Surrey lacks plan to house most vulnerable, experts warn

Once considered a remote suburb, Surrey is on track to overtake Vancouver as British Columbia's most populous city. 

But as the city south of the Fraser River grows, so too does the challenge of adequately housing its residents, including homeless and urban Indigenous populations. 

"Indigenous peoples are choosing to live in Surrey at rates far beyond any other municipality in B.C. and yet the amount of investment into their affordable housing needs is almost nonexistent," said Ginger Gosnell-Myers, a fellow at Simon Fraser University who works on urban Indigenous planning and policy.

"This is a recipe for disaster."

While the city has seen plenty of new housing built in recent years, it doesn't necessarily address Surrey's critical need for affordable and subsidized housing. 

"Surrey is like many other municipalities in metropolitan Vancouver facing severe challenges when it comes to housing its particular populations," said Andy Yan, a professor in urban planning and the director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. 

A Surrey housing report — which was recently re-released after council sent it back to staff for being "too negative" — highlights the need for more affordable housing.

Surrey is home to more than 16,000 Indigenous people, making it the biggest urban Indigenous population in the province. 

According to the report, the city has an immediate need for at least 15,000 below-market or subsidized units, 1,880 of which are needed to address the unique housing needs to Indigenous households.

But in the three years leading up to 2022, the city built only 72 units. 

The report notes that 37 per cent of Indigenous children in Surrey live in poverty compared to 19 per cent of all Surrey families with children. Additionally, the median household income for Indigenous households in Surrey hovers around $68,000, which is about $10,000 less than the city's overall median income.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum told CBC in an interview the low number of units delivered for Indigenous people since 2018 doesn't represent the true picture because of the way Surrey counts its overall population.

"We include [the urban Indigenous population] in the figures that we're doing with the homeless and so forth and that seems to work," said McCallum.

Gosnell-Myers said Surrey's lack of criteria for the Indigenous population is disappointing, and that misinformation can lead to stereotypes.