Introducing Co-housing

This article is written entirely by a UBCO student as part of the school's Economics and the Media course. It has not been fact-checked by KelownaNow.

Standing in front of the crowd that had gathered at UBCO for this year’s housing symposium Greg Harris asked, rhetorically, “Who wouldn’t want to live here?”

He was referring to a style of living called co-housing. But who is Greg Harris and what is co-housing?

The founder of Kelowna Intentional Communities, Greg Harris is a vocal advocate for co-housing in the Okanagan.

Co-housing is a unique sort of community where residents participate in the planning, design, management and maintenance of their community. Incorporated into the design are communal areas and shared spaces, and residents often share weekly meals together.

The Canadian Cohousing Network says, “Some people call [co-housing] a return to the best of small-town communities . . . while futurists call them an altogether new response to social, economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century.”

Co-housing combines the benefits of private ownership with the those of the sharing economy. Individual residences are typically smaller because communal areas meet many of your needs. For example, there may be a shared work shop with communal tools, a guest-room that can be pre-booked, or a community car available for use when you need it.

Harris emphasised the benefits of a close-knit community. The members of your co-housing society, he said, become like family. He gave the example of neighbours working together to take care of children when parents are at work.

But as the name of Harris’ organization suggest, in order for these communities to be successful, there has to be intention. They involve a lot of co-operation and people have to be open to engaging with others.

While for some this sort of community might sound a little too out of the ordinary, many laud it as a way to do away with loneliness and live in a sustainable manner. Indeed, co-housing quickly became the word of the day amongst UBCO housing symposium attendees who thought it a marvelous idea.

Certainly, the idea is catching on! Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan all boast co-housing communities. Currently 13 projects have been completed – ten of which are in B.C. – and another 18 are at various stages of development across the country.

Source: cohousing.ca Vancouver, B.C

Nanaimo, Vancouver, Langley, and Nelson are among the B.C. communities currently home to co-housing projects. If co-housing advocates such as Greg Harris and UBCO Professor Gord Lovegrove achieve their goal, Kelowna may soon join the list.

One drawback for co-housing, however, is that in most cases it remains only an option for people who can afford homeownership. According to the Canadian Cohousing Network, the price of a house in a co-housing community is approximately market rate, and the one-bedroom rentals listed on their website go for $1750/month plus utilities. For many then, co-housing may not yet be an affordable option.

To learn more about co-housing or to see if it is for you, check out the Canadian Cohousing Network.

Speculation Tax vs. Transaction Tax

Source: TourismKelowna.com

By now the term ‘speculation tax’ is common part of our shared vocabulary, and for many, its left a sour taste in their mouth.

Kelowna Mayor, Colin Basran, has been among those leading the charge against the tax, claiming that it will hurt tourism, development, and fail to create more rental housing.

Instead he proposes implementing what he describes as a ‘true speculation tax’ to target people who flip properties. When asked what such a tax would look like at the recent UBCO Housing Symposium, Basran said he wanted to see a transaction tax whose funds would be used to support rental production.

Such a tax would target people based on when they sell their home. For instance, if you bought a condo unit during a pre-sale and immediately sold it once the unit was it built, and the equity has increased, you would be hit with this tax. However, Basran was unclear about how the tax would differentiate between people who were simply moving and those who were flipping properties, though he did state that on average people move every seven years, suggesting the tax would target people who sold their units within a shorter period.

“There is a want in our community to band together and ensure housing for everyone,” said Mayor Basran, but he was adamant that the speculation tax is not the way to achieve this.

Those who agree with the Mayor, were unlikely to be assuaged by the changes announced by the Provincial government which reaffirmed that Kelowna and West-Kelowna would be subject to the tax.

Source: Twitter

The Provincial government has consistently made the claim that 99% of British Columbians would not be affected by the tax and for those who do, options are available.

The options the government are referring to are really one: renting out your property. To qualify as a long-term rental in 2018 a property only needs to be rented for 3 months, and this will increase in 2019 to six months, in increments of 30 days or more.

In theory, this should help increase the supply of rental units in Kelowna. People with a secondary home could rent it out to post-secondary students during the eight-month school year and still enjoy their property in the summer without having to worry about the speculation tax.

However, as Mayor Basran pointed out this past March in an interview with KelownaNow, the rental prices these units would charge would not be affordable for most people in the rental market and be unlikely to significantly reduce pressure on the rental market.

Moreover, he claims, 18% of Kelowna’s housing market is owned by non-B.C. or non-Canadian residents. The fact then that 99% of B.C. residents will not be affect does little to ease his concerns.

