Haven Lurbiecki caught in major housing fib

Claim: The City of Port Moody’s Housing Needs Report “confirms that Port Moody doesn’t need more market high rises”.

Verdict: Whopper. The report directly calls for more market strata housing so moderate-income households can afford to own their home.

As the Lower Mainland’s housing problems become more obvious, candidates who want to cut home approvals are increasingly trying to frame their position as the result of objective analysis – as opposed to old-school personal preference or ideology.

Of course, following the evidence is a good thing. If that’s what you’re actually doing. Unfortunately, Haven Lurbiecki is guilty of pushing a serious whopper here.

As part of the NDP government’s efforts to get a handle on the housing shortage facing most communities, Minister Selina Robinson introduced a requirement for each municipality to commission a Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) about the amount and types of homes that may be lacking.

Port Moody completed its HNA in September 2021. Here’s Haven’s takeaway from the report:

Unfortunately for Lurbiecki, the report’s conclusion said the exact opposite:

It’s not rocket science. To buy a single family home in Port Moody, you need inherited wealth. Condominiums are the only type of home attainable to young families and working professionals without a major inter-generational wealth transfer.

Other findings from the report reinforce the need for greater homeownership opportunities:

• Port Moody requires approx. 2,975 additional homes between 2016 and 2026 to meet community demand. Only 1,800 starts have been made so far. (p. 36)
• “There is a dedicated community of developers willing to build housing for Port Moody residents”, but policy uncertainty about allowable density, height, and approval timelines prevent the necessary housing starts – even in areas designated by the OCP for more housing. (p.37)
• Both families and single-person households face a severe housing shortage in Port Moody, and should be considered priority groups. (p. 44)

Lurbiecki and allies put great rhetorical emphasis on attacking strata apartments as elite luxuries. Again, that’s a claim contradicted by many data points. Here are just a few in the report:

• Single-family homes in Port Moody are 239% more expensive than apartments.  (p. 77)
• 56% of Port Moody households consist of 1 or 2 people (p.63), but 1-bedroom apartments are only 10% of the housing stock. (P. 15)
• 97.5% of Port Moody households live in market housing. (p. 64)
• The biggest housing concerns of Port Moody residents are “Cost of Ownership” (68%) and “Lack of Housing Types/Options (64%). (p. 94)

A large majority of Port Moody residents are telling us they’re upset by the high cost of homeownership, and that there are too few homes of all kinds – every data point confirms this. It’s a bold strategy to campaign on putting homeownership even further out of reach.