The MP for Port Moody—Coquitlam says the federal government isn’t doing enough to deliver affordable housing.
Standing outside a vacant former Canada Post building at 45 Mary St. in Port Moody on Wednesday, Aug. 14, Bonita Zarrillo said many residents in her riding are struggling with high rents and housing instability while public properties that could be used for affordable housing sit fallow.
“People can’t find an affordable, stable place to rent,” the NDP MP said.
“Imagine paying 100 per cent of your income to keep a roof over your head and even then, there’s a risk of demovictions from corporations.”
The Canada Post building in Port Moody is one of six identified last April by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland in her federal budget as potential locations for new homes through a new Canada Post Housing Program.
She said the program would “support affordable housing providers to build on disposed or leased Canada Post properties,” adding details would be forthcoming “later this year.”
But so far, Zarrillo said, nothing has been announced.
“For years there has been an opportunity to turn this public land into affordable housing,” she said. “But the Liberals have done nothing about it.”
According to a report by liv.rent, a rental platform and resource centre for tenants and landlords, the average rent for a one-bedroom unfurnished apartment in Coquitlam in July was $2,052, while a two-bedroom was going for $2,718 and three-bedroom apartments cost $3,600.
As well, tenants in Metro Vancouver spend about 43 per cent of their income on rent, said the report.
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