UNBC’s Community Development Initiative (CDI) released the results of its Northern BC housing Study today.
It looked at the state of housing across 10 communities in the region and found that most of it is old and doesn’t serve the population very well.
It’s still more affordable than the Lower Mainland but northern BC’s housing stock has issues aside from affordability.
The majority of houses are single-family dwellings – while many households only contain 1-2 people. And most housing was built in the 60s and 70s and desperately needs to be updated.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for northern leadership in this because there are communities all over the place that are dealing with this,” says Marleen Morris, CDI’s co-director. “If you look at the population dynamics across Canada in small communities, it’s the same population dynamic. We could show some leadership in this.”
Morris points to the community of Clearwater, which has invested in senior-friendly housing and other community designs, as well as Fort St. John, which has focused on energy-efficient homes and built the northernmost passive house in the country.
The study predicts that the number of people over 70 in northern bc will more than double in the next 20 years.
Morris says it’s time to start looking at innovative options like flex housing – designed to take first time home-buyers from starting a family through retirement in one dwelling.
“Do people know that that’s even a possibility? And if they did, would there be an interest in that? I think part of it is that we’re used to seeing the same old, same old so we think that’s all we’ve got.”
The rental market showed some surprising trends as well. Fort St. John rental rates are comparable to Vancouver’s while Quesnel is the most affordable at an average price of $613 for a private apartment. Prince George falls in the middle with an average monthly cost of $735.