Dear Editor,
I really don’t have to inform you, my mates, that we are enduring a dire housing lack in Richmond.
The very good information is that our elected officers and developers are producing a concerted effort and hard work to create much more housing the negative news is it is the incorrect sort.
The new housing jobs underway will not assistance our young grownups and middle-profits workers fleeing our group looking for inexpensive housing and will only profit the privileged elite. Is any one astonished?
Rather than investing in moderately priced housing that every day folks can manage, we are witnessing the development of luxury townhouses and higher-priced condominiums, some of which consequence in the destruction of solitary-spouse and children dwellings to get the land.
The negligible amount of inexpensive housing less than building is insufficient for Richmond’s 200K populace — 26 for each cent of whom are renters in a area with a <1 per cent vacancy rate.
We desperately need a two-pronged approach to fix this systemic issue.
Our young adults are forced to relocate, leaving behind their entire community and support system, making families more vulnerable.
Prong one is to re-design single-family homes to create two or three smaller homes on the same plot that our much-valued teachers, tradespersons, healthcare and childcare workers, and young professionals can afford.
Prong two involves city council fundamentally changing zoning laws to create more purpose-built rental housing that families and middle-income residents, who make less than $70,000 annually, can afford.
Jack Trovato
RICHMOND