vancouver council considers making strong tenant protections in broadway plan citywide
dan fumano: as rezoning signs have sprouted up throughout the broadway corridor recently, many tenants are understandably apprehensive about their future. city hall says they're protected by strong policies.
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when vancouver’s broadway plan was approved in 2022, city staff and politicians heralded what they called the strongest tenant protection policies in canada. this week, city council will consider extending those same protections to renters across the city.
vancouver’s renter’s advisory committee, a volunteer body that advises council on tenants’ issues, is pushing for the change this week. but industry sources warn that such a move would severely limit the viability of development, thereby reducing future housing supply and making the city’s already-dire rental market worse.
the broadway plan is expected to add significant new density to this corridor of roughly 500 city blocks along the subway line now under construction, adding taller towers and thousands of new homes. these parts of mount pleasant, kitsilano and fairview include a significant portion of the city’s rental housing stock, and some of the planned developments will entail the demolition of existing homes.
when a building in the broadway plan is redeveloped, existing tenants get a “right-of-first-refusal” to return to a new unit in the new building at their old rent — which for longtime residents could be far below market rates — or 20 per cent below the citywide average rent for the same unit type, whichever is less. developers will also be responsible for helping those tenants find another apartment to live in while the new building is under construction, and paying to top up the difference in their rent during that interim period, which would likely be at least a few years.
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or, renters can also choose a lump-sum payment based on the length of their tenancy.
former longtime vancouver councillor gordon price described the policy on his blog viewpoint vancouver in 2022 as “the deal of a lifetime” for renters.
now, renter’s advisory committee co-chairman nick poppell says this deal should be extended citywide.
“no renter should be left behind just because of their postal code,” poppell said.
newly completed roof of the underground station structure at the future arbutus skytrain station.
protrans b.c.
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b.c. ministry of infrastructure
over the past year or two, rezoning signs have been popping up throughout the broadway corridor. some property owners trying to redevelop have hired tenant relocation specialists to meet with tenants and go through their options. many tenants are understandably apprehensive about their futures.
but poppell says he hasn’t heard from any renters — at least not yet — who have been forced out of their neighbourhood by redevelopment in the broadway area. if they’re out there, he says, the renter’s committee wants to hear from them.
(poppell is also the executive director of the green party of vancouver, but volunteers his time on the city’s advisory committee outside of his political work, and said he doesn’t speak on behalf of either organization, but as a private citizen and longtime vancouver renter.)
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poppell has heard the argument that stronger tenant protections could hinder future housing supply. but he believes that if the rules are clear and consistent, developers will be able to make projects work without huge amounts of tenant displacement, and points to the flurry of recent development interest in the broadway area itself.
since the broadway plan’s implementation in 2022, more than 135 projects have entered some stage of the approval process and 13 rezonings have been approved by council, according to a memo earlier this year from the city’s planning department. these rezoning applications would create a total of 21,661 new homes, including 540 social-housing units and 3,457 below-market rentals, but would impact more than 1,200 existing rental units.
but landlord b.c. ceo david hutniak predicts that present unfavourable market conditions mean most of those broadway projects might not actually break ground for several years, if ever.
“there’s nothing being built,” said hutniak, whose association represents the rental housing industry. “the vast majority of those getting approvals, those are going to be sitting on the sidelines for many years. it’s just the economics don’t work, and it’s a combination of things, but the (broadway) tenant relocation policy is a key driver of that.”
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hutniak said the prospect of extending the broadway policy across the city is “really concerning,” and could produce “the complete opposite effect of what they’re trying to do, which is have more housing here for the long-term.”
“we support tenant relocation policies, but they have to be reasonable,” hutniak said.
he believes the system should, at a minimum, include income-testing to ensure that the below-market rental units actually go to those in need.
when tenants in the broadway plan area are displaced by redevelopment, they can either find their own accommodation for the interim period while the new building is built or the developer must provide at least three listings aligning as much as possible to the tenants’ needs and preferences such as neighbourhood choice.
either way, the developer must pay a top-up to make up the difference between the tenants’ old rent and the new rent in the interim unit. or, tenants can opt for a lump sum rent top-up instead of a monthly payment, which is calculated based on the difference between the old rent and the average market rent in newer building times 33 months, the estimated average time for a project to go from building permit issuance to occupancy.
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the right-of-first-refusal is based on household size, which means a four-person household, such as a family with children, could request a three-bedroom unit in the new building, and a person living alone could choose a studio or a one-bedroom.
the renter’s committee produced the motion in collaboration with green coun. pete fry, who is set to introduce it at wednesday’s council meeting, which would direct city staff to review and report back with options to expand the broadway plan protections to all areas of vancouver.
fry doesn’t believe extending these policies would kill future development.
“we should be thoughtful about how our policy decisions impact folks who are living and working in our city right now. it’s fine to work towards future growth, but we definitely need to protect the people who are here now,” fry said.
fry also has two other motions related to rental housing on wednesday’s agenda: one advocating for banning no-pet clauses in buildings, and another seeking to strengthen the city’s property maintenance bylaw.
it’s unclear whether fry — council’s only green councillor — will have the votes necessary to support any of the three motions. but he may find support from his two newest colleagues, onecity coun. lucy maloney and cope coun. sean orr, who both campaigned on promoting tenants’ rights in this month’s council byelection, won decisive victories and were sworn in tuesday.
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