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City: Vancouver passes laneway housing "milestone"

Vancouver has passed a key housing milestone with a total of over 1,000 new laneway housing permits now issued, building on the City’s work to enable new affordable housing options and create more livable neighbourhoods, a press release from the City says.
 
A total of 1,049 new laneway housing permits have been issued in Vancouver as of July 2013, following a record-high 354 permits being issued in 2012 alone, a City spokesperson says. 
 
“The addition of over a thousand new laneway houses helps meet Vancouver’s urgent need for more affordable housing in a way that fits with local neighbourhoods,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Whether for students, aging family members, or young people looking to live close to home or new job opportunities, Vancouver’s successful laneway housing program is creating more affordable and sustainable housing options in single-family neighbourhoods and contributing significant new rental housing.”
 
Year:
Laneway housing permits issued:
2009
18
2010
192
2011
232
2012
354
2013 (to end of July)
253
TOTAL
1049
 
Since 2009, Vancouver’s laneway housing program has been providing residents more opportunities to live close to where they work, shop, and play, and make the city's urban lanes more green, liveable, and safe. The City has also acted to speed up permitting times for secondary suites, with 442 permits for secondary suites being issued in 2012 and an average of 394 from 2009-2011.
 
The expansion of Vancouver’s laneway housing program builds on City Hall’s consistent work to make housing more affordable in Vancouver and to support renters and residents in need. These include:
  • Launching a Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability
  • Enabling significant new affordable housing on City-owned land with an innovative partnership that is creating 355 new affordable rental units on 4 City-owned sites in Southeast Vancouver
  • Approving a record number of new rental housing units in 2012
  • Appointing a new Chief Housing Officer for the City of Vancouver
  • Approving the development of an arms-length Affordable Housing Authority
  • Approving Vancouver’s first-ever co-housing project
  • The opening of Vancouver’s first Rent Bank, to support renters in crisis with short-term loans
  • The creation of the Rental 100 Program, which provides incentives for the development of new, 100% rental buildings
  • Launching the Online Rental Standards Database, which enables renters to search out buildings that have current safety issues
  • Hosting the ‘re:THINK Housing’ international ideas competition to solicit ideas from around the world on how to create new affordable housing
 
For more details on Vancouver’s laneway housing program, click here:
 
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