Three Chilliwack City Council candidates, all small business owners, debate housing affordability

“I live in the construction world,” said McLatchy, who owns a business in downtown Chilliwack. “The prices have skyrocketed 30, 40 percent. One day a hot water tank costs $500, three weeks later they’re $1,000. It’s not directly related to city council to ensure what the cost of a single-family home or townhouse is gonna be. Our builders and our developers, they’re doing their best. They obviously need to make some money, the trades need to make money. Chilliwack still has affordable housing compared to down the valley headed west. I don’t have an exact answer how we can make that more affordable when the cost of materials and lumber, everything is going up. We at City Hall can’t snap our fingers and say we’re gonna have affordable housing because the supply chain just isn’t allowing that right now.”

McLatchy said supply chain constraints and labour shortages mean architectural and engineering companies can’t contribute to housing inventories as quickly.

“Our architects that design these buildings don’t have any staff, so nothing is moving fast,” he said. “The engineers are telling me the same thing. How are we gonna get cost? They’re paying double and triple for labour costs to get a plan ready for a housing project. There’s no easy answer for that.”

Amber Price, a bookstore owner, said housing affordability is the biggest issue facing Chilliwack right now.

Image: Image: Screenshot, 4TheWin Media / Chilliwack City Council candidate Amber Price, a small business owner, makes a point about affordable housing during Wednesday night’s candidate debate at the Cultural Centre.

“Affordable housing is a crisis,” said Price. “The growth that Chilliwack is experiencing is incredibly exciting in so many ways, but we are leaving vulnerable community members behind. We have seniors, people on fixed income, we have students, we have people on disability and lower income who can’t keep up with the rent. They’re making tough choices. I’ve heard from seniors who are choosing between paying the rent and buying their medication. To me this is unacceptable.”

She said rising rents are displacing people, and many Chilliwack residents are one paycheque away from being homeless.

“I have one friend who has been displaced from her home with her husband and four children nine times in the last 10 years as a renter,” Price said. “I think we need to close that gap of affordable, stable and plentiful rental housing in Chilliwack, and we need to do it quickly. There’s been a gap that inventory since the 1980s…when there was lots of rental housing. What was being built has changed. I also believe it’s important that we densify neighbourhoods that already have the infrastructure that we need in order for citizens to live great lives, where they don’t need cars, where they can tap into transit, and walk to grocery stores.”

Westeringh, a realtor who previously ran a small dairy and still runs a small business, defined housing affordability as both the price to buy a home and the price to rent because the two are linked.

“Three things that factor into affordable housing: supply, demand cost,” said Westeringh. “All things equal, the more demand we have, the higher the price. Because we’re such a desirable place, people will always migrate here and we’ll always have increased demand. Cost is a second factor, but labour rates, material costs and senior government requirements, [net-zero] step code, and regulations are continually increasing, driving up the cost of new construction. Cost is always going to rise.”

Westeringh said the City of Chilliwack does have some influence on supply despite rising costs and increased demand.

Image: Screenshot, 4TheWin Media / Chilliwack City Council candidate Harv Westeringh makes a point about affordable housing during Wednesday night’s candidate debate at the Cultural Centre.

“And here, the City does have some influence,” Westeringh said. “Again, all things being equal, the more supply, the lower the price. Competing for the same number of buyers means the price comes down. Less price means less profit, and less profit means less demand for raw land; less demand for raw demand means less price. Eventually everything shuffles down.”

Westeringh said housing prices peaked in February 2022 but have since dropped 15 per cent.

“Prices will continue to drop as more supply hits the market,” he said. “The challenge is to get more supply on a fixed land base like we have. The only way to increase supply with a fixed land base is to densify. Densify urban corridors like Yale Road, Vedder Road and Broadway and service those with frequent public transit. The one public transit that we have right now is every 20 minutes on the Vedder corridor and we’ve implemented bylaws in place where we really densify along those corridors if they’re 400 metres away from a frequent bus stop. The solution to increasing housing affordability is to densify.”

by Mike Vanden Bosch

Three Chilliwack City Council candidates, all small business owners, debate housing affordability

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