Vancouver's Housing Crisis, some solutions with Micheal Geller

Michael Geller

Housing Crisis Solutions

This week’s Conversation That Matters features Michael Geller who acknowledges Vancouver really does have a housing crisis. While he agrees with the provincial government’s 15% foreign ownership tax he’s not onboard with it’s implementation, “The way they went about it was very unwise and was quite shocking, but it just shows how emotion and political considerations can often dominate common sense.”

Common sense is what Geller is proposing. As far as he’s concerned it’s quite simple, increase the supply. “So the question is how do we do that? People immediately assume that if you're going to increase supply that means high-rises are coming, and I think that's wrong. There's a lot of housing that I call in between housing, something in between the single family house and the high-rise apartment. And it includes duplexes and townhouses along all the arterials. The other thing is looking at opportunities to do more intensive development. Why don't we take these corner lots and divide them into two?”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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