â–ş Listen Live
â–ş Listen Live

BCNPHA seeking council candidates’ housing commitments

The BC Non-Profit Housing Association wants to know which potential councillors will be committing to affordable housing.

“One of the things that’s really on our radar right now, and we’re doing active planning for is the municipal elections coming up,” said Jill Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-profit Housing Association

“We’re building out a really strong campaign, we’ll be connecting with absolutely every person running for council in British Columbia, and getting them to sign a pledge to make a five-part pledge to make commitments around ensuring an adequate supply of affordable housing.”

She added there are over 160 communities in which they will be reaching out to candidates.

Municipal elections in BC will take place on October 15th.

Atkey said they’ll be contacting candidates for throughout the summer, right up until the final moment, and releasing who has and hasn’t signed a commitment.

The BC Non-Profit Association held a Regional Education, Networking, and Tradeshow (RENT) event for housing providers in Prince George this morning.

“This is happening in the North, so we’re bringing housing providers in from really all across the North, to just get together, network, talk about common challenges, common successes, sharing and learning from one-another, but then also there’s a training and education component,” Atkey explained.

She added the number one challenge she’s heard is getting enough housing built.

“We saw through the pandemic the affordability situation for renters actually became much worse, which I think is something we didn’t anticipate,” Atkey said.

“We had the largest global economic downturn in many of our lifetimes, and yet affordable housing became more out of reach for people.”

“It’s moving it through the municipal approvals process, it’s getting funding for it from senior levels of government, rising construction costs, rising labour costs, so labour shortages, right throughout BC.”

Atkey added the situation is more acute in the North.

“Now we’ve got a rising interest rate environment, which is posing challenges for projects that already have been approved to go through and get built,” she said.

“And then we’re dealing challenges like with an ongoing pandemic, an ongoing drug poisoning crisis, which is more severe here in Prince George than pretty much anywhere else in the Province. We’re heading into wildfire season, we’re dealing with floods every year in certain parts of the province.”

 

 

Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].

Darin Bain
Darin Bain
Darin is a news reporter for Vista Radio's Prince George stations. His career started in the Cariboo in 2020, working as a News Reporter in both 100 Mile House and Williams Lake before making the move to Prince George in late 2021.

Continue Reading

cjci Now playing play

cirx Now playing play

- Advertisement -

Related Articles

- Advertisement -

Latest News

Low temperature record falls for Prince George

Prince George recorded its coldest temperature for October 13th this morning (Monday) according to Environment Canada. "Prince George Airport registered a low temperature of minus 9.5, which broke the record of minus 7.0, set in 1993," said Environment Canada Meteorologist Gary Dickinson. 

Conservation Officer Service investigating grizzly bear attack in McGregor Mountain area

The BC Conservation Officer Service (COS) says two hikers in the McGregor Mountain area north east of Prince George yesterday. (Sunday)According to the service, COS PAT Specialists are investigating.

Ice making process to start at two RDFFG rinks

The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George says the ice making process will start at a couple of rural rinks this week. At the start of this month, the Regional District announced ice-making would be indefinitely suspended at the Robson Valley Recreation Centre in McBride and the Canoe Valley Recreation Centre in Valemount.

Darin’s Sports Shorts; Monday, October 13th

Recap of local and national sports.

Cougars spill the beans against Tri-City

Next action for the Cougars is a mini two-game American road swing through Seattle (3-4-0-0) and Tri-City Friday and Saturday.  
- Advertisement -