Vancouver mayoral candidate pitches plan to build 4,000 City-owned and affordable homes
William Azaroff has a plan to build 4,000 homes on City-owned land in Vancouver.
The mayoral candidate, who is currently seeking mayoral nomination with municipal political party OneCity Vancouver, said he would transfer six City-owned sites to a “reinvigorated City of Vancouver Public Housing Corporation.”
“What we’re looking at is a very practical approach. We’re looking at projects — some of which are already underway with rezoning — and looking at how we can accelerate through partnerships and through providing the kind of homes that are affordable to Vancouverites,” Azaroff said in an interview with Daily Hive.
There are 4,000 homes that are already underway or could start quickly, he said.
The six priority sites are:
- Granville Loops: 625 and 777 Pacific St.
- Main & Terminal: 1510 Quebec St. and 1405 Main St.
- Pacific & Hornby: 1402 Burrard St., 900 Pacific St., and 1401 Hornby St.
- 2400 Kingsway: 2396 Kingsway and 2411 East 33rd Ave.
- Marpole: 8324, 8460 and 8486 Granville St.
- Main Street: 3917 to 3981 Main St.
To ensure that construction starts immediately, the City would “guarantee loans, leverage federal and provincial funds, and provide capital injections.” It would also partner with nonprofit builders and developers to work on construction and operations.
The City’s Public Housing Corporation would run on a break-even return based on the cost of building and operating, and thus “bypass the double-digit profits demanded by private equity and developers.”
How is it different from Ken Sim’s framework that City Council voted against in October 2025?
In October 2025, Vancouver City Council rejected a framework to create a City-owned for-profit company to build purpose-built market rental housing at the same six sites Azaroff is proposing.
The plan was to sell City-owned sites under their Property Endowment Fund to the new company. To pass, the decision needed a two-thirds majority — or eight of 11 votes. But all members voted along party lines, and it was shy by one vote.
Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC city councillors voted in support of the initiative, while Green city councillor Pete Fry, COPE city councillor Sean Orr, Vote Vancouver city councillor Rebecca Bligh, and OneCity city councillor Lucy Maloney opposed it.
Concept for 625-777 Pacific St. and 1390 Granville St., replacing the north loops of the Granville Bridge in downtown. (City of Vancouver)
But Azaroff said that his plan has a few key differences and claims he could break the “development deadlock.”
“The previous effort by Ken Sim was looking at a profit-maximizing approach,” he said.
He said his plan differs in that it will look at moderate returns and a break-even model, instead of “chasing profit.”
“The focus has got to be on affordability for enough Vancouverites to be able to stay and live in Vancouver.”
When asked what he meant by affordable housing, he said it would depend on the kind of financing and grants they might receive.
Azaroff added that other differences in his proposal are that they want to partner with nonprofit developers, not private developers. They would also put all earnings from the housing developments towards more housing or facilities.
Further, he said that they would look at the housing plans already in place for the six sites and see if they could change materials to bring down the cost of construction.
How would Azaroff get it through City Council?
In October, when City Council voted down Mayor Ken Sim’s proposal, Azaroff said that the opposing councillors didn’t feel like they were “brought along on the journey” and “they weren’t 100 per cent sure what they’d be approving, and so the trust was low.”
He said he’d work on communicating his vision for what his model is trying to achieve.
ABC’s model also required starting a new entity, which needed a two-thirds vote to pass. His plan would revive the already existing City of Vancouver Public Housing Corporation (which exists to run the small amount of older housing the City already manages), which would only require a majority vote to pass.
Feasibility in a soft housing market
The housing development industry is struggling with a soft housing market due to faltering pre-sales, high borrowing costs, an uncertain economy, and expensive construction.
But Azaroff said that the nonprofit housing sector runs counter-cyclical to the for-profit side.
When for-profit construction is down, he said that more contractors will bid on nonprofit projects. Meanwhile, labour costs are coming down.
“And the bids are becoming more competitive, because people need to keep their people working. As opposed to, say, two to three years ago, when everything was so busy, everyone was paying a surcharge,” he said.
Since they’re building rental housing, they also don’t have a need for pre-sales, as condo developments do.
Municipal election is this year
Azaroff is running against Amanda Burrows for the OneCity nomination.
Other mayoral candidates include former ABC councillor Rebecca Bligh and Vancouver Liberals Kareem Allam.
The Vancouver mayoral election will take place on Oct. 17, 2026.