Nanaimo city council will call for housing to be considered a human right at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in the fall.
Members of the union will vote on whether delegates will advocate for the designation provincially on behalf of municipalities.
Nanaimo council voted unanimously in favour of a motion brought forward by councillor Hilary Eastmure.
“I think it’s important for Naniamo to co-sponsor this, especially considering the high degree of housing insecurity experienced by people in our community,” she said. “We have a disproportionate number of unhoused community members with no access to any kind of shelter, not even an overnight shelter bed or a winter shelter bed in extreme weather, let alone housing with dignity. But this is not just about homelessness – which is certainly a crisis – it’s also about the untenable number of people who are paying more than 30 per cent of their income to keep a roof over their heads.”
While introducing the motion, she spoke of her own experience finding rentals in the city. She also pointed out there are more vacancies and supply of rentals on the market, but rent has not gone down significantly.
“We have corporate landlords and developers bragging that their rents don’t or won’t exceed 30 per cent of people’s income, but that’s because they simply won’t rent to anyone whose income doesn’t meet that threshold and there are a lot of folks making around what I make as a city councillor, around 50 thousand dollars a year, and I believe they deserve a place to live,” she said.
