Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town
I live in Vancouver. Well, Burnaby.<p>Like many Vancouverites on HN I am studying for a comp sci degree, and want to work as a developer.<p>I accept that I have to make sacrifices to keep living in Vancouver, such as:<p>-Living in a suburb (like Burnaby)
-Getting roommates&#x2F;a shared room
-Living on a bus route instead of being a 5 minute walk from Skytrain<p>With those sacrifices, I can find rents for $750-1000&#x2F;month. $750 is the lowest one will get for a place relatively close to Skytrain, not too far from downtown (e.g. Burnaby&#x2F;New West), and in a clean, low property crime area.<p>More and more companies are paying $70K+ for new grads (something I wouldn&#x27;t have admitted in say 2012), which is about $45-50K take home assuming you max out your RRSPs. Assuming a &quot;35% of take home salary on housing&quot; rule, you can afford rent of $1350-1450&#x2F;month (higher if you gross more).<p>You can get a lot for that kind of money, like a big 1 bedroom (full lease) that&#x27;s 15 minutes to downtown by transit. I dare you to find something similar in the Bay Area or Seattle, especially with commutes as short and crime rates as low as Vancouver&#x27;s.<p>If you absolutely must live in the downtown core, studios start at $1000-1200&#x2F;month in the West End. There is lots of shared accommodation in Yaletown for &lt;$1000.<p>I was watching CBS This Morning on Wednesday on the Seattle channel (KIRO), and there was a story about the nuns having the rent on their soup kitchen in San Francisco increased by 50%. In BC, the provincial government restricts annual increases to 2.7% (for 2016) and Vancouver does not have a ward-based system of city councillors, limiting the influence of NIMBYs far more than in SF.