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Non-market housing is affordable housing that is owned or subsidized by governments, non-profits, or housing cooperatives, and offered at below market rents. It includes emergency housing, supportive housing, independent social housing, and cooperative housing.​

Tracking non-market housing is crucial to achieving Metro 2050’s goal to provide diverse and affordable housing choices. BC Housing plays a key role by delivering non-market housing and rent supplements — helping to meet the needs of the province’s most vulnerable residents and improving affordability in the private rental market.

The information below is based on BC Housing’s summary of housing units in Metro Vancouver, categorized as emergency, supportive, and independent housing. However, this may not represent the full extent of non-market housing in the region, as there are likely other non-market housing units that are not associated with BC Housing.

BC Housing non-market housing units by category in 2024

BC Housing non-market housing units across Metro Vancouver in 2024

Distribution of BC Housing non-market housing units in Metro Vancouver in 2024

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Key observations

  • In 2024, there were 47,798 non-market housing units in Metro Vancouver that had a financial relationship with BC Housing. This represents 4.3% of all dwelling units in the region, according to the 2021 Census.
  • More than half of the non-market units (53%) were independent social housing, followed by supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness (19%), and supportive housing for seniors (12%).

BC Housing non-market housing units in 2024

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BC Housing service definitions​

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Notes

  • ​​The glossary​ provides definitions of each technical term, ensuring consistent interpretation.
  • ​Jurisdiction and Metro Vancouver totals may not equal the sum of individual values due to rounding, data suppression, or the omission of smaller data points to maintain visual readability. If a geography is not listed or appears missing, the associated data was either unavailable or did not meet reporting thresholds.
  • ​​The BC Housing Unit Count Reporting Model, March 31, 2024, was prepared by BC Housing in May 2024.
  • BC Housing only tracks units where they have a financial relationship. Therefore, there could be other subsidized housing units in the community.
  • BC Housing’s housing continuum reports are based on units (e.g., housing units, beds, spaces, and rent supplements, depending on each program) instead of the number of people they assist.
  • Due to privacy protection, projects with units between one and 10 have been suppressed or combined. The totals for each category may be adjusted or may not reflect the sum of the subcategories. Suppressed data is intentionally left blank.

Source
This information is from BC Housing data and Statistics Canada census data.​​​


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