SURREY, B.C. - Premier Christy Clark has rolled out the blueprints for a plan to build 2,900 affordable housing units across British Columbia in an effort to increase rental supply.
Details of the plan, which involves 68 projects at a cost of $516 million, were announced Tuesday at the site of a 40-unit housing development in Surrey for single mothers who have children with special needs.
"We need to increase rental supply, which is what this announcement is all about," Clark said. "We have to keep the dream of having a home within reach of the middle class and all British Columbians. In addition to that, we need to create jobs"
Clark, who announced much of the plan in September, said the initiative will create up to 5,500 jobs.
Most of the housing will be reserved for adults with disabilities, seniors, youth, aboriginal people and single women with children. The funding is part of the $855 million in housing investments the government has announced so far this year, she said.
Last February, the province included $355 million in its budget for housing, but that amount was increased by $500 in September after booming real estate sales generated a revenue windfall for the government.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman said the funding largely comes from taxes on property transfers and foreign buyers.
The Finance Ministry reported earlier this year the value of commercial and residential real estate sold in B.C. in 2015-2016 was worth $93.6 billion. The government's final budget tally last year revealed property transfer tax revenues were up almost $500 million to $1.5 billion from the previous budget year.
The government said 22 new projects with 1,441 units will be built across the Lower Mainland, with the remaining units going up around the rest of the province.
New Democrat David Eby, the Opposition's housing critic, said many non-profits stand to benefit from the housing plan, but he's concerned the government launched a one-time effort just ahead of the spring election.
"This government has been dragged kicking and screaming to do something about housing and literally it has taken forums full of angry people shouting, 'There's a housing crisis,' to get their attention," he said.
