HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin # 6

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN // e-bulletin
February 1, 2000 // Number 6

A twice-monthly electronic bulletin published on what people are doing
to Put Housing Back on the Public Agenda in Ontario, across Canada and
around the world. Our web site is http://www.housingagain.web.net

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In this bulletin:

1 -- Selling off public housing units
2 -- Surprise! Ontario does subsidize housing
3 -- Pre-budget hearings in Ontario
4 -- Visit our site

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1 -- Selling Off Public Housing
Ontario Housing Minister Tony Clement landed like the fox in the chicken
coop of subsidized housing with his announcement last week that the
province intends to sell off all free standing and semi-detached public
housing units. With so many people under-housed, or homeless, the
decision to dispose of 5800 units province-wide has serious
repercussions. The fox has chosen to sell only the best housing stock, a
step back from the original Conservative promise to divest the province
of all public housing.

Mac Carson, Chair of the Ontario Housing Corporation says "No decision
has been made yet. The Minister has asked the Board to look at the
issue. We have four to six weeks to study it. Now there is a group of
housing authority managers, and staff studying this matter."

The fate of residents of the units is not clear. The Minister
promises tenants first right to purchase and, according to Carson,
"There was a time when we had requests from people to buy them,"
but provision of alternative living arrangements is uncertain. Few, if any
tenants will be able to afford to buy. With unacceptably long public housing
waiting lists (twenty five years for a three-bedroom unit in the Toronto
area), the idea of
disposing of 5800 residences seems illogical, at best.

Mac Carson holds to the parameters issued by the Housing Minister that
"the stock is not to be reduced; tenants not adversely affected; and we
must  consider how it is to be sold off.

"It's one thing if it's empty," Carson continued, "and there are vacancies
in scattered units in the
north, but it's another thing if they are occupied. It's a very
complicated and protracted problem."

The units for sale are the best public housing we have. Liberal Housing
critic David Caplan pointed out to the Minster of Housing that in some
places, like Midland and Penetanguishine, single and semi-detached
housing units are the only units available from the Ontario Housing
Corporation. In
Simcoe county, over 60% of the 303 units are single or semi-detached.
And, Caplan adds, 2,200 people are waiting for social housing, with 1%
vacancy rate in rental accommodation.

Ann Fitzpatrick of the Toronto Children's Aid says, "They really want
out because of public relations, but they won't get anything else for
less. They want to add rent subsidies but the landlords aren't biting."
With such low vacancy rates, landlords need no help with rentals,
particularly government supplements which would freeze levels for
several years. The government will sell the dwellings, claiming they are
costly to maintain, before devolving all housing responsibilities down
to the municipalities. The money from the sale will go into provincial
revenues, not into housing and not into municipal coffers. As
Fitzpatrick says, "the cities are dealing with housing from beginning to
end: homeless, eviction, building, housing."

These detached and semi-detached units, in fact, are economical,
according to David Hulchanski of the University of Toronto, and Raising
the Roof "It's cheaper to manage a single dwelling than a complicated
high rise with elevators and other big scale maintenance."  They are
also cheaper than rent supplemented units which at the moment, are
often left over from the era of the condo glut, when landlords were glad
to get any rent at all.

And it stretches the imagination to believe there will not be a loss of
affordable housing stock.


2-- Ontario's Hidden Housing Subsidies

The Ontario provincial might say that housing doesn't need subsidies,
and that the free market will respond to the shortage of affordable
housing -- but just in case that doesn't work, it's established a
subsidy program.

Since 1996, the Ontario government has assisted first time buyers of new
homes by forgiving some of the land transfer tax. So if the first house
you ever buy is newly built, you get a rebate on part of the land
transfer tax, which, now, can amount to $2,000.

Combined with a 5% down payment, CMHC mortgages, and generally low
interest rates this program enables relatively low income earners to
leave the rental market for the stability of owning some of the smaller
units built in the $100,000 range. But the subsidy isn't restricted in
terms of the buyer's income or the price of the unit.

During the last three years, $70 million has gone to 53,000 house
buyers, for an average refund of $1,272. That $20 million a year could
make a huge difference to the homeless and the poorly housed. Last year
the Golden Report recommended that Toronto alone needs 7,500 to 9,500
new affordable rental units built annually. This year the provincial
expectation, as stated on the Ministry of Housing's web site, is that
450 new rental units will be built across the province.

Yet the subsidy is there for those who can afford to buy a home.

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3. Pre-budget hearings

Ontario pre-budget public hearings begin February 1, an opportunity for
affordable housing advocates to advise the government. The following
lists times and places of speakers of interest to housing advocates.

TORONTO,
Committee Room 151
Legislative Assembly

TORONTO Thurs., Feb 3
1:30 p.m., Putting Housing Back on the Public Agenda
        Alan Redway,  co-chair; former  Housing Minister for Mulroney
government
2:00 p.m. Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
        Kira Heinrich and David Hulchanski
3:00 p.m. Co-op Housing Federation of Canada
        Michael Shapcott
5:30 p.m. Ontario Non Profit Housing Association
        Robin Campbell

TORONTO Fri.. Feb. 4
11:30 a.m. Ontario Homebuilders Association
        Dick Brouwer and Wayne Dempsey
2:00 p.m. Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation
        Bruce Porter and John Fraser

KENORA , Mon. Feb 7
        Best Western Lakeside Inn
11:00 a.m.  Committee on Homeless, City of Kenora
        Sue Swaigen
1:30  North Western Independent Living Services
         Kristen Miclash

BROCKVILLE, Wed., Feb  9
        Royal Brockville Hotel

NIAGARA FALLS, Tues. Feb.15
        Renaissance Fallsview Hotel
2:30 p.m. Canadian Co-operative Association of Ontario
        Cathy Lang

CHATHAM, Monday Feb. 14
      Best Western Wheels Inn
3:00 p.m. Alliance of Canadian Second Stage Housing Programme, Ontario
caucus
        Ruth Hyatt

TORONTO Wed., Feb. 16
        Committee Room 228
        Legislative Assembly
3:00 Ontario Real Estate Association
        James Flood

4.- Visit our Site: Fresh news, right away!

Check out the "Alerts" section of the Housing Again web site for fresh
news posted right away. The section is updated daily and contains lots
of important and interesting information. For instance, within hours of
the federal government's major announcement on December 17th of a
national housing strategy, detailed responses were posted from several
housing experts and advocacy groups. The selling off of public housing
stock appeared as a release before it made it to the papers. Point your
browser to http://www.housingagain.web.net then click on "alerts". Make
sure to check regularly for new information. If you have a news release
or other news, you can post it to the site by clicking on "post".

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