HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin Number 9

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin #9
March 14, 2000

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. Federal budget: Wait and maybe there will be some new housing
2. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow! Affordable housing in Peterborough
3.Affordable housing policy symposium: Guess who's coming to dinner?
4. Visit our site

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1. Federal budget: Wait and maybe there will be some new housing

Words, words, words, and hardly even any promises. The millennium's
first federal budget dealt with housing - what the United Nations calls
"a national emergency" in Canada - in two sentences on page 16 of the 24
page document.

"Affordable housing and green infrastructure are also essential elements
of modern society. They are critical to meeting the twenty-first century
needs for municipalities."

No new affordable housing will be funded by the federal government this
year. Canada still has no national housing strategy, which makes us
unique among developed countries.

At best, the feds could only offer a faint "maybe" to new housing in a
possible municipal infrastructure program to be cost-shared among the
federal, provincial and municipal governments. If the municipal,
provincial and federal governments agree on an infrastructure program,
and if that program includes housing, then at best there may be up to $1
billion over six years for affordable housing. That's only about half of
what Canada should be spending every single year. 

The One Percent Solution, endorsed by number of national and regional
groups, calls on Ottawa to spend an estimated $2 billion annually for
new housing and services for the homeless. The Federation of Canadian
Municipalities had called on the federal government to immediately fund
70,000 affordable housing units annually as part of a comprehensive
national housing program, but the federal budget sets no target for new
units. 

It wasn't so long ago (the early 1980s) when the federal government
funded as many as 30,000 affordable units annually. From 1984 to 1993,
the feds cut $2 billion from national housing spending. Then, all
funding for new housing starts was cancelled. 

Before the budget was announced, the federal government had projected a
surplus growing to almost $100 billion in the next five years. 

In the year 2000 federal budget, Finance Minister Paul Martin gave tax
cuts to rich and middle-income Canadians. The benefits will flow right
away. Low and moderate-income Canadians, in desperate need for more
affordable housing, have been told to wait.

In the budget, the federal government re-announced its homelessness
strategy, which calls for spending of $753 million over three years
mainly to improve temporary shelters and services for the homeless. The
strategy was first announced last December.

Check out the Alerts section of the Housing Again website for analysis
on the federal budget, plus response to the December homelessness
announcement. Set your browser at: http://www.housingagain.web.net.


2.  Mighty oaks from little acorns grow: 
affordable housing initiatives in Peterborough

 The city of Peterborough is called the province's 'inaffordability
centre' in the Ontario Non Profit Housing report entitled "Where's
Home?" It has the highest percentage of tenant households at risk of
homelessness of any community in Ontario.

It is no wonder that more and more people in Peterborough are either
homeless or precariously housed. Despite low real estate costs, land is
still too expensive for groups to build low cost housing.  

The contradictions continue. If you can afford $600 per month for rent,
you can afford to be a homeowner in Peterborough. So, why the housing
crisis? The area is economically depressed. The homeless and poorly
housed are mainly restricted to the unemployed, unlike larger costlier
places such as London or Ottawa where the working poor can be homeless
as well as the unemployed.

John Martyn, retired schoolteacher, of the Peterborough Community
Housing Development Corporation has been involved in non-profit housing
since 1985. "My roots as a Christian call for social justice, " Martyn
said in a phone interview. "They call for charity and justice. Housing
is a fundamental human rights issue."

Armed with such strong conviction, he and two others used their own
houses as collateral to buy and restore a house, which was opened in
November of 1999 as affordable housing units. Two more houses were ready
on April 1, and over the next year ten houses will be available for
fourteen tenants, some of them families. 

>From being a mini-organisation unable to secure a bank loan, the
Peterborough group incorporated two years ago and will have over $1
million in assets by the end of the year.

The progress of Martyn's group has been gradual and careful. Their
adventures show that small groups can make a difference and that there
is much to learn from them. That's why London City Councillor Susan
Eagle invited Martyn to speak to London's public forum last month on how
to use the city's $1 million of unspent housing money. 

"They need to create an inventory of municipal, provincial and
federally-owned properties that can be accessed,"said Martyn. "Buying
can be on a long term basis, or you hope, they will be given."

Then, if you follow Martyn's example, you find cheap or free houses. "A
church in Peterborough gave us a house," Martyn explained, " because
they needed a parking lot. We moved it to a good site." That is not
always a straightforward journey. One free three-story house offered to
Martyn was too high to move. It would have cost $30,000 to have the
utilities move all the wires above the streets to let the house roll
buy. They didn't have those problems building pyramids. 

There is, however, more than one way to move house. In another case,
Martyn and company "took off the roof for $7,500 so we didn't have to
pay $30,000 for clearance."

Last year, they used a grant from the Human Resources and Development
Canada (HRDC) to identify the major causes of homelessness and housing
insecurity across all demographic groups. Despite Peterborough's high
vacancy rates, rents were still rising. New housing is being built,
stimulating the economy and creating jobs, but it is mainly for healthy
seniors. "For commercial interests that sort of housing makes sense, but
we still have a fragile employment situation for many people so they are
badly housed," Martyn said. 

The study also found terrible rural housing conditions, without
transportation or even a phone. "People living there often couldn't
afford first and last month deposits to enable them to move into town.
We found many of these people are abused women and children,
intentionally isolated by their abusers," said Martyn.

The problems may vary from place to place, but "the bottom line is that
federal and provincial governments must be involved, even if not
financially but through better regulations," the Peterborough activist
insists. "We have to develop a system of small loans, for the people
banks don't want to see. That's in the Golden Report too." Martyn hopes
that Peterborough's unused housing funds, which must be a few hundred
thousand dollars, will go into a loan fund like the Community Trust Fund
in the U.S. 

"Some people need a short-term loan to pay for heat or rent, but can't
get it from banks. It's not ill-will from the private sector," Martyn
said. "They just want their interests looked after. It's clear to me we
need political leadership to make private-public accord happen. I want
to see the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association as leader in a
public-private partnership. It's the only way to make it work."

In Peterborough, Martyn's non-profit housing is good business for
everyone. It pays taxes, provides work, employs trades people. And, old
houses get a face lift. "We get lots of compliments from neighbours over
our renovations.

"The main message is that it is possible to work very closely with city
council without much money from tax bases. They can provide in kind.
It's just a matter of imagination. We have access to Wentworth
Penitentiary, for example. Three men come in daily and work so hard that
we're ahead of plan. They're great workers doing a good job."

So with progressive government regulation and co-operation from all
levels, and good will from the private and non-profit businesses,
affordable housing shouldn't be a problem. Well, it sounds easy. 


3. The affordable housing policy symposium: Guess who's coming to dinner?

A star roster of affordable housing experts and social planners will be
in Ottawa March 24 for the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association's
Affordable Housing Policy Symposium. It is still not clear which, if
any, government representatives will show up. Without senior government
representation, the conference could be another missed opportunity, and
evasion of the serious issue of public housing policy. Once again, the
sound of one hand clapping. See Events


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
important and interesting information. 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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