A new research tool is highlighting publicly owned land that may have potential for affordable housing development in B.C., with early analysis revealing more than 50,000 parcels of publicly owned land in B.C. and up to 273,000 potential housing units on vacant and underutilized land in Metro Vancouver alone.
The B.C. Public Lands Map is the first tool of its kind in Canada, combining federal, provincial, and municipal data to identify prime parcels of public land - from empty plots to vacant government buildings to surface parking lots - suitable for affordable housing development.
"Canada has an affordable housing crisis - we have half the rate of affordable housing of other developed countries," said Dr. Craig Jones, associate director of the Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) project, the team behind the map. "About 10 per cent of households in Canada can't afford their housing - they can't afford to live in this country."
"One of the biggest barriers to building housing is the cost of just buying the land itself, which can be up to 60 per cent in Vancouver. Publicly owned land can be subsidized by the government - heavily discounted or given free to affordable housing developers, saving billions in potential land costs."
But finding public land suitable for housing has been a slow and reactive process: multiple layers of data are required including whether the site is near amenities and infrastructure such as transit, water supply, grocery stores and pharmacies, natural hazard risks, slope estimates, valuation of current buildings and more.
The B.C. Public Lands Map flips this process. By plugging directly into data provided by B.C. housing organizations including B.C. Assessment and the Land Title Survey Authority, as well as all layers of government, the map provides the first province-wide, data-driven inventory of public land, enabling policymakers, non-profits, and developers to identify land that may be suitable for affordable housing development.
"By eliminating or reducing land costs and accelerating approvals, the tool could lower housing delivery costs, while making large-scale, non-profit and affordable housing projects more feasible," said Dr. Jones. "It makes visible a real wealth of opportunity that's out there but often overlooked."
Such an opportunity is a federal public building on Main and 10th in Vancouver. An empty federal building stands on a site that could be an affordable home "super star": close to a future Skytrain station, amenities, critical infrastructure and in the heart of the city.
The tool is free and open to everyone, including housing organizations, governments and advocates working to support people who need housing.
The map has also been built to be compatible with federal and provincial housing initiatives including Build Canada Homes and Digitally Accelerated Standardized Housing (DASH). The tool also estimates how many homes could fit on a site.
Another opportunity highlighted by the map is co-development - building housing alongside other services, such as grocery stores or pharmacies, with homes above.
The researchers hope the map will aid efforts already underway, including government programs that aim to build more homes on public land, and provide a clearer pathway for development.
"B.C. could be a model for other governments across Canada. Building affordable housing is hard," ," said Dr. Jones. "But this tool kickstarts the process by highlighting the opportunities that are out there that maybe people aren't aware of."
This research was supported by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Demonstrations Initiative.
