Market Rental Housing Affordability and Accessibility to Rapid Transit in Montreal and Vancouver Nicholas William Revington A Thesis in The Department of Geography, Planning and Environment Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science (Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada June 2015 © Nicholas William Revington, 2015 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Nicholas William Revington Entitled: Market Rental Housing Affordability and Accessibility to Rapid Transit in Montreal and Vancouver and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Geography, Urban and Environmental Studies) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: ________________________________________________ Chair Dr. Pascale Biron ________________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Kevin Manaugh ________________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Zachary Patterson ________________________________________________ Supervisor Dr. Craig Townsend Approved by ___________________________________________ Dr. Monica Mulrennan Chair of Department ___________________________________________ Dr. André Roy Dean of Faculty of Arts and Science Date ___________________________________________ ABSTRACT Market Rental Housing Affordability and Accessibility to Rapid Transit in Montreal and Vancouver Nicholas William Revington Housing affordability is a major issue in much of urban Canada, and particularly in the largest metropolitan areas. While measurements and rankings of housing affordability are widely publicized, they typically do not capture variations in affordability within metropolitan areas, where prices may vary significantly between, for instance, central cities and outer suburbs. One factor that can affect housing prices is access to mass transit, and rail rapid transit in particular, but existing research has not considered how this may impact affordability. From an ethical stance of redistributive equity, if housing is less affordable in transit-accessible places, low income people will be less able to access the rapid transit system and will be less well-off in comparison to middle and high income groups. This thesis applies a residual income approach – which considers housing affordable if it leaves a household with enough income to cover other basic needs – to data gathered from online rental listings in Montreal and Vancouver. It then examines how affordable market rental housing is distributed spatially within each city, and with respect to household composition and income. Looking through these “lenses,” the picture of affordability is different for different types of households. Indeed, for certain household types, no affordable housing was identified. At the metropolitan scale, housing was less affordable within rapid transit catchments in both cities, while at the level of urban/suburban zones, the results were mixed. The methods therefore present a nuanced measure of affordability that can be adapted in other contexts. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It seems almost unfair to take sole credit for the authorship of this thesis. The academic labour has been my own, but it has been supported in various ways by many others. First and foremost, it is necessary to thank my supervisor, Dr. Craig Townsend, for his patient encouragement and support throughout my master’s studies. My thesis committee, Dr. Zachary Patterson and Dr. Norma Rantisi, have also been tremendously helpful sources of advice, academic and otherwise. Invaluable research assistance was provided by Kyle Fitzsimmons and Margaret Ellis-Young. I’ve also learned a thing or two from Dr. Rosemary Collard, Dr. Kevin Gould, Dr. Jochen Jaeger, and Dr. Ted Rutland. It is no exaggeration to say this thesis would not have been possible without my friends and peers at Concordia: thanks especially to Noah Cannon, Leah Girardo, Cassandra Lamontagne, Pierce Nettling, Daniel Piña, Trevor Smith, Samia Tabarah, and William Zullo. Many friends (too numerous to list) provided suggestions on map design, but Evelyn Hofmann deserves a shout-out for being exceptionally helpful in this regard. I would like to thank Don Luymes, Manager, Community Planning at the City of Surrey; Lil Ronalds, Planner at the City of Vancouver; and Craig E. Jones and Dr. Elvin Wyly at the University of British Columbia for taking the time to discuss housing affordability in the Vancouver area with me; and Anthony and Denise Townsend for hosting me while I was there, and showing me around the suburbs. Finally, thanks to my parents, Bill and Gwen Revington, and my brothers, Cameron and Peter, and Margaret Ellis-Young for unwavering emotional support. This work was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) master’s scholarship; the Concordia University Faculty of Arts and Science, School of Graduate Studies, and Department of Geography, Planning and Environment; and the Quebec Inter-university Centre for Social Statistics. This research was also supported by funds to the Canadian Research Data Centres Network (CRDCN) from SSHRC, the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and Statistics Canada. Although the research and analysis are based on data from Statistics Canada, the opinions expressed do not represent the views of Statistics Canada, or other funding bodies. Errors and omissions remain my own. iv Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 2. Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 9 2.1. Defining and Measuring Housing Affordability .............................................................. 9 2.2. The Relationship between Transportation and Housing ................................................ 11 2.3. Location Affordability.................................................................................................... 16 3. Methods ................................................................................................................................. 19 3.1. The Rental Housing Data Set ......................................................................................... 20 3.2. Calculating the Supply of Affordable Rental Housing .................................................. 23 3.3. Transit Catchments and Metropolitan Zones ................................................................. 27 3.4. Statistical Analysis ......................................................................................................... 32 4. Results ................................................................................................................................... 34 4.1. The Distribution of Affordable Housing ........................................................................ 38 4.1.1. Montreal .................................................................................................................. 38 4.1.2. Vancouver ............................................................................................................... 45 4.2. Accessibility to Rapid Transit ........................................................................................ 51 4.2.1. Montreal .................................................................................................................. 51 4.2.2. Vancouver ............................................................................................................... 53 5. Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 56 5.1. Montreal and Vancouver Compared .............................................................................. 56 5.2. Equity Concerns ............................................................................................................. 58 5.3. Policy Implications ......................................................................................................... 63 5.4. Limitations and Areas for Future Research.................................................................... 65 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 70 References ..................................................................................................................................... 75 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 94 v List of Tables Table 1: Summary statistics of rental units .................................................................................. 21 Table 2: Value of