 |
October 3, 2006 - NEWS RELEASE
Housing Matters BC Helps Everyone Succeed
Burnaby, B.C. – The B.C. government’s new housing initiative will benefit low-income families who need support to attain self-sufficiency. And for once, private enterprise will be able to lend a hand.
Rich Coleman, B.C.’s Minister responsible for Housing, today announced a plan that will help put social housing within reach of low-income consumers, rather than keeping control in the hands of the provincial government.
Housing Matters BC, unveiled earlier today in Victoria, is a comprehensive housing strategy to immediately assist 15,000 low-income working families and homeless individuals. The province will put $40 million annually towards a new Rental Assistance Program, targeted at working families with an annual income below $20,000.
One of the pillars of the new housing strategy is to promote home ownership as an avenue to self-sufficiency. In addition to helping renters, Housing BC is dedicated to reviewing the best ways to improve access to home ownership, allowing individuals and families to transition out of subsidized housing. Several models are under consideration for systems that help those who want to gain independence to build down payments, including escrow accounts, and matching savings accounts.
Part of the new strategy is an attempt to keep the actual housing in the private sector, providing incentives to developers to provide social and mixed housing, rather than putting the burden of building and maintenance on the government. It’s an approach that the private sector supports, according to Independent Contractors and Businesses Association President Philip Hochstein.
“This new housing strategy at least partially takes control out of the hands of the bureaucracy and into the hands of consumers, who will always make better choices as to what suits their needs than any government could,” he said.
Hochstein pointed to Britain’s current financial and social revitalization as an example of how free enterprise can reinvigorate a stagnant economy.
“Council homes were moved into the private sector during the 1980s in Britain, which helped many lower-income individuals participate in home ownership. It’s our hope that Housing Matters BC will bring that new chance for prosperity to a group here in British Columbia that traditionally has been left out of the process,” Hochstein said.
And closer to home, the rush to secure suites in the upcoming revamp of the Woodward’s development, long a contentious property in Vancouver’s beleaguered Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, is an example of new approaches to social housing which are clearly being embraced across the board, Hochstein said.
“Social housing has always run into a ‘not in my backyard’ dilemma, but by using a market driven model, the Woodward’s development has proven that people from across the economic spectrum are comfortable with a mixed development that provides both market and social housing, right in the same building. Private enterprise can provide more of these innovative projects, and at less cost to the taxpayer,” Hochstein said.
-End-
For further information, please contact:
Philip Hochstein, ICBA President
Office: 604.298.7795
Cell: 604.561.9402
Email: phillip@icba.bc.ca
| ICBA is the voice of BC's construction industry. For further information, or if you have any questions or comments regarding this article, please contact ICBA.
|
|
|
|
