To the editor:
Re: “12th and Cambie: City hopes developers will buy into Rental 100,” Dec. 4.
I was both intrigued and somewhat aghast by the city staff report cited in this story covering potential “affordable” rental housing levels in this city.
Whose interpretation of affordable are they using as the basis for this report? Take a moment to consider this: Most financial advisers recommend that the family devote no more than 35 per cent of gross income towards shelter costs (shelter costs include rent, heating and utilities).
So, assuming about $200 per month for non-rent expenditures to afford the “affordable” rental prices outlined in the article would require an annual family income of $56,331 for the studio rent at $1,443; $58,868 income to rent the one-bedroom at $1,517; an annual income of $77,520 to rent the two bedroom at $2,061 per monthly: and finally an income of $100, 902 to pay the three- bedroom rent at $2,743.
One look at the figures quoted in that report as acceptable standards of living made me wonder whether the population growth of
Vancouver area suburbs is fuelled, in no small part, by the inability of families to find viable rental units within our city.
Bob Quicke,
Vancouver
