Victoria has already eclipsed the total of homes it had to create this year under a provincial order, but the city has completed almost none of the non-market units it needs.
“Meeting the mark well before the deadline set by the province demonstrates that urgently needed housing can be fast-tracked when local governments lean in to the effort,” Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said in a statement. “Our city is pulling its weight in addressing the housing crisis while city staff continue to propose innovative, forward-thinking policies and new ideas.”
Of the 4,092 units the city is compelled to build over five years, 15 per cent must be three-bedroom spaces. Under five per cent of Victoria’s completed builds fell into that category in the first six months. Oak Bay and Saanich were also in the initial cohort of communities subject to the targets and neither were on track to reach their first-year requirements at the halfway mark.
“The district anticipates it will be very challenging to meet the target, even with our upcoming Infill Housing program in place later this year and other changes to the regulatory framework that are planned in the next two years,” Oak Bay’s progress report states.