*record scratch*
*freeze frame*
Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up playing accordion at city hall…
I’m Peter Waldkirch, a Vancouver-based lawyer and housing advocate. Even though I’m from Vancouver, almost no one I know from high school or my undergrad still lives in the City of Vancouver.
Why? Because Vancouver has a severe shortage of housing. There’s a lot about our housing system that needs fixing, but one thing is clear: we have been underbuilding housing since the 1970s and, today, have a massive accumulated shortage. There’s just not enough housing to go around, and we’ve all seen what that means: high rents, high prices, long commutes as people are pushed out to the suburbs, people doubling-up in too-small homes, people living with roommates when they’d rather be on their own or stuck in substandard basement suites…we’re in a housing crisis that is crushing this city and affects every facet of life here.
The good news is: this is a solvable crisis. We used to build a lot more housing, and we can do it again. My parents were immigrants and came to Vancouver in the late 1960s, when we were building what is now the backbone of our affordable housing stock in the West End, South Granville, and elsewhere. We stopped building that housing (especially rental housing) in the 1970s, and now we’re suffering the consequences.
That’s why I decided to get involved. In 2018 I started watching Vancouver City Council…a lot. I started live-tweeting council meetings because I knew what was happening at Council mattered, and that not enough people were paying attention. I wanted to do my small part to help shed some light on it. Speaking to someone who got their start in local advocacy through my livetweeting is always among my proudest accomplishments.
I also started to get involved with other YIMBY (“Yes In My Back Yard”) advocates, especially Abundant Housing Vancouver, an all-volunteer, grassroots pro-housing advocacy group. In 2022, I became a director of AHV. We do our best to organize support for housing, shift the discussion towards real solutions, and get out the message: housing is good!
Vancouver’s future is bright, but only if we embrace change. We’ve seen what the status quo has got us: a housing crisis, long commutes, entire generations priced out. It’s time we embrace the walkable, transit- and active-transportation friendly, complete communities that makes room for everyone.
You can tell that, for me, solving the housing shortage is key to building a more equitable and sustainable Vancouver. Housing policy is climate policy: underbuilding housing in the core of a city and pushing people out to the suburbs is the cornerstone of car culture.
In 2025 I finished a Master of Laws degree from UBC on housing law and policy: “Values and propriety in zoning : contextualizing British Columbia’s housing reforms”. You can read the thesis here. You can learn more about my views through my op-eds and media appearances. I’m most active on BlueSky, and my other social media and contact info is here.
Besides housing, I’m also just a big ol’ nerd. I’m into movies and novels (especially sci-fi and weird horror), Star Trek (sorry DS9 fans, TNG will always be #1 in my heart) and hanging out with my wife and our rescue pup, Bobo. Before law I studied music and today I play the accordion to keep my creative spark alive.
Don’t hesitate to reach out–meeting people who care about our community is one of the reasons I got involved. And don’t forget to sign up to AHV’s email list–we host events and a monthly happy hour on the second Thursday of every month!