Quote:
Originally Posted by Changing City
I think that within Vancouver, and now Burnaby, the municipal authorities are doing pretty much anything they can within their financial limitations. The Province has spent more than the previous government, and the Feds have put some up, and talked about a lot more (but it has yet to show up in large amounts).
There are far more effective models at delivering enough affordable housing, but they're more socialist than would generally be accepted here. For example, Vienna is almost always 'the most liveable city in the world' these days. The City of Vienna municipality owns or controls over 400,000 dwellings - nearly half the city's stock, and leases it at between 20 and 25% of household income. Residents are never required to move out, even if household income levels increase in the following years. They build on average an additional 5,000 units a year, mostly with private sector partners who have to allow the city to rent half of the new apartments to lower-income residents. (The average building in Vienna is 3 storeys).
Berlin is taking even more direct control. 85 percent of its population rents, and rules limit rent increases and make it impossible for landlords to evict tenants who pay their rent on time. Rents are half of what they are in London and Paris, and the German capital is due to implement a five-year, across-the-board rent freeze in March. The downside is that is expected to deter development, so creating a greater housing shortage than already exists - so that's not going to come without new problems.
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Are we really so averse to more socialist ideas? The Vienna example sounds great to me. We should be moving immediately in that direction, building previously unimaginable amounts of affordable housing for lower and middle class people. I prefer that to the Berlin model. Deterring development doesn’t work. Relying on the private sector to provide for the greater good doesn’t either.
Label something socialist, capitalist, or whatever. All that matters is that it gets the job done. The tools in your toolbox don’t need to all fit under the same stifling ideology.
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