In Response: Enough bickering on housing 

BY BRIAN WEBSTER

Salt Spring Local Community Commission member

It’s frustrating to see community members and our electoral area director jousting about Salt Spring Island’s affordable housing situation [in recent issues of the Driftwood and elsewhere], especially since it’s clear that most Salt Springers want the same thing: more housing options for working people and their families, provided while protecting our natural environment and our community’s character.

Just over a year ago, when I ran for a position on our Local Community Commission (LCC), housing was the top concern on the minds of most people I met. And it’s at least as much of a concern today.

Unfortunately, the recent debate has been more about who said what and why, rather than what our next steps on affordable housing really need to be.

Instead of arguing over whether information produced for our LCC’s recent housing workshop gives an accurate or overly rosy picture of where we stand on housing, I’d prefer to put our energy into actually doing something on affordable housing.

The half-day LCC housing workshop held in May, which brought together a wide range of Salt Springers concerned about affordable housing, was just a first step for our LCC. Now it’s time to follow up with tangible action. I heard that the folks working on affordable housing need us working together to help them deliver the housing everyone agrees we need. While there were some harsh words spoken at the workshop and there were people there who don’t always see eye to eye, there was also a clear sense of a shared desire to move forward.

I heard that folks working on housing need more support. They need better coordination. They need more than just expressions of goodwill and cheerleading from our local elected officials.

So what can we actually do?

We may not have millions of public dollars available to instantly jump-start housing projects, but there’s still lots we can do. Does anyone disagree with the suggestion that Salt Spring needs a coordinated and properly resourced local approach to housing? Let’s start with that.

Our LCC can take three immediate steps:

1. Bring together the community on an urgent basis to develop an integrated Salt Spring Island housing strategy.

2. Undertake a review of stalled or failed projects such as Dragonfly, Brackett Springs, Norton Road and others to make sure we learn from them and don’t repeat past mistakes.

3. Get to work on making available properties already owned by the LCC/CRD that may be appropriate for housing but are currently just empty lots overgrown with blackberries.

On the first item, some people might say we don’t need “another plan,” but instead should just get on with it. But get on with what? Our island doesn’t have a housing plan that identifies the areas where we need to act. That’s what an integrated housing strategy would give us.

We can’t afford to wait and see whether the CRD’s proposed Rural Housing Program will help. We can’t afford to wait and see if the provincial and/or federal governments will somehow come to our rescue with big bucks. We can’t afford to just stand by and hope for the best. We need to act.

The Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area already has a housing strategy. So does Cowichan Valley Regional District and North Saanich. North Cowichan District Municipality is finalizing one. Central Saanich has a Residential Infill and Densification Plan.

Many B.C. communities, incorporated or not, have housing strategies. But Salt Spring lacks one.

An integrated housing strategy will help us identify what we need to do on affordable housing and get moving with it. Our LCC has the authority and funding already set aside to get to work on an integrated housing strategy this year. Let’s get moving.

As for reviewing stalled or failed affordable housing projects, some people might say we don’t need to analyze them because we already know why they aren’t all underway.

Is this really true? If so, have we documented this? Have we acted to remove barriers and delays they’ve encountered, and put these projects in a better position to succeed? Without doing so, how can we know we’ve learned from experience and won’t repeat past mis-steps? Reviewing stalled/failed affordable housing projects need not be a huge or lengthy task, but it does need to happen.

On making unused parkland available for housing, it’s clear from the list of potential affordable housing projects that stirred up the recent fuss that there are already some sites on the island available for affordable housing. And it’s unlikely that unused parkland will add hugely to that potential. But our housing crisis is large and complex and we need to look in more than one place for solutions.

The potential of making available unused parkland is one tool at our disposal, so let’s quit musing about it and actually get to work on identifying potential sites, seeking community approval as necessary and making it happen.

There’s been enough finger-pointing and bickering about this issue. It’s time to move.

Let’s get to work like never before on affordable housing for Salt Spring.