When people talk about the housing crisis, it is tempting to look for one solution. Build more homes. Build more affordable housing. Create more shelter beds. Provide more supportive housing. The reality is that we need all of these things.
Housing is not a single issue because the people looking for housing are not all in the same circumstances. Someone sleeping outside tonight has very different needs from a young family looking for their first apartment, a senior trying to downsize, or a worker moving to the Comox Valley for a new job.
That is why I have consistently looked at housing through three connected priorities:
Shelter. Non-market housing. Market housing.
A healthy community needs all three.
Shelter is the first step
For someone experiencing homelessness, the immediate priority is safety.
That means having somewhere warm and secure to sleep, particularly during extreme weather.
Shelters are therefore an important part of our housing system.
In Courtenay, our community has increased shelter capacity through projects such as the Connect Centre and the Salvation Army. The planned 925 Braidwood project will add substantially more capacity, with approximately 73 shelter beds and the ability to accommodate up to 30 additional people during extreme weather.
But shelter is not the final destination. It is an emergency response.
The goal should always be to help people move from homelessness toward stable housing whenever possible.
That is where supportive housing becomes important.
Some people need more than a home
Simply providing someone with an apartment does not guarantee that they will be able to remain housed.
Some residents may be dealing with mental health challenges, disabilities, trauma, addiction, long periods of homelessness or other circumstances that make maintaining housing difficult without additional support.
Supportive housing combines a place to live with access to services that can help people maintain stability.
Our community has seen several projects aimed at people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, including The Junction, 810 Braidwood, The Lodge and Mission Ridge.
The next major project at 925 Braidwood is expected to include approximately 70 studio homes for local residents who need support to remain housed. These homes serve a different purpose from emergency shelter. They provide stability.
And stability matters not only to the person receiving housing, but also to neighbourhoods, businesses, emergency services and the wider community.
Non-market housing fills another important gap
There are also many people who do not require supportive housing but still cannot afford housing at current market prices.
That can include seniors, families, people with disabilities, single parents and workers earning modest incomes.
This is where non-market and affordable housing organizations play an important role.
Their housing may be operated by non-profit societies, community organizations or other providers whose primary objective is maintaining affordability rather than maximizing market returns.
Projects such as Habitat for Humanity demonstrate another part of that spectrum by helping families access affordable homeownership.
Darry’s Place provides housing for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
Different projects serve different populations because different people face different barriers to housing.
There is no single affordable housing model that works for everyone.
We also need market housing
Sometimes discussions about housing focus entirely on subsidised or supportive housing.
Those forms of housing are essential, but market housing is also a critical part of the solution.
When there are not enough homes available overall, competition increases throughout the housing system.
People who might normally rent one kind of home begin competing for another. People stay in units that no longer suit their needs because they cannot find alternatives. Young adults have difficulty establishing their own households. New workers struggle to find somewhere to live.
Increasing the overall supply of homes creates more options.
In recent years, the number of homes being built annually in Courtenay has increased significantly—from fewer than 200 units per year to more than 400, with some years surpassing 650.
Our vacancy rate, which had effectively been near zero for decades, has also risen above five per cent.
That additional supply matters.
It gives renters more choice and makes it easier for people to move through the housing market as their circumstances change.
More supply alone will not solve every affordability problem, but a community with too few homes will almost certainly experience greater housing pressure.
The housing system is connected
One of the reasons we need to think about housing as a continuum is that movement in one part of the system affects every other part.
If there is insufficient supportive housing, people can remain in emergency shelters longer than necessary.
If shelters remain full, people may remain outdoors.
If there is not enough affordable rental housing, people with limited incomes face a greater risk of homelessness.
If there is not enough market housing, competition can increase for the existing rental supply.
And if there are few opportunities for families to move into ownership or larger homes, they may remain in rental units that could otherwise become available to someone else.
Housing works best when people have somewhere appropriate to move next.
That means building a range of housing rather than concentrating on only one category.
What is the City's role?
Municipalities do not build or operate most housing themselves. But cities have important tools. We control land-use planning and zoning. We approve development applications. We invest in infrastructure. We can contribute through programs such as Courtenay's Affordable Housing Fund. We can work with non-profit organizations and developers.
And we can advocate to provincial and federal governments for funding and programs that municipalities cannot provide independently.
Those partnerships have been a major part of Courtenay's approach.
Since the Homelessness Support Service began in 2015 and the City hosted a regional housing symposium in 2019, collaboration has helped bring a growing number of housing and shelter projects to our community.
There is still much more to do.
Housing must also support a growing community
Courtenay and the Comox Valley continue to grow.
At the same time, major economic changes are creating new opportunities and new pressures.
Housing needs to keep pace with that growth.
Teachers, health-care professionals, construction workers, service employees, military personnel, young families and seniors all need places to live.
Businesses also depend on housing.
Employers cannot recruit and retain workers if those workers cannot find appropriate housing nearby.
Housing is therefore not only a social issue.
It is also an economic-development issue, a workforce issue and a community-planning issue.
We cannot solve one part by ignoring another
Housing debates can sometimes become unnecessarily polarized.
Supportive housing versus market housing.
Renters versus homeowners.
Development versus affordability.
I do not think those choices reflect the reality of the challenge.
We need emergency shelters so people are not sleeping outside.
We need supportive housing so vulnerable residents have the stability and services they need.
We need affordable and non-market housing for people who cannot reasonably afford market rents.
And we need private-sector housing construction so that the overall supply of homes continues to grow.
These are not competing objectives.
They are different parts of the same housing system.
The work ahead
Housing will remain one of Courtenay's most important priorities.
he work ahead includes continuing to support shelter capacity, moving forward with supportive and non-market housing projects, creating opportunities for more market housing, and working with the Comox Valley Regional District as its Housing Authority develops.
It will also require continued partnerships with non-profit housing providers, developers, K’ómoks First Nation, neighbouring governments and the provincial and federal governments.
There will not be one project that solves the housing crisis; there will be many projects.
There will not be one organization that solves it; there will be many partners.
And there will not be one type of housing that works for everyone.
A strong housing strategy recognizes that people need different kinds of homes at different stages of their lives.
That is why our focus needs to remain on the whole housing spectrum:
Shelter. Non-market housing. Market housing.
Because ultimately, the objective is straightforward: making sure more people in our community have access to a safe, appropriate and affordable place to call home.