WATCH: COPE unveils affordable housing strategy, vows to put people over profits

VANCOUVER — The Coalition of Progressive Electors has unveiled its housing platform ahead of the 2026 municipal elections.

Mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen and her team outline their plan at a press conference in front of a derelict mansion in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood on Monday morning.

She explained that, if elected, a COPE government would secure 20,000 units of affordable housing — including 4,000 units built by the city — develop the "best tenant protections in the country," reinstate the Renter's Office to hold "bad landlords" to account, and triple the empty homes tax.

"We have a situation where workers, renters, and people who are shut out of ever owning a home desperately need housing prices to go down, while investors, speculators — they need housing prices to go up," Allen lamented. "Guess which side our governments are actively helping?"

She argued that elected officials have for too long prioritized the desires of "their developer buddies, the mansion-owning backers, and the speculators and private-equity firms who fund them."

"We know that housing is a human right, but governments and the housing industry have failed to treat it as one," Allen added. "COPE is gonna shift our culture. We're gonna make sure that housing is no longer a playground for the rich where they can park capital, let homes sit empty, and still make profits."

City council candidate Devyani Singh explained that tripling the empty homes tax would force "corporate hoarders" to pay a massive penalty or lower rents so people can afford the units.

"Every dollar collected from those refusing to fill those empty units will go to building truly affordable housing across Vancouver," she added.

Singh argued that such a policy works, citing the fact that when the empty homes tax was raised from 1% to 3%, the number of empty homes in Vancouver went down 67%.

When asked by Sitka Media how government and the private sector can work together to deliver affordable housing given their two very different motivators, Allen said it can work — so long as the private sector has people's interests at heart.

"We need the professionals that do this work to build the housing supply that we have to have for our population," she noted. "What we don't need are the outrageous profit margins ... What we don't need are developers who don't care about our communities and just want to displace people for profits."

When asked by Sitka Media whether she was afraid such policies would drive capital out of the city, Allen called it a "fallacy."

"Capital likes where we are because of our laws and because of our infrastructure, our banking — all of that enables them to do what they do, so I don’t think that’s a risk."

The municipal elections are set to take place on October 17.