Housing our Community

Source: City of Kelowna

“the new housing units built between now and 2040 are likely to be different from the housing units built in the past.” – Population and Housing Facts in Focus, City of Kelowna

The City of Kelowna began this year on updating our community plan to prepare for 2040. This multi-year project, aimed to be completed by 2020, predicts growth, change, and an aging population.

At the top of everyone’s concerns is housing. How do we maintain affordable housing as our city continues to grow?

City documents predict that Kelowna will continue to grow at a rate of 1.34 percent over the next twenty years. This is far lower than early 1990s when Kelowna was growing at a rate of 4.5 percent, but it is still a significant increase.

Moreover, the population demographics are changing. Seniors currently make up about a quarter of the population, but soon they will account for a third. Already there are more seniors than youth (0-19 years old).

Population growth, an aging demographic, and changing family dynamics mean the housing needs of the future will differ markedly from those of the past.

“the past is no longer a good predictor of the future.” – Population and Housing Facts in Focus, City of Kelowna

The city highlights five trends they predict for the future: Households will become smaller; House sizes will become smaller; Residential units in the urban core; Sharing models and intergenerational living; and change in tenure.

To meet future needs, the city intends to focus growth on the urban core by reinforcing the importance of the Permanent Growth Boundary. The intention is stop costly environmental sprawl that has been proven to have negative effects to both our health and the environment.

Source: Laura Fylyshtan

Encouraging density has many benefits. For one, it makes providing effective transit easier and encourages people to use alternative forms of transport, such as walking or cycling, instead of getting behind the wheel. But it also reduces pressure on the municipal government to build infrastructure.

You may have heard of something called a DCC, a development cost charge. This is a fee developers pay for each of their projects to help offset the cost to the city of expanding infrastructure into new neighbourhoods or to increase capacity to meet new demand.

The problem, said Mayor Basran at UBCO’s recent Housing Symposium, is that while developers help pay for the initial cost, they don’t help pay for the long-term maintenance. Instead, this cost is put on the city’s tab.

But how much of the evolution of housing is in the hands of the government? Mayor Basran outlined four key aspects of city council’s role:

1) They are policy makers. They set the conditions they hope and expect the market to follow;

2) They control land policy. The city council determines what purpose land is suited for, be it residential, commercial or for other purposes;

3) They create the environment for building. Whether the approval process is difficult, easy, arduous or efficient, depends on how the council structures the process and;

4) They control zoning laws. Are carriage houses allowed? Can we build a condominium building? City council decides.

Rest be assured, the council is well aware of the role they play not just in the development of housing but in housing affordability. Already this council has approved more grants for purpose-build rentals than any other council. According to the Mayor, 2672 residential building permits were approved last year, which is 30% more than the year before which was already a record high year.

Source: Laura Fylyshtan

City of Kelowna officials Michelle Kam and James Moore stated at the housing symposium that 1500 new rental units have been built in 2018 and the goal is to establish a stable supply of 400 units per year.

Kam and Moore explained that rental prices have gone up and more short-term rentals have emerged, resulting in an overall less secure rental environment. From their community surveys they’ve found that the top priorities of Kelowna residents are affordability, stability, and accessibility.

As part of the city’s Healthy City Strategy, they have come up with 23 recommendations. These recommendations touch on policy and research, zoning, parking, public-private partnerships, financial tools, and advocacy.

Zoning is a particularly popular issue. Good zoning allows for diversity of housing types. Currently Kelowna’s market is 46% single detached dwellings, 30 percent apartments, and 7 percent are row housing. Adapting to changing demographics may mean accepting new forms of housing that are current zoning laws are not equipped to handle.

An interesting feature of the Kelowna market is that we have double the number of secondary rental units than we do primary rental units. Secondary rental units refer to units other than units built specifically for rent. This may mean basement suites, rooms for rent, micro suites etc.

The major concern, however, is affordability. Housing and rental prices have been outpricing income. With a city reported vacancy of 0.2%, landlords have a strong negotiating position when it comes to price. This also means they can be choosy about what tenants to accept. For instance, for people who own a pet or smoke, finding a place is even more difficult.

Source: Average rent in Kelowna, CMHC data for October 2017

On top of this, lots of tourism in the summer and the popularity of apps such as Airbnb has lured landlords who may have traditionally put their properties up for long-term rentals to instead keep their properties as short-term rentals in order to reap a greater profit during the summer months.

As the city develops, the City of Kelowna will have to play an active role to ensure that housing remains affordable and accessible.