Kamloops lags behind provincial housing targets
Kamloops is more than 200 homes short one year after the provincial government put the city on its housing naughty list.
Starting October 2023, Kamloops was expected to see 679 new homes for tenants within a year. After a promising first six months it seemed the target would be met, but it slowed to a total 449 at the deadline, according to a City of Kamloops report.
Housing minister Ravi Kahlon ordered that Kamloops facilitate 4,236 new homes within five years, starting in 2023. It was one of ten cities put on a list, warning them that the province will step in to make changes if the local government doesn't meet expectations.
"I think good on us to gain the ground we have in year one under difficult circumstances and challenging times with interest rates and whatnot," councillor Margot Middleton said at a Nov. 5 council meeting.
She said the "heavy hammer" approach by the province with "ominous threats of fines and penalties" means little until the five-year deadline hits.
"This whole thing could all change. In a couple years they could review their policy and find that was unrealistic," she said.
READ MORE: Study says city policies drastically increase housing costs in Kamloops, Okanagan
Middleton and councillor Nancy Bepple were the only two to speak on the matter at the council meeting and no other councillors raised concerns over the provincial targets.
In the same council meeting, a new tax exemption was adopted for purpose-built rentals in an effort to encourage development.
The City recently started a digital portal for building permits to speed up processes. It also formed a new land trust foundation last summer to develop new homes, just before the provincial targets came into effect. Those are in addition to sweeping zoning changes mandated by the province in recent years that will densify BC cities.
Despite those efforts, the province's request for annual updates from each city asked for a list of new initiatives in the works in the event that its targets aren't met.
Kamloops left that space blank.
Kamloops has fallen short of the ministry's first year target of 679 and also fell short of its own five-year average of 749 new homes. While the number of new move-in ready homes were fewer than hoped, the province's targets were also below what it initially planned.
City planning manager Eric Beach told council the 4,236-home target is actually just 75% of the projected need for Kamloops by 2028. The ministry scaled back the initial 5,648 before officially starting the clock for the ten cities on its list, he said.
READ MORE: Why city staff wouldn't let the Kamloops mayor speak at a council meeting
A new Kamloops housing needs report was also released this week, showing the city's vacancy rate for all housing types below the 3% target. While vacancy drops, housing prices have shot way up in recent years, both for renters and buyers.
According to the report, the cost to buy a two-bedroom home rose by 315% from 2006 to 2021, while the cost to rent one rose by 120%. The inflation rate in that time was 44%.
The ability to find affordable housing, either renting or buying, has become difficult for the average family among all types. The median household income among homeowners in 2021 was $104,000. If housing costs were limited to 30% of income, that family could only afford an apartment, according to the report.
People in the median renter household income of $55,200 are unlikely to find any housing in Kamloops that falls under the 30% threshold.
The size of each household also appears to be changing as two-thirds of the city is made up of one or two-person living arrangements, but two-thirds of homes have three bedrooms or more. Newer developments are trending toward more densified builds, often with fewer bedrooms, but roughly half of Kamloops homes remain single-family homes as of 2021.
The report can be found here, which hasn't been finalized as the City awaits survey results from the public.
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