---
title: "Tyee reviews ABC council's housing record and what parties are promising"
description: "The Tyee surveyed four years of housing decisions by Vancouver's ABC-led council and collected housing commitments from each of the six main parties running in the October 17 election."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/tyee-council-housing-record-october-13"
last_updated: "2026-10-13T05:01:15.208Z"
---

The Tyee published a review on October 13, 2026 of how the ABC-led Vancouver council performed on housing over four years, and what each of the six main parties is promising in the October 17 election. Reporter Howard Chai asked ABC to account for its record, and the party replied by email.

ABC told The Tyee that 92 per cent of renovation permits are now issued within three days, that approvals for detached homes improved by 36 per cent since 2022, and that approvals for multi-family and mid-rise developments improved by 46 per cent. The party also said 896 multiplex homes had been approved by end of 2025. On its shortcomings, ABC told The Tyee it has not consistently reached the service standards it set under its 3-3-3-1 permitting framework.

## What council did and did not pass

The Tyee found that the ABC-led council introduced a multiplex program, removed minimum parking requirements, updated the Broadway Plan, and adopted the Vancouver Official Development Plan this year. The council also voted to eliminate the city's renters office and froze new construction of supportive housing. The Social Housing Initiative, a staff proposal to allow 20-storey social housing towers, was rejected. The Villages Plan, which would have brought denser development to many neighbourhoods, failed after many residents showed up to oppose it.

An audit published in 2025 found that 72 per cent of Vancouver's recreation facilities were rated poor or worse. Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, told The Tyee he was concerned about what gets lost when the focus is on adding new housing without maintaining what the city already has.

## What the parties are promising

[Ken Sim](/candidates/ken-sim) is running for re-election with ABC Vancouver, promising faster permitting and city land for middle-income rental housing. [Pete Fry](/candidates/pete-fry) is running for mayor with the Green Party of Vancouver. OneCity and COPE have agreed not to field mayoral candidates in hopes of unifying the vote behind Fry. All three parties are promising to reverse ABC's supportive-housing freeze and restore the city's renters office.

OneCity promises to construct 4,000 affordable homes on city-owned land using federal funding. Councillor [Lucy Maloney](/candidates/lucy-maloney), running for re-election, told The Tyee she was disappointed the Villages Plan did not pass. COPE promises to triple the empty homes tax and purchase affordable rental buildings. Councillor [Sean Orr](/candidates/sean-orr), also running for re-election, told The Tyee the city has not built enough deeply affordable and shelter-rate housing.

[Rebecca Bligh](/candidates/rebecca-bligh) of Vote Vancouver is promising more co-op and community housing. [Kareem Allam](/candidates/kareem-allam) of the Vancouver Liberals would lift the ban on new supportive housing and extend every co-op lease on city land with automatic renewals. [Colleen Hardwick](/candidates/colleen-hardwick) of TEAM is promising to repeal the Broadway Plan, the Jericho Lands plan, and the Rupert and Renfrew plan, saying existing plans are enough to meet population growth until 2050.

Candidates running for council seats are listed at [/parties/abc-vancouver](/parties/abc-vancouver) and linked party pages. General voting day is October 17, 2026.

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.