Photo: Brendan Kergin, Kamloops Matters

B.C. rental crisis affects more than just short-term rentals, say experts.

British Columbia's rental housing crisis goes far beyond factoring the impact of short-term rentals, say housing experts who say more building is needed to help families find affordable homes.

Recent data from Airbnb Canada says the short-term rental company collected almost $43 million in provincial, municipal and regional taxes over the past year, which will be provided to the provincial government, regional districts and the City of Vancouver to fund housing and tourism initiatives.

Housing experts said the tax is a small return for a province where families struggle to find affordable homes.

"The extra amount of tax the hosts are paying and the Airbnb is collecting and passing along, there's no scenario where that tax makes up for the harmful impact of all the short-term rentals on housing availability and affordability in the province," says Prof. David Wachsmuth at McGill University's school of urban planning.

"Even if every cent of it was immediately placed into building affordable housing for B.C. residents that wouldn't begin to address, wouldn't begin to make up for the harmful impacts on the availability of housing short-term rentals are responsible for in the province."

Wachsmuth, who co-authored a study last June that found more than 31,000 homes across Canada were rented so frequently on Airbnb that they were likely dropped as long-term rentals, said collecting more tax in B.C. than was forecast should be viewed as a "bad sign."

"What that is saying is that compared to Airbnb's estimates, compared to the province's own estimates, there's been dramatically more short-term rental activity in B.C. than they were expecting," he said.

The City of Vancouver said Thursday its efforts to regulate short-term rental units and bring back more long-term rental options are working because the number of long-term rental business licences have increased since the introduction of regulations for short-term rentals.

Brian Clifford, policy manager at the B.C. Non Profit Housing Association, said short-term rentals are just one part of an affordability crisis that escalated after decades of underfunding of housing initiatives.

"We know that (short-term rentals) contributes to affordability problems," he said. "I'd say that there is a lot of focus on Airbnb, but it is not the silver bullet causing the affordability crisis. It is a contributing factor. It's not the sole problem that we have."

In B.C., 43 per cent of renter homes spend more than the recommended affordability benchmark of 30 per cent of gross income on housing and utilities, he said. The national average is 40 per cent.

Housing Minister Selina Robinson said B.C. is building its way out of a housing crisis that grew over several decades. She said thousands of affordable housing projects are under construction and people will start seeing new units by next year.