Vancouver needs 10,000 units that rent at the shelter rate of $500/month.

This would provide housing for the city’s approximately 3,500 unhoused residents and replace housing for the 6,500 residents of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels.

FAQs

What is “the shelter rate” and why do we need housing available for this amount?

The “shelter rate” is the amount of money that people who receive social assistance are permitted to use on housing costs, including utilities.

This shelter allowance amount is dictated by the provincial government and is a portion of the monthly payment given to B.C. residents who have been approved for income or disability assistance.

As of 2026, this amount is $500/month for single people. Families get more, depending on the number of people in the household.

Income and disability assistance amounts haven’t changed since 2023.

Additionally, seniors whose income comes from the Canada Pension Plan and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIC) receive around $2,000/month. If they limit their housing expenses to 30% of their income (the rate that’s considered “affordable”), all they can spend is $600/month.

How do you know Vancouver has 3,500 unhoused residents?

Every month, B.C.’s Ministry of Poverty Reduction tracks the number of people who receive income assistance who have “no fixed address” (NFA).

In November 2025, this number was 3,281, with 62% of those (2,028) living in DTES.

However, this number doesn’t capture other unhoused folks, such as seniors and immigrants, who are not receiving income assistance.

So, while we don’t know the precise number of unhoused folks in Vancouver, 3,500 is a reasonable estimate.

Why do we need new housing for people in SROs? They’re already housed.

SROs have rooms about 100 square feet with a shared washroom down the hall and no cooking facilities.

Many haven’t been maintained and have pests like roaches and bed bugs.

While some SROs have been kept up and have a community of residents, the housing is not adequate for supporting a high quality of life.

Furthermore, SROs are extremely vulnerable in a earthquake, because they were built so long ago, putting many lives at risk.

Finally, private SROs are at risk of being torn down and redeveloped into apartments unaffordable to those on income and disability assistance.

As of January 2023, the city had 6,567 SRO rooms.

People on income and disability assistance are excluded from most housing, including so-called social housing, because they are too poor to afford it.

Definitions of terms

Affordable housing

In Canada, housing is generally thought of as “affordable” if your housing costs do not exceed 30% of your income.

While this number is a common benchmark for determining affordability, it is not universal.

In Vancouver, the average monthly rent for a 1-bd apartment is $2,500. This means that a single person would need an annual salary of over $100,000 for that housing to be considered affordable.

Market housing

Market housing is any housing that costs what “the market can bear,” i.e., the amount that a landlord or owner thinks they can get away with charging, relative to what everyone around them is charging.

Housing provided by the government can sometimes still cost tenants the same amount as private housing.

Anything that costs less than the average rate in Vancouver could be considered “non-market” or “below-market” housing. However, that does not mean it would meet the “30% of your income” definition of affordability.

Social housing

There is no universal definition of social housing.

The Province defines social housing as anything owned by a non-profit, co-op, or government where rents are subsidized and household income must be below certain limits to be eligible for the housing.

However, the City of Vancouver established its own definition in its Zoning and Development By-law (see p44): social housing is rental housing owned by a non-profit or government where 30% of the units rent below housing income limits (HILs).

In theory, none of the units have to be available at the shelter rate.

Housing Income Limits (HILs)

HILs is metric established by BC Housing that sets the maximum income allowed for a household to rent a subsidized unit that matches its size, depending on geography.

In other words, a single person living in Vancouver must have an income of less than $58,000 to be eligible to apply for a 1-bd unit or smaller in a subsidized building.

However, in practice, people earning under $40,000 are not accepted for HILS units.

What we can do about it ……

  • list of action items here

  • maybe divided by govt

  • our dtes housing plan

  • mva election ask??

References ***TO BE UPDATED