For the week of March 17, 2024:
Rather than solve the affordable housing crisis, David Ley predicts pro-development politicians like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, B.C. Premier David Eby and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim will do more harm than good.
David Ley (UBC)
Ley is the professor emeritus of geography at the University of British Columbia and author of “Millionaire Migrants: Trans-Pacific Life Lines” (2010) and “Housing Booms in Gateway Cities” (2023). On March 20, he spoke at the Local Democracy Project’s forum at UBC Robson Square on “Civic Government: Corporate, Consultative or Participatory?”
Ley said that Vancouver already had an over-supply of housing and it did not translate to lower rents. The rush in 2024 to up-zone neighbourhoods without public hearings and “build, build, build!” will result in more evictions and government-led gentrification.
“The survival options are the options that we will see increasingly: living in camper vans, homelessness, encampments,” Ley said. “I fear that current policy, plus the federal immigration policy which is reckless, in terms of the capacity of cities to provide services — including housing services for this population — I think that this is simply an inevitable outcome.”
Hear Ley’s speech on this edition of thePodcast.
Plus, the Sin Bin and this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.
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