A number of B.C.'s largest communities are mounting a push to see housing declared a human right.
On Monday, Nanaimo council joined a growing number of municipalities that have passed motions calling on the province to enshrine housing as a human right in legislation.
"We would be co-sponsoring this resolution at the next Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in the fall, where delegates will vote on whether UBCM should advocate for this on behalf of B.C. municipalities," Nanaimo Coun. Hilary Eastmure explained. "The same motion already passed unanimously in other cities including Vancouver and Langford."
The resolution states that recognizing housing as a human right "fundamentally shifts government motivations by adding critical urgency and responsibility to ensure access to affordable housing (meaning housing costs are aligned with income) through policies that prevent homelessness, address the escalating housing and homelessness crisis, eliminate discrimination, and prioritize the needs of vulnerable and marginalized populations."
On the same night the motion passed in Nanaimo, it was brought to councils in Langley, Richmond, Saanich and North Vancouver.
"The goal of this resolution is to send a powerful message to the province that they need to step up and recognize housing as a human right," said Saanich Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff ahead at that city's council meeting on Monday. "The goal here is to have a multitude of voices from different types of municipalities from across the province all arriving at UBCM speaking as one."
During Nanaimo city council's meeting, Eastmure said Nanaimo has a "disproportionate" number of unhoused residents without access to overnight shelter beds, "let alone housing with dignity."
A staff report brought before a governance and priorities committee in May tallied 621 people experiencing homelessness, a figure that climbed from 515 people in the previous year's count.
"This is not just about homelessness, which is certainly a crisis," Eastmure said, "it's also about the untenable number of people paying more than 30 per cent of their income to keep a roof over their heads, the many seniors, students, singles and families are afraid of having to move because rent prices have gone up so much."
The 2024 State of Nanaimo Economy report stated that Nanaimo's estimated per capita income was $42,000 per year. It noted that the average vacancy rate for rental apartments in Nanaimo saw a slight increase from 2.2 per cent in 2022 to 2.7 per cent in 2023, while "affordability for rental units continued to erode." In 2023 the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment rose by nine per cent to an average of $1,681 in Nanaimo.
Eastmure shared her own experience, saying that last year while apartment hunting she was told by a number of corporate rentals that had been sitting empty for months to "not even bother applying" because the $1,800 rent represented more than 30 per cent of her income.
"At the same time, we have corporate landlords and developers bragging that their rents don't or won't exceed 30 per cent of people's income, but that's because they simply won't rent to anyone whose income doesn't meet that threshold, and there are a lot of folks making around what I make as a city councillor – around $50,000 a year."
The resolution will be discussed at the 2025 Union of B.C. Municipalities annual general meeting, set to take place Sept. 22-26 in Victoria.
