“Imagine you dream to say I’m only going to try to cobble half a million dollars – which is really is a herculean thing to do in many ways, because half a million dollars would have bought you two entire homes a generation ago – and what we’re finding is in all of Metro Vancouver, half a million dollars barely buys two bedrooms. That is a challenge, thinking about the sustainability of the region, in terms of where do we find place for people to raise families? A lot of people are joking about how they’re raising their children in their closets.”

Kershaw says that while many people compromise by purchasing homes in the suburbs, it can mean up to $200,000 in extra commuting costs over a 25-year period if they work in Vancouver.

“Here’s the reality: you can go to Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge and Langley and Delta, and you’re still going to be finding very little that costs under 500,000 and provides you more than two bedrooms, and on top of that, you’re going to be commuting hours more a week than people used to do.

Kershaw, whose work has focused on intergenerational equity, says governments need to tax housing wealth and start treating residences as “homes first, investments second.”

“The sirens need to be blaring on fire trucks and police cars and in hospital wards, so realize that housing isn’t unaffordable in few neighbourhoods in Point Grey, Vancouver: it’s a provincial problem.”