derykhouston

Clearly the government has been negligent in not making any kind of decent effort to build social housing for the past number of years. The result is money being spent on moping up the mess of lives that become broken and dysfunctional. What I don't like to see is landlords being targeted as the root of the problem. One of the biggest costs to a landlord after the initial mortgage on the property is TAXES. There is something unsustainable when it costs almost five hundred dollars a month just for property taxes. People who own their own homes are struggling to hang on and so end up adding one more room to an existing suite in order to make it a two bedroom. Sometimes people are moved to take a serious look at the idea of an Air Bnb because the income is so much higher. Anything .....that will help with the crushing taxes. (Our house taxes went up 10% this year). The money has to come from somewhere. It's hard Not to increase the rent allowed by the BC rental rules every year when your taxes go up by 10% ......and so it is no wonder that there is a rental problem in Victoria. My point is that taxes are suffocating people who own any kind of property. It's not about greed. It's about families trying to make ends meet.