Langley City's New Housing Needs

This summer, like most municipalities in Metro Vancouver, the provincial government issued a housing order for Langley City. This order stated that Langley City must do what is within its power to ensure that 1,844 new homes are built and occupied in our community over the next five years. The market plays the most significant role these days in getting housing built, but we must ensure that our policies and processes don't lead to the City missing this target.

At the same time, each municipality must have a housing needs report. Langley City's last report was created and adopted by Council back in 2021. This 2021 report quantified the housing we needed based on number of bedrooms. The provincial government implemented laws and regulations standardizing housing needs reports in 2023. The province requires that all municipalities update their housing needs reports using this new standard format. Langley City Council approved a new interim housing needs report based on the new provincial standards.

The breakdown is as follows:

Type	5-Year Need	20-Year Need
Extreme Core Housing Need	221	885
Persons Experiencing Homelessness	66	122
Suppressed Household Formation	209	834
Anticipated Growth	2961	7702
Rental Vacancy Rate Adjustment	20	78
Additional Local Demand	219	876

We need 3,691 new homes over the next 5 years and 10,498 over the next 20 years.

There are some categories which need some explanation. Extreme Core Housing Need means building housing so that people who pay more than 50% of their income towards housing pay closer to 30%. Suppressed Household Formation means building housing that allows people who might still live with their parents or roommates due to affordability challenges to move out. Additional Local Demand is a "buffer."

Unlike the housing order, the housing needs report is used by municipalities to help with our Official Community Plan. We must show that our land-use plans can accommodate the number of units outlined in the housing needs report over the lifetime of the Official Community Plan. We wouldn't get in trouble with the province if we don't meet the housing needs targets.

The Extreme Core Housing Need, Persons Experiencing Homelessness, and Suppressed Household Formation categories will require funding from the provincial and federal governments as building these types of housing is outside of the mandates or financial capacities of municipalities.