BC leads country in spending "crisis amounts" of money on rent

Many BC residents are well aware of the struggle to make ends meet, specifically regarding rental costs, but a report is shedding new light on the “crisis amounts” of income they spend on rent.

One of the national report’s startling findings is that BC, alongside Quebec, leads the country in the highest proportion of renters spending unaffordable or crisis amounts on rent and utilities.

Residents who are spending crisis amounts of income on rent are at an increased risk of homelessness.

The report came out this week from the Canadian Rental Housing Index, which falls under the BC Non-Profit Housing Association. The index uses data collected between 2016 and 2021.

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In Greater Vancouver, there are 390,795 renter households. Of those households, the median income is $67,500, while the average income is $83,600. Those numbers are slightly higher than the province-wide figures, at $63,200 and $78,000, respectively.

Among those Greater Vancouver households, the average monthly spending on rent and utilities is $1,622. Eighteen percent of those rental households spend over 50% of their income on rent and utilities, while 39% spend over 30% on rent and utilities.

To make matters worse, 13% of those 390,795 households live in overcrowded conditions, while 6% need significant repairs.

“The hundreds of thousands of renters struggling to get by in today’s crushing rental markets expect all levels of government and industry stakeholders to work together to solve this crisis,” Jill Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, said in a statement.

“The index data released today show us the results of collective failure on rental housing investments over the last quarter century.”

BC also had the dubious honour of leading the country for the largest increases in average rent.

“Behind each statistic in the index are thousands of renter families and households. This new data demonstrates they are not alone in their struggle to keep up with their housing costs, whether they live in the biggest centres in the country or the smallest communities,” said Marlene Coffey, CEO of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association.