Vancouver is crowd sourcing ideas for how to spend Empty Homes Tax revenue

After announcing recently that it expects to collect $30 million in revenue from the newly-implemented Empty Homes Tax, the City of Vancouver announced today it has launched an online platform designed to keep the conversation going by getting Vancouver residents to submit their ideas for how the money should be allocated.

“I’m really pleased with the results we’ve seen from the first year of the Empty Homes Tax,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “We’re expecting $30 million will be collected, and Council mandated that all net revenue from the tax must go into affordable housing.”

People are invited to submit their ideas and provide input on different affordable housing options between April 26 and May 17.

See also

• Vancouver to collect $30 million from Empty Homes Tax
• Vancouver Empty Homes Tax sees 183,000 declarations submitted

All ideas put forward by the public will be reviewed for feasibility and costed out by city staff before the first set of recommendations are presented to City Council in June 2018.

The city said the discussion on this platform— along with feedback from other engagement events and conversations— will inform Council’s decisions about how to spend the Empty Homes Tax revenue.

In the first year of Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax, over 98% of Vancouver homeowners completed their declarations and almost 8,500 properties were determined to be unoccupied or underutilized.

In its first year, the Empty Homes Tax will generate an estimated $30 million, with $17 million already collected by the city.