By Steve Hubrecht
The Village of Radium Hot Springs’ latest housing needs report is finished.
Radium’s 2024 housing needs report is an update of its initial 2022 housing report, which the village, like all B.C. municipalities, was required to complete before April 2022, under then-new provincial legislation. That same BC legislation also requires an ‘interim’ update report by the end of 2024, and then a full update in 2028.
The initial 2022 housing report used data from the 2016 Canadian census. Another census had been conducted in 2021, but most of that data wasn’t made public in time to be used in the 2022 housing report. The updated 2024 report fixes that issue, using data from the 2021 census.
The new updated 2024 report highlights several key changes in Radium from the 2022 housing report: the population has grown both in sheer numbers and in composition (notably seniors and people in family-forming years); home ownership has become less affordable; the proportion of homeowners has declined; the number of homeowners in ‘core housing need’ increased; median income in Radium dropped below BC provincial and East Kootenay regional averages; and employment trends have shifted.
On the other hand, two major key findings in the 2024 report remained the same as in the 2022 report: there is a lack of available and affordable long-term rentals in Radium; and more than half of Radium’s housing stock is not occupied by permanent residents.
Radium’s population shot up dramatically between the 2016 and 2021 census, surging 72 per cent to 1,300 residents.
The housing report highlighted two interesting trends within that overall growth: the number of those aged 65 and over (already proportionally higher than most BC communities) grew by 170 people; and the number of those aged 25 to 44 also grew by 170 people. That means housing for seniors remains a key concern in Radium, but that the village also needs to encourage housing for families.
The 2022 report outlined that home ownership was generally unaffordable for people living alone. The 2024 report outlines that home ownership is now often unaffordable not only for people living alone but also for lone-parent households, and for couples without children.
The share of households in Radium that own the home they live in (as opposed to renting it) dropped from 84 per cent in the 2016 census to 75 per cent in the 2021 census.
At the same time the number of owner households in ‘core housing need’ in Radium increased from 25 to 70 households (representing 15 per cent of all owner households) between 2016 and 2021. The total number of renter households in core housing need increased from 10 in 2016 to 25 in 2021 (comprising 16 per cent of all renters in 2021).
A household in ‘core housing need’ occupies housing that, by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation standards, is either inadequate, unaffordable or unsuitable, but which the household members continue to live in because they would need to spend 30 per cent or more of their before-tax income to afford the median rent for more appropriate housing. ‘Extreme core housing need’ defines households in a similar situation, but which must spend 50 per cent or more of their income on housing.
The 2024 housing report outlined there are 25 total households in Radium in extreme core housing need (five were renter households, and 20 were home-owning households).
While home ownership became less affordable between 2016 and 2021, employment trends shifted considerably. The report notes that in 2016, ‘accommodation and food service’ (25 per cent), ‘manufacturing’ (nine per cent), and a two-way tie between ‘retail trade’ and ‘professional services’ (each six per cent) were the top three industries by employment in Radium. In 2021 those industries were still the top three, but had shifted in ordering, changing to: ‘manufacturing’ (17 per cent), ‘retail trade’ (13 per cent), and ‘accommodation and food service’ (12 per cent).
While the proportion of homes that are permanently occupied in Radium did go up between 2016 and 2021, from 40 per cent to 46 per cent, this is still less than half of all homes, making Radium one of few such communities in BC.
“This presents a unique challenge where Radium does not have a lack of housing, but a lack of available housing. It will be important for Radium to encourage housing that is intended for permanent residents in order to meet local housing need,” read the report.
The report outlined that 405 new units of housing will be needed over a 20-year period, noting that most of that total (343 units out of 405) will be needed to support projected population growth.
But “given that Radium has a large proportion of their current housing stock owned by non-permanent residents, the actual number of units planned through the OCP over a 20 year period could exceed 405 units,” read the report.
The report addresses short-term rentals (STRs), noting that the village had 146 active STR listings in summer 2019, 134 in summer 2020, and 186 in summer 2021 (just before the village introduced its STR bylaw). This past summer (2024), with the village’s STR regulations in place for nearly three years, there were 145 active STR listings.
“Almost all listings for 2024 (98 per cent) were for a rental that occupied the entire unit, rather than a shared or private room within a residence. It is unclear whether these units are impacting long-term rental availability,” read the report. “Radium’s context is unique in that it has many second residences or holiday homes, and owners may choose to take on short-term rentals while they are not using the residence; however, because they use it for recreational purposes part of the year, it is unlikely that the units would be available for long-term rental, even if they were not part of the short-term rental market.”
During Radium council’s Monday. Sept. 9 meeting, in discussion on the report, councillor Erin Palashniuk said “we have a lot of STRs. As a council we need to talk about this.”
Councillor Christi Ferguson-Huston asked if home swapping counts as an STR. “There’s technically no money changing hands,” she noted, but there is a benefit accrued to the homeowner, and swaps are usually short term in nature.
“It’s a weird space,’ said Ferguson-Huston, adding the village needs to anticipate how house swapping could affect the housing situation in Radium.
