Your City Hall is still grappling with short-term rentals

It appears Vancouver City Council is still spending its time on the granular details of short-term rental permits. Last week, on April 21st, a Special Council meeting unanimously approved Business Licence Application No. AL0188353 for a short-term rental at 1801-1788 Columbia Street.

This vote, with Councillors B Montague, L Zhou, and S Orr all voting in favour, shows a pattern. Councillor R Bligh was recorded as absent for this vote, as well as for a Public Hearing on a CD-1 Text Amendment for Canada Place just a week earlier.

It's a curious thing, to see council spending time on individual short-term rental applications when the larger housing conversation feels so... *urgent*. We’re seeing a duplex going up on East 6th Avenue for nearly $700,000, and a pre-1950s home on Prince Edward Street being deconstructed. These are not small changes.

The focus on one short-term rental licence, even a unanimous decision, sometimes feels like looking at a single tree while the forest is changing around you. What this means for Vancouver residents is that council is still very much in the weeds on issues that, for some, might feel like a distraction from the broader affordability crisis. We'll have to see if this trend continues or if council shifts its attention to more systemic solutions.

Beautiful out here. Complicated in here. That's the coast.

Kenji Nakashima (@westcoastweird_yvr)

You know, the folks on the morning show probably have a few thoughts on this. Tune in live at mornings.live.