Dear Editor,

RBC has been compiling statistics on house affordability across Canada since 1985, and has just released its 2011 statistics. The numbers from Greater Vancouver were no surprise.

Vancouver continues to be the least affordable market of all major Canadian cities.

The report tracks how much of a homeowner’s income is required to pay the costs of owning a standard one level, bungalow style dwelling. In Vancouver, the cost of mortgage payments, utilities, and property taxes rose 3.1 per cent to a staggering 88.9 per cent of one-person’s income, based on statistical averages.

So if a family with an average means income is struggling, you can imagine what it is like for a modest-income family trying to put a roof over their heads.

It is these families that Habitat for Humanity, Greater Vancouver, is working to help.

With donations of land, volunteer labour and generous individual and corporate donations, Habitat for Humanity can succeed in getting a family into its own home, at payments and overhead that they can afford.

It’s just one creative housing solution. But there’s never been a greater need for us to look at ramping up creative models and solutions to this ever-increasing problem.

Let’s all work together to keep singles, young families, empty-nesters, and seniors in Vancouver. We need them all.

Tim Wake, Habitat for Humanity, Greater Vancouver