Streamlining Rental public hearing: round three

The Streamlining Rental public hearing continued for a third night, with council extending the session until midnight to hear from all the remaining speakers on the list (#50 to #115).

Council will take up the debate and vote as unfinished business at their next meeting, on Tuesday November 16. (There was some contention about this at the end of the meeting - previously the next session had been scheduled for December 14.)

Supporters talked about how brutal the rental market is, the sub-standard housing conditions that people are living in, and how many younger people are being pushed out. Opponents talked about neighbourhood impacts (status quo bias).

One particularly interesting aspect of the public hearing: opponents asked how building new market-rate housing would help with affordability. There's three answers:

• From the MacPhail Report: new housing frees up old housing. It's like musical chairs. Whenever a new building opens, every higher-income renter who moves in creates a vacancy in an older, cheaper rental, and the increasing vacancies push down rents.

• Renting, even at market rents (e.g. $2000/month for a 1 BR on the east side), is far more affordable than owning. $2000/month is affordable for a household income of $80,000. A $1.5 million half-duplex requires a household income of $335,000 to be affordable - who on earth can afford that?

• The Streamlining Rental Plan, particularly the C-2 rezoning, makes non-profit rental projects easier and faster as well, since they can build more rental homes on the same land.

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• Video from round three, November 9

• Correspondence: final count is 620 in support, 444 opposed

List of speakers (may be incomplete, and not all spellings may be correct):

• 5:50 Peter Waldkirch (support)

• 11:23 Aaron Wilson (support)

• 13:20 Serena Jackson (support)

• 15:30 Nathan Edelson

• 20:35 Julius Csotonyi

• 26:05 Maureen Charron (oppose)

• 31:25 Cameron Thorn, Strand (support)

• 51:05 Gayle Gavin (oppose)

• 58:35 Nathan Hawkens (support)

• 1:10:20 Michael Wiebe, no relation (support)

• 1:13:00 Mary Davison (oppose)

• 1:19:00 Jenny McClean (oppose)

• 1:22:19 Mary Downe (oppose)

• 1:27:32 Evan Allegretto, Intercorp (support)

• 1:44:55 Naomi Steinberg

• 1:50:22 Carol Volkart (oppose)

• 2:09:00 Neil Robertson, Stuart Howard Architects (support)

• 2:21:11 Larry Benge, West Kitsilano Residents Association (oppose)

• 2:32:43 Scott de Lange Boom (support)

• 2:38:17 Albert Huang, Terra Housing (support)

• 3:01:19 Peter Gajecki (oppose)

• 3:05:29 Maximillian Lepur (support)

• 3:08:10 Arsalan Shayan (support)

• 3:11:19 Sina Mohebiany (support)

• 3:14:53 Colin McGrath (oppose)

• 3:24:40 Elliot Hoyt (support)

• 3:27:15 Clara Prager (support)

• 3:31:55 Surabhi Shakkarwar (support)

• 3:35:00 Taizo Yamamoto, architect (support)

• 3:53:07 Erica Weiss (oppose)

• 3:58:25 Sandra Hayden (oppose)

• 4:00:25 Philippe Le Billon (oppose)

• 4:06:21 Richard Campbell (support)

• 4:10:13 Alex Boston (support)

• 4:15:35 Ben Wells (support)

• 4:18:03 Karen Bakker (oppose)

• 4:23:38 Jamie Vaughan (support)

• 4:28:11 Penny Noble (oppose)

• 4:33:38 Jan Alexander (oppose)

• 4:39:24 Barbara May (support)

• 4:42:54 Michael Butler (support)

• 4:45:54 Victor Rizov (support)

• 4:51:16 Max Kittner (support)

• 4:52:05 Leopold Wambersie (support)

• 4:55:00 Elizabeth Murphy (oppose)

• 5:05:32 Kit Sauder (support)

• 5:11:53 Owen Brady (support)

• 5:18:05 John Guremel (support)

• 5:20:10 Ethan Whiting (support)

• 5:22:08 Tuba Sonmez (support)

• 5:23:09 Devon Hussack (support)

• 5:27:39 Richard Nantel (oppose)