The Vancouver Warning: Privacy Invasion, Bureaucracy, and No Rent Relief

Measure A supporters want San Diego to follow the example of cities that have tried vacancy taxes.

So let’s look at one of the biggest examples: Vancouver.

The lesson is clear.

Don’t do it.

Privacy Invasion

To enforce its vacancy tax, Vancouver officials looked at ways to use government records, tax information, driver’s license data, utility bills, insurance records, cell phone bills, and other personal information to determine whether homes were occupied.

That is what happens when government decides it needs to track whether people are living in their own homes.

A vacancy tax does not just tax homes.

It creates a system for government to investigate occupancy.

That is exactly the kind of privacy problem Measure A would bring to San Diego.

Everyone Gets Pulled Into the System

The biggest problem with these taxes is that they do not only affect the people who may actually owe the tax.

They affect everyone who has to prove they do not owe it.

In Vancouver and British Columbia, even people who were exempt still had to file declarations or risk being taxed.

That means regular homeowners can get caught in the paperwork.

Renters can get dragged into audits.

Landlords can be forced to gather tenant documents.

And ordinary residents can end up fighting City Hall over a tax they should never have owed.

That is not a housing solution.

That is bureaucracy.

Real People Got Hurt

The Vancouver examples are not theoretical.

A cancer patient who lived in his home was hit with a vacancy tax after being hospitalized and missing the paperwork deadline.

A senior stranded overseas during COVID was penalized after struggling with the declaration process.

A landlord with occupied rental units had to collect extensive documents from tenants to prove the units were actually occupied.

A young family renting a home was forced to move after the landlord decided to sell rather than deal with the tax fight.

These are the kinds of real-life problems politicians ignore when they sell vacancy taxes as simple and easy.

They are not simple.

They are not easy.

And when the bureaucracy makes a mistake, residents pay the price.

No Rent Relief

Supporters claim vacancy taxes will help housing affordability.

But Vancouver’s experience does not support that promise.

Vancouver’s vacancy tax brought privacy problems and did not lower rents.

That should matter to San Diego voters.

Measure A is being sold as housing policy. But if the result is more bureaucracy, more audits, more privacy invasion, and no real rent relief, then what is the point?

San Diego Should Not Repeat Vancouver’s Mistake

San Diego has a housing crisis.

But copying a failed idea from another city will not fix it.

Measure A would create a new $10,000 tax, force people to prove exemptions, let City Hall write the rules later, and give government broad power to investigate how homes are used.

Vancouver is not a model.

It is a warning.

Don’t bring Vancouver’s vacancy tax mistakes to San Diego.

Vote No on Measure A.

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