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The City of Vancouver’s reversal on its affordable-housing rules has been called a “bait and switch.”

The term refers to a deceptive tactic where an organization “baits” clients with an attractive offer, but then “switches” it for a lower-quality option after it is too late for clients to withdraw from the agreement.

In this case, critics of Vancouver’s highly touted “below-market rental” policies, including the watchdog organization, Cityhallwatch, are feeling tricked by the city’s early commitments to make builders offer 20 per cent of units in their new rental projects at significantly lower than the going rate.

The City of Vancouver has spent the past six years and more hyping its below-market rental schemes. More than 129 proposed highrises and other rental buildings had at one point been approved to include this so-called “inclusionary” zoning.

But, slowly and quietly, developers and politicians are reneging.

City politicians and planners “really promoted the below-market units in the name of affordable housing. But they’ve been watering down their policies since 2023,” says Robert Renger, a former senior planner for Burnaby.

Much of the public accepted politicians’ arguments that the below-market units were a trade off for allowing developers to erect taller, higher-density buildings with less green space, while waiving many community development fees, which go to such things as sewers and parks.

As an engaged citizen, Renger has been monitoring development decisions in Vancouver for years. But he’s found it especially challenging to track the city’s moves in regard to its “inclusionary” pledges.

“It’s hard to get information out of the City of Vancouver. They make many things too complicated and difficult to understand. I have trouble following a lot of it.” And his career, he said, has been in professional planning.

Still, Renger has so far counted at least 23 different rental projects the city has allowed to backtrack on their vows to offer rents 10 to 20 per cent below market rates.

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Here are some examples:

East 10th Ave. and Guelph St.

City council posted a large sidewalk development sign for an 18-storey rental highrise on this tree-lined street with eclectic duplexes and laneway houses. The project is one of more than scores of residential towers recently approved under the massive Broadway plan.

The signboard said about 20 per cent of the 172 units would be “below-market rentals.” That means they would be rented at rates roughly one-fifth lower than what the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. considers the city’s average rents.

However, this year Renger and others discovered the city’s general manager of planning, Josh White, had issued a memo amending the initial agreement with the developer of the 453-461 East 10th site. It allows the builder to rent the units for more money, at the same level as the city’s average rents.

White allowed the East 10th project’s rent rates to rise in light of the city’s new rental development relief program, which some critics are referring to as a “bailout” program for developers. The city said Friday that 20 other projects have taken advantage of this “relief” program.

Renger calculates the shift will increase the typical rental rates in these projects by about one-quarter, with a one-bedroom going, for instance, from $1,470 to $1,837 a month. The city, however, maintains that will still be “below market,” at least compared to what is charged in rental buildings completed since 2015.

900-block of West 18th and 19th Aves.

Despite Vancouver’s Cambie corridor plan stipulating 25 per cent of new rental floor area in the zone should be below-market housing, The Vancouver Sun’s Sarah Grochowski reported this week that council eased requirements for the developer of this big project, Wesgroup Properties.

In response to Wesgroup’s argument that changing real-estate market conditions have made its original 2022 proposal unprofitable, council agreed to a revised, smaller plan that removes the developer’s commitment to provide a child care centre and 25 units of below-market rentals.

520-590 West 29th Ave.

The sidewalk development sign for this property, near the King Edward SkyTrain Station, initially promised 20 per cent of its 230 units would be “below market.” That is what the B.C. government and city generally requires within 800 metres of transit-oriented areas.

But last year, Vancouver council quietly waived the demand for some of the project’s units to be below the market average. Nearby residents launched a court petition to have them restored.

4708-4742 Joyce St.

Vancouver city council decided in May that virtually all new apartment projects of six storeys and under will no longer need to comply with “inclusionary” zoning.

The developers behind at least four apartment buildings, approved because they originally offered many units to rent well below-market rates, say that will make their projects financially viable. One of them is to go up at 4708-4742 Joyce St.

So how, overall, is the city’s below-market rental housing scheme progressing?

In response to questions from Postmedia, the city said Friday that 5,340 “below-market” rental units have been approved as of this spring. About 330 units have been completed, 1,450 units are currently under construction, and 3,560 units have been approved but construction has not yet started.

In the months to come, we will try to track what happens to these promised units.

Note to readers: Since it can be difficult to monitor when city councils renege on certain promises to provide below-market rental housing, we’d appreciate readers sending instances from not only the City of Vancouver, but other municipalities. Please direct emails to dtodd@postmedia.com.