Vancouver is boosting the number of affordable homes it plans to build over the next ten years to 72,000, exceeding its previous ten-year housing targets by 85 per cent.

Purpose-built rental housing will quadruple – up to 20,000 additional homes over the next ten years, with plans for new 100 per cent rental buildings with a minimum of 20 per cent of units priced below-market for renters earning $30,000 to $80,000 a year.

Council will vote on the final approval of new housing targets in November, but confirms about 48,000 of these new homes will be rentals. About 29,000 will be for families and more than 12,000 homes will provide social and supportive housing for lower income residents.

“The City has a plan to deliver 72,000 homes – the biggest affordable housing boom in Vancouver history,” says Mayor Gregor Robertson. “These 72,000 homes are for people who live and work in Vancouver. We’re going above and beyond what’s ever been done in Vancouver to enable new affordable housing for local residents matched to realistic, local incomes – housing that people want: rentals, laneway homes, coach houses, duplexes, and townhomes in neighbourhoods across the city.”

This is just one aspect of the city’s action plan to ensure stability for renters. Last year, the city proposed restrictions on short-term rental regulations that could bring 1,000 long-term rental units back to market in 2018.

Council will also consider changes to Vancouver’s City-wide Development Cost Levy program. Contributions could generate one billion dollars in revenue, with half going to new affordable housing and childcare projects.