KELOWNA, B.C. – The number one barrier in Kelowna is affordability, according to a UBC Okanagan professor who has overseen several housing studies in the Okanagan city.
Dr. Carlos Teixeira spoke to a group of affordable housing stakeholders in Kelowna Thursday, highlighting the need for attention for investment in public housing, social housing and affordable housing.
The B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association has release preliminary rental housing numbers for Kelowna which show there are more than 17,000 renter households in Kelowna, and half of them earn less than $40,000 a year.
There are 4,400 households in the city who spend more than 50% of their gross income on rent, which the association says limits the ability to purchase other essentials.
“Unless we address the rental affordability here in Kelowna, you’re going to see pressures on your other tax payer funded systems like health care, justice, policing costs and all these other areas,” says Tony Roy, BCNPHA executive director.
Dr. Teixeira showed the group a study that pegs Kelowna’s cost of housing as part of the top 25 unaffordable cities in the world.
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