Letter: Government must consider building affordable housing

Government must consider building affordable housing

Dear Mayor and Councilor of Duncan:

We applaud council’s determination to build affordable rental housing for seniors, workers and students, rather than allowing an unaffordable 200-unit, six-storey project on Price Place.

Details emerged on May 16, 2024 Citizen of Cowichan.

Like council, we sympathize with builder Guy Bouchard who is facing rising labor, materials and interest rates that are preventing him from building affordable housing that is sorely needed locally.

Bouchard’s dilemma indicates that other developers face similar difficulties in building affordable housing, defined essentially as costing 30 percent of a person’s gross annual income.

Before allowing more projects with rents that are unaffordable for most Cowichanians, council must solve the affordable construction conundrum.

Help could come from using compelling housing models already in use abroad – or from intense lobbying of our provincial and federal governments to help reduce developers’ complex and growing construction costs.

The elephant in the room says that if developers can’t or won’t build much-needed affordable housing, we need to think about building affordable, well-managed public housing – logically offering green designs and local jobs.

Roll up and put on your thinking caps, advisors.

yours in affordable housing solutions,

Peter W. Russia

North Cowichan