New UNBC initiative provides expansive data and resources on Housing issues across northern British Columbia

An opportunity to explore some of the issues and concerns, as well as some suggestions for solutions on housing in Prince Rupert and across the Northwest and Northern British Columbia is now available through the University of Northern British Columbia.

Last month the Community Development Institute at the Prince George based university outlined the scope of its Housing Research Portal, the initiative one which features reports, articles of interest on housing themes as well as online presentations that expand on the issues for a number of specific areas of the north.

Among the areas of note for the program the CDI overview provides a glimpse at what is currently available and how the project is evolving.

This portal provides access to a range of information for non-metropolitan communities, in BC and Canada. It includes population and housing data for more than 60 communities. 

Launched in 2022 by the Community Development Institute (CDI) at the University of Northern British Columbia, the research found here will be of significant interest to local governments, planners, developers, builders, and provincial governments.The data highlights the strong links between housing 

and economic development potential in non-metropolitan BC and Canada.

Towards those presentations is a session just over a half hour in length that explores the challenges and issues of note on housing in the Northwest.

The overview covers a wide range of population change and housing themes and what the scope of the housing stock in the Northwest may be, with the work offering comparisons of how housing is evolving in the major population centres of the region.

Towards the challenges and potential solutions when it comes to Supply and Demand in the Northwest, the CDI review found the following key takeaways from their review.

Also included in the overview is a suggestion that communities may want to put some focus on development of smaller lots, pocket neighbourhoods and other housing options

The full presentation for the Northwest can be viewed below.

The work on Housing by the CDI will continue through 2022 and you can access any new data, reports or presentations from their website here.

You can also follow their latest research through their twitter feed and Facebook page

The CDI may seem like a familiar group for residents of Prince Rupert and indeed it is, they were part of the early days of what became the planning for the various Rupert Vision programs of the last eight years.

The UNBC organization one which was part of the Redesign Rupert program of 2015/16, you can review some of the work that they did on Housing and other themes for Prince Rupert at the time from our archive of the time here.

More notes on Housing across the Northwest can be explored here.