Letterbox: Women and children who need housing can’t wait for B.C.’s next budget cycle

This letter-to-the-editor from Port Moody Coun. Samantha Agtarap with Mayor Meghan Lahti and Coun. Amy Lubik addresses the province’s recent decision to delay funding for a supportive housing project.

Dear editor,

May 7 was the day that some of the city council learned, not from the province, that funding for the Act2 women’s transition housing had been pulled. This critical housing for women and children fleeing violence was quietly defunded months earlier. Beedie and Act2 were notified in early March. BC Housing notified Port Moody city staff on May 8. Those months could have been used to find alternative solutions; instead, we are scrambling.

Officially, provincial and federal governments are responsible for funding affordable housing, but they’ve been offloading that responsibility since federal cuts of the ‘90s. Municipalities derive their powers from the provincial government; we handle land use, bylaw enforcement and utilities, with borrowing restrictions that other levels of government don’t face. The province controls healthcare, education, affordable housing, policing, and major infrastructure.

The municipal-provincial relationship needs trust and communication to be effective. Both parties need to work in good faith. This trust has been fractured.

Port Moody has been a “good soldier,” collecting funds to support affordable projects like the Springs, refugee housing at House of Omeed, and 328 units at Portwood. When the Province passed Bills 44, 46, and 47, sweeping housing legislation was enacted without meaningful consultation with municipalities, and without any consideration for affordable housing; it took away municipalities’ negotiating abilities. We didn’t fight it. We reallocated scarce staff resources to meet provincial mandates, trusting that the province understood what it was asking of us and that in return it would deliver the funding for schools, healthcare, transit and affordable housing that mandated growth demands.

The province spent years telling municipalities to trust the plan. Build more housing. Meet your housing targets. Accept the legislation (or else!). Port Moody did everything asked of us, often at a real cost to our own local priorities and our residents’ patience.

That support has not materialized.

The women’s transition housing project is not just a budget line item. It was a lifeline for women in crisis. Transition housing for women and children fleeing violence is one of the most urgent and underfunded needs. Act2, Beedie, the City and BC Housing were partners. And then the Province quietly walked away in March without telling everyone who needed to know.

Investments in housing more than pay for themselves, but it takes longer than an electoral cycle. The costs of first responders, healthcare, and homelessness services are staggering, much more than the housing and the supports required to help people thrive. We have known this for decades.

BC was on the right path with the Community Housing Fund. As Jill Atkey of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association said: “Budget 2026 doesn’t just slow progress—it walks back commitments made to community housing providers, municipalities, and First Nations, at significant cost to those partners. The path the government has chosen is the wrong one, but it’s not too late to change course”.

While the Province and B.C. Housing characterize this decision as deferral, not cancellation, the effect is the same. The women and children who need this housing don’t have the luxury of waiting for the next budget cycle, nor do our struggling neighbours in communities across B.C. They needed housing yesterday.

That’s not partnership. That’s abandonment.

Since the City learned about this, we have been scrambling to find a way to save this housing. We challenge the province to show real leadership and political courage. We are ready to find a way. The ball is in the province’s court: show us that women and children are a priority.

Samantha Agtarap with Meghan Lahti and Amy Lubik
Our opinions may not reflect the official position of the City of Port Moody.