The following questions were asked by audience members during the conversation. While panelists were not able to respond to all of them directly, they have been recorded and will be considered by Commissioners in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned for updates and responses.
| # | Question | Asker Name |
| 1 | Does this data take into account that the “maxing out” mentioned is also to make sure that the developer/building owner is able to make the most possible profit and has nothing to do with housing need? Say if the housing market is also being used as an investment market | A.J. Batalden |
| 2 | If the City has failed to give us the data on how much housing is needed, how can we plan anything? | Evelyn Jacob |
| 3 | One question for the panel: In your opinions, does our current land zoning system broadly help or hinder us in building housing and communities that we need? | Baldwin Hum |
| 4 | the history of zoning against apartments is tied to racist and anti-poor practices. would love your comments. | Luna Aixin |
| 5 | We have given over the construction of the majority of our real estate assets to the private sector. What innovations and benefits do they bring in exchange for the ability to generate profits, and what do they fail to do for us in their money-focused approaches? | Baldwin Hum |
| 6 | Since the re-zoning process includes getting community input. How do we ensure that input from the social-political majority doesn’t outweigh input from other members of the community, especially if rezoning could lead to forced relocations. | Cameron Turner |
| 7 | What types of climate resiliency strategies should we be incorporating into our housing strategies? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 8 | How do we secure legislation to support the initiatives? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 9 | Our communities need a good mix (of uses, activities, spaces, tenures, etc.) to be successful, and yet the standard discussions around housing only talk about housing. What else do we need in our communities to make them successful places to live, and how do we ensure that these resources are distributed equitably? | Baldwin Hum |
| 10 | How do we balance the move towards densification of housing with the lack of available greenspaces, especially in regards to climate change and the need for shaded areas? | Janelle Mah |
| 11 | Also when looking at the cost of renting and the amount of housing, are the number of empty units that are being kept off of the market by landlords in efforts to either evict large portions of their building or manipulate the costs of renting within the city? | A.J. Batalden |
| 12 | Why do we have public hearings for affordable housing when we know the families that are already housed will vote against it.? (NIMBYism) | Anonymous Attendee |
| 13 | Re Jens’ comment about access to for-profit housing being determined by resources, and non-profit housing being determined by wait-list: isn’t ones personal wealth a wait list of a sort as well, just a more inequitable one? | Baldwin Hum |
| 14 | Are they not moving to take opportunity of their tax free capital gains? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 15 | Polls are easy. Why are we not gathering the data? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 16 | How to ensure that local or international real estate developers are building apartments that are strong, sustainable, and sound proofed to reduce and absorb noise pollution? We are noticing that developers, year by year, are using cheaper material and people end up buying or renting units that are getting closer to the quality cartoon boxes. | Anonymous Attendee |
| 17 | How much of that market housing goes to investors? Of that how much sits empty? | John Richmond |
| 18 | Looking at the relationship between supply and pricing, how much does the rate of housing provision affect the potential lowering of housing prices? | Baldwin Hum |
| 19 | In your model about the change in prices of housing relating to supply, does that also take into account the fact that the times that the prices went down and the supply went up were times economic crisis and were possibly not related to a creation of new stock? | A.J. Batalden |
| 20 | Where does livability come in? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 21 | But is the data accurate. Is it self reporting of empty homes. How are they auditing? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 22 | Are the EHT/VHT just one way in which we are allowing the wealthy to continue the status quo in certain parts of our city? What are the limitations in regulating more directly the changes that we want to see in the city? | Baldwin Hum |
| 23 | What percentage of condos in Van are empty? As opposed to single family homes… | John Richmond |
| 24 | Why are municipalities so reluctant to raise property taxes? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 25 | In addition to finding methods to ensure we are building enough and inclusive urban housing for everyone, are we thinking how to preserve, maintain, and promote the indigenous identity of the unceded territories of Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 26 |
Housing, like other kinds of infrastructure, is a regional issue. How can we get to a more regional approach to housing rather than fragmenting our approaches by individual municipalities? |
Baldwin Hum |
| 27 |
Also I haven’t noticed as much data focusing on the different sub-categories of housing, as it seems more and more the towers/purpose built rentals are not addressing the need for family-friendly rental/non-market housing instead of just towers of primarily 1 bedroom/bachelor apartments that do not allow for growth of families without needing to leave the community. Is this being tracked/or addressed as part of the planning? |
A.J. Batalden |
| 28 | How do they plan on building more accessible housing? | Amelia Cooper |
| 29 |
Thanks to Jennifer for mentioning a critical aspect of housing: finance. Similarly insurance can be another aspect of the provision and operation of housing that frequently is ignored. How can we reform the finance and insurance industries to ensure that we can build what we need rather than continuing to build what yields the highest returns? |
Baldwin Hum |
| 30 |
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Ingrid Valou |
| 31 | publicly owned and operated housing for all non market housing…forget non profit housing providers! Housing as a human right like education and healthcare in Canada s/b provided by the public sector! | Gail Harmer |
| 32 | If you have time, could we get this panel’s perspective on this report by another expert panel: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/588/2021/06/Opening-Doors_BC-Expert-Panel_Final-Report_Jun16.pdf | Jacint Simon |
|
Can anyone speak to the door blocker I run into at meetings “zoned capacity”. |
ken paquette | |
| 33 | Also how does the panel feel about the fact that “affordable housing” in vancouver is defined as “market rate”? | A.J. Batalden |
| 34 | Why do they not tax properties proportionally for how many occupants live in the house per square foot….and the number of months occupying the property per year? | Anonymous Attendee |
| 35 | Comment: It would be very interesting to see the demographics of those living in all of the most expensive properties and whether it is primarily Canadian earned income or foreign capital purchase (Especially the larger homes). | Anonymous Attendee |
| 36 |
how is loss of green space compromised by density ie climate change |
Varouj Gumuchian |
| 37 |
Commissioner Gabrielle Peters is boycotting this event. This is her stated reason: “I played no role in the organizing of this meeting. I don’t feel it would be a meeting I would wish to attend despite being very concerned with the issue of housing in Vancouver. I do not feel it would be a safe place to express my concerns or learn.” |
Anonymous Attendee |
| 38 |
Speaking of segregation, can the city get rid of the ridiculous occupancy limitations that some of the landlords are implementing: example, families of 4, like mine (two kids – two pre-teen daughters currently sharing a bedroom) are not allowed in the two bedroom apartments. This causes larger families being forced out of their neighbourhoods (schools, jobs). We need more 2+ bedroom rental units that are affordable for families. |
Eva Ciesielska |
| 39 |
Opinion: why can’t we just build detached homes only and get rid of towns n condos as their starts fees keep rising. I feel it’s builders and developers purposely wanna only build condos and towns and raise their prices to over 1-1.2M so most people can only have to buy these. It’s a big crash grab. How r u suppose to raise a family in a 1bd +den condo that too cost almost 1M ?? Since 2000 about only 20% houses were detached of all houses built |
L J |
| 40 | I’d like to see more discussion of what regular joe’s (not planners or politicians or professional researchers) can do to push vancouver towards these visions | Josh Lemer |