Housing density is not the solution to affordable housing issues

There is a lot of argument that the children of West Vancouver residents can no longer afford to purchase homes and take care of their parents. The argument for increased density in West Vancouver is to allow for more affordable housing for non-residents without acknowledging the uncomfortable reality that there is a trend of downward social mobility of some past residents. Whatever the reasons are for this downward movement, increasing housing density is not the solution.

A study done on millennials versus baby boomers in the USA researches this phenomena.

"In other words, millennials may be less upwardly mobile than baby boomers because (a) the economy is not supporting an ongoing increase in occupational status to the extent that it once was, (b) the millennials come from more accomplished parents than did baby boomers (thus making it more difficult to surpass them), (c) the millennials are younger and just starting out in the world of work (and hence the opportunity to surpass their parents hasn’t yet presented itself), or (d) early-career occupations depend less on parents’ status than they once did."

- Micheal Hout

This study has relevance for Canada. A handful of subsidized affordable housing is not a solution. Drastic and significant change to policy needs to be done.

Pathways_SOTU_2019_SocialMobility.pdf (stanford.edu)

In fact, "One of the greatest fallacies in Vancouver is that increasing density results in greater affordability. It doesn't. As higher and higher densities are approved, land values on a square foot basis increase."

- Micheal Geller

Vancouver renters are paying more for living spaces but getting less as ‘shrinkflation’ grows - The Globe and Mail