Or: that time that Vancouver decided single-family zoning was more important than defeating Hitler

Secondary suites (often just "basement suites”, or ADUs) are an everyday part of Vancouver neighbourhoods now. Even before they were fully legalized in 2004, they provided a large amount of Vancouver’s low-cost housing stock.

The story I usually hear about suites goes like this: people started building a lot of unauthorized suites in Vancouver Specials in the 1970s and 1980s, and this set the stage for a long drawn-out political battle that eventually ended with suites being legalized.

It’s a good story, and it’s true! But Vancouver’s history with secondary suites goes back much further. People were trying to live in secondary suites – and Vancouver was trying to stop them – for a long time before the Vancouver Special.

Happy Halloween! 

It's that time of year again when ghosts & ghouls roam the streets in pursuit of candy, but it's also time for a housing update! 

On October 31, Council unanimously approved the Dunbar-Ryerson rezoning! Thanks to all of you who wrote in, appeared before council, or attended the February open house to help get this rare combination heritage conservation and quiet-street rental housing project approved.

Below are upcoming rallies, open houses, and hearings that need your attendance, speeches and letters of support to help more rental homes be created.  

Abundant Housing Vancouver congratulates Hector Bremner, Vancouver’s newest city councillor.  We’re pleased that many candidates called for reforms to zoning in Vancouver, and many pointed out how zoning is used to ban apartments, townhomes, row homes and most other forms of housing from most neighborhoods.  We would like to thank all the candidates, campaign workers and volunteers who put long hours into making democracy in Vancouver work.  We’re happy that Hector Bremner’s repeated calls to end exclusionary zoning carried the day.

Vancouver's municipal by-election to choose one city councilor and nine school trustees is very nearly here! 

There are two more opportunities to see all the would-be City Councillors debate: 

Housing is a critical issue facing the City of Vancouver and is a major campaign issue in the race to fill the seat on City Council vacated by Geoff Meggs. Abundant Housing Vancouver sent a questionnaire to all candidates inquiring about their policies to address the housing shortage. We wish to thank all the candidates who responded. We have now received responses from all major candidates.

Responses we have received are posted in full below:

The City’s proposal for updated zoning in rich, low density neighbourhoods falls short of meeting the scale of our housing problems. While the proposal represents a small improvement in RS ("one-family") and RT ("two-family") zones, it fails to address a leading cause of Vancouver's exclusionary, unaffordable housing: an unjustifiable emphasis on preserving single family houses and the status quo which restricts the vast bulk of the city to systematically unaffordable homes. Single family house prices increased by 300%, so we need solutions that fit the scale of that problem. Instead, this plan continues the current practice of unfairly forcing the city's renters into basements or along polluted arterial roads.

(hint: you might live in one)

Ask a random person what the purpose of zoning is, and they’ll probably mention that it keeps unpleasant or dangerous things away from homes. You wouldn’t want to live next to a garbage dump or concrete factory, right?

Most people agree that that’s a good thing (myself included), but zoning codes often do a lot more than that. If you could ask the people who wrote our first zoning codes, you’d quickly learn that separating industry from homes was very far down their list of goals. Separating certain homes – specifically low-cost apartment homes – from other homes was much more important to the founding fathers of Vancouver planning.

You might have heard that Vancouver is considering allowing more homes in parts of Mount Pleasant and Grandview-Woodland. The bad news: the plans are much less ambitious than we’d like. The good news: the city is asking for feedback via online questionnaire, and this is a great opportunity to show them that there is broad support for more housing in established neighbourhoods.

Want to see more rental housing in Vancouver? We've got some opportunities for you to make your voice heard or learn more about housing issues. Find an open house, a rezoning hearing, screening, or panel discussion near you, or across the city!