“It is not news to anyone that we have a housing crisis on our hands:” task force
At its June 13 meeting, Clearview council heard a request from housing advocate and real estate agent Marg Scheben-Edey, chairperson of South Georgian Bay regional housing task force, asking for participation and support in its mission to spark action and cooperation.
“It is not news to anyone that we have a housing crisis on our hands. We’ve become almost blind to the word home and instead we’ve become addicted to property speculation and growing real estate wealth. Housing is kind of like a competitive sport where only those with the higher income and assets win. This really is not good news for our communities and future sustainability,” said Scheben-Edey in her opening remarks.
She said that the task force – including Clearview councillors Phyllis Dineen and Connie Leishman, Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness member Patricia Macin, Wasaga Beach Minister and food bank volunteer, Wendy Moore, Sharon McCormick (formerly from the Blue Mountain Attainable Housing Corporation), Sarah Grace Bebenek of the Ontario Health Team, Luke Allen from Empower Simcoe, along with Bruce Enright and Krista Elley, of Meaford – decided to take a regional approach to addressing the issue. They are dedicated to increasing the amount of affordable housing in communities, meaning no more than 30 per cent of gross median household income is spent on shelter costs, including rent or mortgage payments, realty taxes and utilities.
Scheben-Edey shared a 48-page report that is the result of the task force’s research and consultation to date.
It outlines the housing landscaping, with more homes but fewer people living in each one, compared to decades past when things like REITS, short-term accommodation rentals, condominiums, and house flipping weren’t the norm.
“Housing has changed from being a home to being a commodity as the wealth gap and the inequities in housing continue to grow. We simply cannot continue to absorb the population growth and demographic changes unless we unblock densification and start working collectively to change, as the world has changed,” said Scheben- Edey.
“When people don’t have affordable housing regardless of their income level, they don’t have enough dollars left at the end of the month to eat well; there’s not enough disposable income to shop local; we can’t maintain or build our labour force; we start to lose businesses. All of this is already happening. This really is a problem for everyone in the community and not just those who lack adequate housing.”
The task force has determined the greatest and most pressing need today is for affordable rental housing. In South Georgian Bay, a middle-income renter family should not be spending more than $995 a month on shelter costs.
“But we know that is simply impossible in our area without intervention or significant changes in policy direction,” said Scheben-Edey.
“If we look at South Georgian Bay, we’ve lost untold numbers of affordable housing units to gentrification, vacancy de-control, short-term rental accommodations, property sales, and demolitions. Rooming houses have been converted to boutique hotels, tenants have been displaced when their homes are sold and we’ve seen demolition of affordable units in favour of supersized homes.”
She said the creation of affordable units hasn’t kept up so the focus needs to be on preserving existing affordable housing units with municipal tools such as rental replacement bylaws.
The task force is urging municipalities to play a role in ensuring the right supply of housing is built by working with developers and not for profit entities.
In Canada lands zoned for single family housing equals 70 per cent and the task force encourages municipalities to embrace a global trend toward densification, planning for affordable housing, offer incentives, and be educated.
The task force is recommending municipalities address the need for affordable housing as a critical priority in their strategic planning, develop an affordable housing master plan, and strike a local affordable housing committee. Collingwood, Town of the Blue Mountains and Meaford already have committees and the hope is that the local committees could participate in a regional committee to share ideas and resources.
“After all, it is urgent and if we don’t act now, when?,” concluded Scheben- Edey.
Leishman said that she would be bringing a report back to the next meeting.
At the June 27 meeting, in response to a motion from Leishman, council directed staff to bring back a report in the beginning of the new term of Council (2022-2026), before the end of March 2023, to discuss establishing a new Affordable Housing Committee as a Council committee.
In introducing the report, Leishman observed, “We can’t wait on action by the County. Clearview needs to move first or we won’t get anywhere with affordable housing.”
Leishman urged council to keep the money currently in reserve to address the problem and encourage the next council to allocate funds in the budget to continue building the reserve.
– With files from Bonnie MacPherson
