New Westminster needs to create thousands of housing units in the next five to 20 years to meet demand across the housing spectrum.
That’s the finding of an interim housing needs report, completed as part of the City of New Westminster’s compliance with provincial legislative changes related to house. In a 4-2 vote, city council has endorsed the City of New Westminster’s 2024 interim housing needs report, something the province required the city to do by Jan. 1, 2025.
Lynn Roxburgh, the city’s manager of housing and land use planning, said this report is an update to the city’s 2021 housing needs report. She said report has been updated to meet the provincial legislation requirements and uses new numbers that the province has set for the city.
“It's going to be a really key document for us moving forward; how we evaluate our policy, evaluate development projects,” she said. “It really is meant to help us understand what our housing need is in the city – how many housing units do we need? But also, equally important; who are those housing units for? So, it's understanding the fact that we need seniors housing, housing for families, housing for single people.”
Liyang Wan, a housing planner with the city, said the purpose of the housing needs report is to identify existing and projected housing needs and gaps, using both qualitative and quantitative data that are unique to each B.C. community. She said the information in the report will help guide local policies, plans and development decisions.
“It should be noted that the housing need and demand figures identified in these reports are estimates,” she said. “They are not mandated targets.”
According to the 161-page report, New Westminster will need thousands of new housing units in the next five to 20 years.
“The housing needs report does identify a projected five-year housing need for New Westminster of 8,137 new units, as well as a projected 20-year housing needs of 27,523 units,” Wan said.
Wan said additional analysis was completed to understand the housing needs specific to New Westminster – who needs housing and what type of housing is needed.
“The key finding does show that housing needs and demand exist across the housing spectrum in New Westminster and for various demographics,” she told council at its Dec. 8 workshop.
The report also included five-year projections (2024 to 2029) for different types of housing, as well as the number of units needed each year:
- Shelter beds/units: 58 units between 2024 and 2029; 12 units per year
- Supportive/transitional housing: 352; 70 per year.
- Affordable rental units (below- and non-market): 2,311; 462 per year
- Market rental units: 3,280; 656 per year
- Market ownership units: 1,647; 330 per year
- Additional units to meet healthy market demand: 558; 112 per year
Mayor Patrick Johnstone thanked staff for “doing that extra work that not every city is doing” to do a breakdown of the type of housing needed in New Westminster.
“That is really valuable information for us to have when we are talking to senior governments,” he said.
A staff report said the 2024 interim housing needs report (2024 to 2029) shows that the number of housing units required in New West are “significantly higher that what had been identified in the previous housing needs report and in the housing target order from the province.
Said Roxburgh: “That has implications for how we plan for infrastructure, our services, our amenities in the city. Because we want to make sure, as we're anticipating this growth, we are maintaining livability in our city, keeping all those things that are important to who we are as a community.”
Wan said the province now requires local governments in British Columbia to complete interim housing needs reports by Jan. 1, 2025. It must include three components; a projected five and 20-year housing needs to meet current and anticipated need, calculated using the province’s standardized housing needs method; a statement about the need for housing in close proximity to transportation infrastructure; and description of the actions that local government has implemented to reduce housing needs since receiving its last housing needs report.
Council voted 6-0 in support of an amendment from Coun. Ruby Campbell to have council write a letter to the appropriate provincial ministers listing the City of New Westminster's capital funding gap needs for renewing, replacing, and upgrading existing capital infrastructure and amenities to maintain current service levels and to support livability for future residents.
“We have housing targets from the province, and so I feel like it's only our due diligence to give the province some targets for the amenities that we need in order to support their targets for us. … If we're going to have to build housing, we're going to need the amenities,” she said. “We are mindful of that, but we need funding for that.”
Council also unanimously supported an amendment to the amendment from Coun. Daniel Fontaine to send the letter to the federal government as well.
“It’s important for us to talk about and focus on the important role the federal and provincial government plays when it comes to addressing those public amenities that were listed in this report this afternoon,” he said. “We all know they have deeper pockets, that they do partner with cities on things.”
While council unanimously supported the amendments, it was divided on the vote on endorsing the report. Johnstone and councillors Campbell, Tasha Henderson and Jamie McEvoy support the staff recommendation to endorse the report.
Councillors Fontaine and Coun. Paul Minhas voted against endorsement of the report, with Fontaine expressing concern that the report cited a goal of reducing homelessness, rather than eliminating homelessness. Minhas said he could not support the report as it was based on “old” data (as calculated by the province, the report used the latest census data, which was from 2019).
Resource impacts
Roxburgh said city staff teams are considering these housing projections in relation to a variety of processes, including the facility asset management plan, land use and development policies, updates to the city’s three official community plans, and approval of housing applications.
Jackie Teed, the city’s director of planning and development, said staff are doing a lot of work across the spectrum to try to address housing in many different ways.
“Right now, we've been focusing on running as fast as we can to hit the deadlines that we have to meet this year,” she said. “Early in the new year, we'll be able to take a breath and think about our next phase. We have a bunch of deadlines that we have to meet next year as well, but there will be more opportunities for public conversation in the next piece of work, and certainly with some of the other policies coming forward, there will be opportunities for that as well.”
Teed said the city hopes to be able to focus some of its staff resources on the issues related to affordable housing and housing for those who are in most need.
“That was our goal and our intent when we originally brought forward the idea of creating a housing division, it was in alignment with council's strategic priorities plan, and the homes and housing options focus area,” she said. “And then the legislation came in behind and really has absorbed those resources. But that's where we're heading, and that's where we're always having our eye open to how we can start launching more of that work and doing more of that conversation with the community.”
