VANCOUVER City Council approved 218 new rental homes at Tuesday night’s public hearing, including a new 153-unit rental building in Kensington-Cedar Cottage and a 65-unit rental building in Marpole.

“With a near-zero vacancy rate, we desperately need new rental housing supply in Vancouver to take pressure off rents and give renters more options,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “The two projects approved by Council last night will create a variety of new rental housing to provide residents, especially young people, growing families, and artists, more options to rent in Vancouver.”

The two projects approved on Tuesday night include:

• 3681 Victoria Drive and 1915 Stainsbury Avenue – Kensington-Cedar Cottage: two six-storey residential buildings with 153 secured market rental housing units, including four artist live-work studios, with more than 40% of all units for families;
• 8615 Laurel Street – Marpole: a six-storey residential building, containing 65 rental housing units, with 35% of units for families.

To view the council reports, visit http://council.vancouver.ca/20171114/phea20171114ag.htm

Robertson and City Council say they have taken a number of steps to tackle Vancouver’s housing crisis, including:

• Investing $80 million in the 2017 Capital Plan for affordable housing – the most ever;
• Approving a record number of new rental homes;
• Bringing in Canada’s first Empty Homes Tax;
• Regulating short-term rentals, such as Airbnb;
• Introducing temporary modular housing on City and privately-owned sites;
• Offering 20 sites of City-owned land worth $250 Million to senior governments to use for affordable housing;
• Increasing family home requirements in new housing projects to 35%; and,
• Providing four City-owned sites to enable Vancouver’s first Community Land Trust.