Victoria area citizens voted for affordability in the 2018 municipal elections! Most of candidates elected received high Affordability Ratings in Cities for Everyone’s Municipal Candidates Affordability Survey, as illustrated below.
Elected Candidates’ Affordability Ratings
| Victoria | Saanich | Oak Bay | |
| Comprehensive Affordability (support policies that allow more compact infill to increase low- and moderate-income affordability) | Lisa Helps Marianne Alto Laurel Collins Sharmarke Dubow Jeremy Loveday Sarah Potts Charlayne Thornton-Joe | Fred Haynes Susan Brice Judy Brownoff Zac de Vries Rebecca Mersereau Colin Plant Ned Taylor | Kevin Murdoch Tara Ney Andrew Appleton
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| Low-income Affordability (Focuses on subsidizing and mandating below-market housing to increase affordability for people with low incomes) | Ben Isitt | Nathalie Chambers | Eric Zhelka Hazel Braithwaite Cairine Green |
These are exciting and rewarding results. We believe that our efforts contributed significantly to this outcome: our ratings were widely cited on websites, we distributed many hundreds of Tabloid Newsletters to voters, and many concepts we raised, such as the importance of allowing more Missing Middle infill housing and parking policy reforms, were often cited in election discussions and debates. Thanks to the many people who helped Cities for Everyone during the campaign!
This is very good news for anybody who wants more affordable housing and transportation options in our community. Our challenge now is to identify and implement the policies and programs that will achieve these community goals.
Cities for Everyone has developed an Affordability Agenda. During the next few months we will develop these concepts and work to build understanding and support for specific municipal policies to increase affordability in the Victoria region.