Tackle housing, affordability issues with new tax policy

VANCOUVER — Debate about homelessness. Debate about housing affordability. Debate about increasing neighbourhood density. In Vancouver, discussion about the simple act of trying to put a roof over one’s head has become incendiary.

Now, a respected policy consultant is offering a few ideas he believes could help address the city’s housing anxiety.

Tex Enemark, a former Consumer and Corporate Affairs deputy minister in B.C., asserts changes to tax policy are needed to promote rental-housing construction, not just here but across Canada.

He also says a housing logjam is preventing young families from accessing the housing seniors ought to be vacating. Again, because of tax policy, too many seniors are staying put.

Enemark laments that both the B.C. and federal governments have washed their hands of housing policy, perceiving few votes to be won.

“Politicians of all stripes have given nothing more than lip service to housing policy, now, for decades. It’s time to demand new approaches, new ideas and a new commitment.”

Enemark’s view coincides with that of D.J. Larkin, a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society, who — commenting on the homeless in Vancouver and Abbotsford — recently declared, “the federal government has failed. We have no housing plan.”

Enemark, in a paper prepared for a housing conference in Surrey last month, points out that back in 1972, supportive tax policies promoted the building of rental units, and half of all new housing units built annually were “dedicated rental”. These days, that number is down to between five and 10 per cent.

A booming condo market that emerged in response is failing to fill the gap.

The one-time head of the Rental Housing Council, since renamed Landlord B.C., also cites a need for “a broader program of social housing.” Programs and funding for this form of shelter dried up in the 1980s.

Enemark, based in Richmond, also believes the issue of “too few people occupying too much housing” is a problem.

Tax policies discourage the elderly from investing their money rather than keeping it invested in their house, so they stay in their two- and three-bedroom homes, “while younger Canadians have trouble finding affordable housing suitable for growing families.”

Mind you, in Vancouver, seniors have particular incentive to liquidate properties that have appreciated hugely in value, and few young families can afford to buy them.

For those 55-plus who have lived in their home at least a decade, Enemark wants the expenses associated with selling — everything from Property Transfer Tax to realty fees — to be tax deductible.

Further, he says, elderly homeowners should be permitted to tuck away any profit earned from a home sale in a Tax-Free Savings Account, sheltered from capital gains taxes.

And Enemark suspects many more seniors would be willing to vacate their homes in favour of rental housing if they could negotiate secure, long-term leases that preclude eviction. Provinces would have to pass enabling legislation to permit such “permanent residential tenancies.”

He believes there would be votes, from elderly Canadians, in such initiatives.

Enemark says the supply and demand principle requires that housing stock be substantially increased in Vancouver in order to boost affordability.

This, conceivably, could be accomplished, but if any politician pursued such a policy a public revolt surely would ensue. Because for every individual wanting lower-cost housing, there are more with equity in their homes who don’t want governments spoiling a good thing. Realtors and banks would join the protests.

The taxing of luxury or vacant homes would yield a bit of new revenue, says the policy consultant, but would do little to solve the affordability problem.

Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: Barbara Yaffe