How do people talk about new housing? Leveraging large language models and city council records to analyze housing supply narratives in Vancouver, Canada
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Vancouver faces strong housing supply pressure and a provincial target of 28,900 net new homes between October 2023 and September 2028, while recent provincial legislation is reshaping local approval processes — including limits on public hearings for policy-conforming rezonings. Rezoning applications leave behind a rich public record: online feedback, staff referral reports, public hearing transcripts, and Council decisions.
This project uses large language models to read that record at scale, asking how residents, staff, and Council members actually talk about new housing, and how those narratives shift as the approval process itself changes.
Presented with Julia Harten (University of British Columbia).