Hundreds gathered in downtown Vancouver on Sunday, calling on government to address increasing housing unaffordability in the city.
The rally, which drew politicians, academics, housing representatives and citizens to the Vancouver Art Gallery, had its roots with a Vancouver woman who took to social media to vent her frustration.
Eveline Xia, the rally’s organizer, wrote out her first-ever Tweet in March, kicking off a conversation about affordability and starting the hashtag, “#donthave1million.”
Xia, 29, heard from other professionals in their 20s, 30s and 40s — including engineers, accountants and medical professionals — who felt that without an extra $1 million lying around, they were bound to be priced-out of Vancouver.
The hashtag, for which the rally was named, picked up buzz on social and traditional media, and Xia unexpectedly found herself as a sort of spokeswoman for what’s become a top concern for her generation.
“It was my first tweet,” she said. “And it went viral because there was a pent-up demand in this city to talk about this problem.”
Xia said she’s glad to see politicians recently discussing affordability solutions openly, which she believes is a response to public pressure.
“The horse is out of the barn now. The provincial and municipal governments are on defence and that’s a good thing,” Xia said. “They realize that there’s no more running with the status quo.”
Sunday’s event was co-hosted by Generation Squeeze, a group representing Canadians in their 40s and younger, called “the most-overdue lobby in the country” by Generation Squeeze founder Paul Kershaw.
Kershaw, a University of B.C. public-policy expert, said: “Vancouver has become a generational city. It’s so difficult for young people across the class spectrum to make a go of it here.”
Event organizers estimated the crowd to be between 300 and 400.
One group of men and women in attendance Sunday said they couldn’t remember having ever attended a rally of any kind. But, they said, this particular cause compelled them to come out. A man holding his six-month-old son in his arms said: “It’s the city that I love, and I feel that it’s kind of at a breaking point.”
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s office issued a statement Sunday, saying: “Today’s #donthave1million rally for affordable housing is an important step to make the public aware of the negative impact that soaring housing prices are having on a younger generation in Vancouver.”
In the statement, Robertson said: “I hear on a daily basis from people who are struggling to stay in the city ... This conversation needs to happen and I hear the concerns loud and clear — and I hope the provincial and federal governments are listening, too.”
Last week, Robertson and prominent condo marketer Bob Rennie made separate statements about affordability, with both supporting the idea of a speculation tax as a possible solution.
In a speech last Friday to the Urban Development Institute, Rennie said that foreign investment is just one of many factors contributing to higher housing prices, and cited figures from recent Rennie condo projects to suggest overseas buyers made up only a small portion of sales.
