Victoria councillors directed staff Thursday to look at ways to create affordable housing specifically for artists — a step that one councillor says will give preferential treatment to one group of citizens over another.
Coun. Jeremy Loveday, who recommended the move, said it was largely a “housekeeping” matter, since it merely aligns the city’s Create Victoria Masterplan with the Victoria Housing Strategy.
Loveday said the masterplan was approved in 2017 after extensive consultation with the public, but its goal of encouraging affordable housing for artists was never included in the housing strategy as intended.
“I think we have a duty to implement the plans that we approve,” he told a committee of the whole meeting. “I think if we don’t, especially after such broad participation, we will erode the trust of the public and why would they then want to participate in future processes?”
Loveday argued that artists deserve special treatment because they help create a vibrant, interesting city, one where people want to live and work. “And if that doesn’t do it for you, then it’s because they’re a major economic driver with over $104 million [going] into the city’s [gross domestic product],” he said.
In terms of what the policy would look like in action, Loveday cited the example of a building with an art school on the first floor and rental-housing units above.
“If the artists below desire, they would have first right of refusal on those units,” he said. “So this could give our staff a policy rationale for accepting and recommending a project like that to us in the future.”
He said qualifying artists would still have to meet income thresholds. “This won’t be putting artists to the front of the line,” he said.
But Coun. Geoff Young argued that’s exactly what the policy will do.
“If the motion means anything, it means that if you are a server or a plumber’s apprentice and you have such and such an income, you get put lower on the list than someone who qualifies in some way as an artist,” he said.
Young, who was alone in opposition, also questioned the practicality of the plan and how the artists will be selected.
“Are we going to have our staff do it? Are we going to have contests with juries? What are we going to do when people have qualified once, but maybe the quality of their work has gone down or they have left the occupation?”
Coun. Ben Isitt acknowledged Young’s concerns, but said the city’s arts team is capable of navigating those issues, while drawing on the experience of similar programs in cities around the world.
“I think we don’t want to create unfairness, but presumably there are other communities that have grappled with … how to implement this is a way that’s fair to both artists and others in need of housing,” he said.
“The ultimate unfairness right now is that housing is abundantly available to those who have means and it’s unavailable to those who don’t. So that’s, I think, the glaring unfairness, not the policies that might be aimed to house an underpaid worker in the tourism sector or an underpaid artist.”
Coun. Sarah Potts added that Victoria is far from alone in lending a hand to struggling artists. “Across North America, there are many communities doing this or moving toward this already,” she said.
“In Vancouver, they’ve committed to 400 units of affordable artists’ housing and no net loss of cultural spaces.
“Many of these projects have been framed as revitalization projects and certainly they have been proven to bring new life and revenue and vibrancy to communities. For those reasons, I’m happy to support this.”
