipality on land use issues in order to add more density.

Saanich has already signaled it will fail to meet its housing targets this year, but says it has laid the groundwork to allow it to reach that target in 2025.

The district’s progress report on the provincially required housing target showed it had issued occupancy permits for 338 units between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024. The target was 440 units. first year and 4,610 net new units to be completed in five years. .

Alto said Victoria is showing other municipalities what is possible.

“I certainly hope that our colleagues, certainly in the region, but also in the province, will be able to see that. It can be a challenge, and it is, and it certainly requires a tremendous amount of effort and intentionality, but we can do it if we want to.

But Victoria falls short in some housing categories.

The report notes that the city continues to see fewer family-friendly and below-market-priced three-bedroom units than is recommended. According to the report, only 168 below-market rental units were completed, compared to the province’s target of 1,798 by fall 2028.

At the same time, the city has only issued occupancy permits for 72 three-bedroom units, compared to the five-year goal of 736.

Advice. Krista Loughton acknowledged they have work to do, emphasizing the need for affordable housing.

“There’s been a lot of talk about family housing policy and how to get more three-bedroom and above units into the market, which is important, but I personally think below-market housing is more important and we’re we’re really going to have to do everything we can to support non-market housing providers to ensure that these types of housing come online,” she said.

Advice. Stephen Hammond said developers have managed to push most projects through a council that focuses solely on the need for housing, which has done nothing to improve affordability.

“Most of our development approvals continue to keep our city in the unaffordable category. We all know why we want to live here and why so many others will too. But that doesn’t mean we allow anything to be built in our city,” he said.

Hammond noted that many of the units the city has recently approved are micro-units, “which is a nice way of saying tiny.”

“I cannot accept that we continue to build tiny, expensive homes, ignoring the needs of people looking for more affordability.”

Hammond suggested requiring larger two- or three-bedroom units. He added that this could mean developers would be less likely to make big profits on a project, and the price of land could reflect this.

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