Mission’s new secondary suites program has resumed.
Council voted unanimously on Monday (Jan. 22) to restart operations on the program with modifications approved at the previous meeting. Coun. Ken Herar wasn’t present at Monday’s meeting.
On Jan. 8, council resolved to lower the annual secondary suite fee to $60 and remove the fee for applying for an exemption to double billing. Under the new modifications, water meter installation is voluntary for all existing registered suites and not necessary for an exemption.
“The pros are it’s simple; there’s no red tape, no inspections, really. It’s cutting down government intervention, which is amazing,” Coun. Jag Gill said.
Coun. Mark Davies says the city needs a suite program. He says Mission’s program is now much simpler with the changes made.
“We’re not fully there yet. For people that have a suite and they don’t want the double billing, they’ll need to realize that they’re going to have to make a difficult choice. And that choice is … continue doing what you’re doing today and at some point, you will have to bring that suite up to code or bite the bullet and sign up, which means double billing but you’ll be amnesty,” Davies said.
Prior to the pause in December, the city had roughly 250 registrations for the secondary suites program, including 10 new suites unknown to the city.
“The primary objective of the program is to have all secondary suites in Mission registered while at the same time not to target those with existing unauthorized suites,” Mission’s development services director Dan Sommer said.
Sommer says the intent is to promote safe housing, along with an equitable share of utility and program management costs.
Council also received a report from Sommer on several aspects of the program for which more information was requested.
Sommer defined decommissioning a suite under the current program, which would require the removal of a doorframe.
Staff have over 100 active suite investigations and the city averages between 10 and 15 decommissions per year, according to Sommer. He expects decommissioning numbers will fall under the current program.
For those with multiple suites, decommissioning will be required since the BC Building Code doesn’t allow more than one suite in a home.
Following the report, Gill motioned for a lock to be taken off a door during the decommissioning process rather than an entire doorframe. Other council members supported another staff report down the line on what works for other communities in decommissioning suites.
Gill mentioned six cases he’s aware of in the community that could be at risk of being decommissioned by removing a door frame under current rules.
“In the Indo-Canadian culture, you’ll see parents living with their siblings or with their kids. So the parents will be upstairs and the kids downstairs but they both have different kitchens. And then they’ll have one suite … we want that sense of privacy. So we need to keep that doorframe still. And that’s where the pushback is happening,” Gill said.
Council unanimously approved a motion to have staff report back on options and to hold off on decommissioning orders where there are no safety issues until a final decision is made by council.
After hearing more from Sommer, council also resolved for staff to come back in a year to review double-billing exemptions. The city is already looking into the possibility of phasing out double-billing.
For those renting to low-income tenants, the city is considering reducing or eliminating fees when the program is up and running.
“Further discussion is needed to safeguard individual privacy and address the resources and capacity needed to screen applicants for this aspect of the program and likely involving the collaboration of nonprofits,” Sommer said.
Council also resolved to ask the city’s housing coordinator to incorporate low-income options for secondary suites into the affordable housing strategy.
Sommer also reported back to council on declaring an exemption every two years instead of annually. He said declaring the exemption status annually proves more efficient and less time-consuming for the city.
The “amnesty deadline” for registering for the secondary suites program is April 2.
READ MORE: Mission’s secondary suites program annual fee reduced to $60