Social Housing for Families with Children In Vancouver, lowincome families with children have difficulty in finding suitable accommodation at a rent they can afford. To improve the availability of such housing, the City requires that at least half the social housing units in major projects be designated for families with children. The City has adopted policies to address various aspects of this issue. In order to create rental housing, City Council approved in 1989 a public-private partnership to build rental housing on sites leased from the City for 80 years. Unit rents are initially set at market rates, with rental increases limited to the cost of living.
Tenants have security of tenure.
Over 1,000 assured rental housing units have been built. Most of these SROs are largely rented to older singles on income assistance. The draft Housing Plan for Downtown Eastside published in September 1998 recommends the retention and upgrading of the existing SROs as well as replacement of SROs with better social housing. The Strategic Actions Program approved by Council in November 1998 recommends the improvement of existing SROs and building replacement low-income housing for the Downtown Eastside. The Neighbourhood Housing Demonstration Fund will assist projects which are innovative in terms of form, tenure or affordability of housing.