Op-Ed: First Nation Might Have Just Cracked the Housing Crisis

On 10 acres next to one of Vancouver's priciest neighborhoods, a First Nation is doing what the city itself has largely resisted: building big. The Squamish Nation's Senakw project—6,000 planned rental units in 11 towers up to 58 stories—sits on reserve land exempt from municipal zoning rules, and is showing what can be accomplished when the red tape is gone, journalist Binyamin Appelbaum writes in a New York Times op-ed. According to Appelbaum, "Senakw's striking presence on the Vancouver skyline is a rebuke to the surrounding city," widely considered North America's least affordable, "and a constant reminder that the thing preventing us from building is … us."

The development, spearheaded by 30-something leader Khelsilem and approved in a national vote, is a pointed contrast to the low-density, single-family streets around it, in a metro where homes cost nearly 12 times median income. While Vancouver's building regulations seem to favor mansions and large stretches of lawns, Senakw offers few parking spots, aims for net-zero emissions, and bakes in some below-market units, including homes reserved for Squamish members. Expected to be "the densest residential neighborhood in the country," Senakw won't singlehandedly solve Vancouver's housing crisis. But as Appelbaum writes, "other cities ought to be taking notes." Read his full piece in the Times.