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🚊 15-minute cities stay popular with students

For decades, Canada has built out instead of up, prioritized sprawl over density, and created urban footprints best compared to Bigfoot tracks. It’s taken years, but our cities have finally passed policies to change that. Urban spaces are being rapidly redefined to support housing growth, green space, and sustainable living.

In many ways, we’ve built our society around cars, not people. Cities are beginning to explore how to walk that back while still making it possible to thrive in the present.

Our research shows that young people like you want a shift away from car-based living, but a strong percentage still have cars.

• 40% want a walkable community

• 21% want a transit-based community

• 30% own cars and use them regularly

This is why moving away from car-based living takes time and lots of new infrastructure. Many of us still rely on cars, but would be open to alternatives if there was better transit or our needs were close by.

• Students wanted grocery stores (86%) and cafes (50%) nearby

• + parks (52%), trails (45%), and a gym (59%) nearby

• Just 5% would go beyond than a 15 min walk for these

There’s a reason people love the 15-minute city model, where everything you need from parks, work, grocery stores, and even your doctor are within a 15-min walking radius. It’s better for you and the planet.

👏 Good news in housing

Federal government eases mortgage rules

The most notable shift increased the cap on insured mortgages from $1m to $1.5m, a smart decision given that the number of urban homes priced below $1m are few and far between. Anyone who pays less than 20% of the home price upfront is required to get mortgage insurance. Changes are meant to make it easier for first-time home buyers to enter the market, but it still leaves lots to be desired. Even the addition of 30-year mortgages drives up interest paid by 24%. Keep reading…

70 new affordable housing units in Vancouver prioritize single mothers

The BC government announced a partnership between B.C. Housing, YWCA Vancouver, and the City of Vancouver to buy a 70-unit building in East Vancouver. 14 of the 70 units have rent geared to income and are prioritized for single women, single mothers, and their children. The remaining 56 units are below-market rate homes for the public. We need many more projects like this one to fill the gap of affordable housing in Canada. Keep reading…

Beige flag: Ontario made game-changing policies for housing near transit… and then didn’t release them?

Ontario planned to release the policies which would allow for increased heights on Toronto’s busiest transit corridors this March. There were 900 pages of internal documents obtained by Global News detailing station-by-station plans, so this was clearly thought out, but reporters aren’t clear why it fell apart. On one hand, it’s a great sign that Ontario considered this and planned to execute it. On the other hand, why wasn’t it released? This is the kind of reform we need to tackle the housing crisis. Keep reading…

🙋 We’re surveying students — get involved!

Do you go to Simon Fraser University or Capilano University? If the answer to that is yes, we want to hear about your thoughts on housing!

Fill out the quick survey below for a chance to win a $100 rent rebate! We’re giving away five rebates at each of SFU and CapU. This $1,000 brings our total giveaways to date to $9,000!

Find the SFU student survey here and the CapU student survey here.

🗂 Resources for new renters

Whether it’s your first time living on your own or you’ve been renting for years, this is the time of year that lots of young people move into new places. We’ve compiled resources from provincial advocacy centres to get you started. Many university student societies have their own list of resources as well.

Ontario

Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario: Tip sheets, free legal advice, and reform updates.

British Columbia

Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre: Free legal education for BC tenants, template letters, and access to free legal advice.

Alberta

Laws for Landlords and Tenants in Alberta: Information on disputes, notices, responsibilities, and everything else you could ever need.

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