I Invest in Housing

Joseph MacLean is organizing this fundraiser.

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Affordable housing is a community problem and requires a community solution.

Over the last twenty years the housing and affordability crisis has gone from bad to worse and now it is untenable, some say impossible.

We have created Four Pillars Community Housing to start 'Building Solutions to the Housing Crisis' and you can help.

We are launching the 'I Invest in Housing ' campaign to ask the general public if they would invest in community bonds to help solve the housing crisis. We need to find out at what rate and for what terms the community will support an Affordable Housing Bond.

Canadians have four trillion dollars in RRSP accounts. If we leveraged 1/10th of one percent we would have a four billion dollar building fund. Imagine if one percent of us took up the challenge!

We are also asking homeowners if they would consider putting an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU - i.e. Laneway/Carriage Home) on their property under the BC Housing Secondary Suite Incentive Program where if the home is rented out for a minimum of five years at proscribed, below market rates the home owner would receive a $40,000 forgivable loan.

Now that the BC government has changed the zoning rules (Bill 44) and opened the door to stratifying residential property we can emulate the success of ADU modular construction in California where 20% of all new housing is modular. In Sweden 45% of all new construction is done in factories (industrialized), in Canada it is only 1%. We are starting this project in BC but it is designed to be scaled and replicated across Canada.

The Problem: CMHC reports that Canada needs an additional 3.5 million homes by 2030 to restore affordability. In BC, the Province has projected that there is a 570,000 unit shortage of affordable homes (to 2030) and of those they project that we need 130,000 ADUs (Laneway Homes). A tall order indeed but together we can do it.

What are we going to do with the funds? We are going to go out and engage the community to join us in 'Building Solutions to the Housing Crisis'.

We will:

Set up discussion spaces at shopping malls, office foyers, church parking lots and basements, at community events and anywhere and everywhere we can to engage our communities in helping to solve the crisis
Lunch & Learn events. We will host Affordable Housing events in corporate and organization lunch rooms that will be available as Webinars to expand the discussion
World Cafe style focus groups to dive deeper into challenges and solutions through a community-centric lens. Every community has its own challenges and opportunities.
Affordability Ambassadors. Create a volunteer force to share housing solutions and get more and more folks involved in being part of the solution.
Continue working with the Greater Vancouver REALTORS® to engage their 15,000 members in playing an important role as Affordability Ambassadors.
Create a 'Coalition of the Concerned' and make 'I Invest in Housing' a household term.
Canada's National Housing Strategy is investing billions on the problem. We, in partnership with non-profits, faith groups, service clubs, First Nations and urban Indigenous housing providers, will leverage that funding to empower our communities to 'Begin Building Solutions to the Housing Crisis'. Please join us.

Every stick has two ends. The affordability crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. The cost to build the number of affordable homes required will cost over two trillion dollars. Some say it is impossible It is not and the upside is that when we collectively solve the problem (with our own money, time and creativity) we will have a more fair and equitable society, our cities will be much more livable and in the process we will add double digit numbers to our annual GDP and create a million plus jobs in the process.

So, again, please join us - together we can achieve the seemingly impossible.

Thank you.