HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again - Bulletin Number 13

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin Number 13
June 6, 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. Why are they building rental housing in Halifax?
2. Affordable housing initiatives in Halifax
3. Sorry for being late - and off-line
4. Correction from Julie Wolfe re: Bulletin #12
5. Visit our web site
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1. Why are they building rental housing in Halifax?

>From the perspective of many Ontario cities where people are truly desperate
for any new rental accommodation, its refreshing - and strange - to learn
that in Halifax rental construction is on the rise.

In 1998, 367 units were built in Halifax alone - double the number built in
Toronto that year. Nearly twice that--600 units--are forecast for this year,
and still 500 more forecast in 2001-a lot of new rental for a small city.
Many Haligonians must see renting an apartment as nothing out of the
ordinary. In one complex seventy-two units were snapped up in a month.

Tom Selby, a C.M.H.C. Senior Market Analyst in Halifax has a variety of
explanations for the numbers. "Homes are so affordable here that you don't
need to start off in a condo," he said. "But, if you want to downsize when
the kids are gone, then going to rental avoids the obligations of
condominium living."

He also thinks that Halifax developers are different than those in Ontario
cities. "For developers, here, a condo is very attractive to them, but not
as easy a sell. More active developers are in it for the long haul, building
by building, where they stay on and establish a relationship with their
tenants." Many apartment builders are recent arrivals, immigrants
allowed in
as entrepreneurs wanting to invest in their new country. They are not the
same high flyers and huge construction companies you find in Toronto.

Tom  Levesque, based in Halifax at the Canadian Center for Public Private
Partnerships which helps not-for-profit groups lever private funding, points
out the importance of cheap land with the lowest development charges in the
country, allowing rental units to be profitable.

Halifax city planner Paul Morgan explains that despite the recent rental
unit building,  "when Nova Scotia lifted rent controls years ago there
was an
over-supply of rental construction, and consequently very little rent
increase, but things are changing. Where I live downtown there is 0%
availability now, and my rent has gone up two years in a row. Students and
empty nesters make it a high demand area."

The off-shore oil and gas boom contributes to high demand. Substantial
numbers of well-paid workers are moving into Halifax, livening up the market
in a generally depressed province.

"A few years ago," Morgan continues, "some condo builders got really burned.
Recently when a crown corporation got approval to build a condo there
were a
lot of calls. But still-even many of the condo units are being rented out."

But this good news about the strength of the rental market is tempered by
price: the new apartments being built are high end, and not affordable
housing. Tom Selby says that new two bedroom apartments get from $1200 to
$1400 a month, and a three bedroom, $1800 to $1900. The new rental
construction in Halifax would serve for the condo- buying group in
Ontario. In
fact, working people in Halifax are having  more trouble
finding good housing, and just like Toronto, different advocacy groups are
trying to piece together constructive solutions.

2. Affordable housing initiatives in Halifax

If you look deeper into housing business in Halifax, it seems all too
familiar, with waves of Ontario austerity down on the Atlantic.

Nova Scotia has just announced substantial social assistance cuts. A single
young person on social assistance, before the reduction, received only $225
a month for housing, not enough to get a decent place. Nova Scotia has the
questionable honour of having the third highest rate of  'in core-need
renters"  in the country, that is, those paying over 30% of their income on
housing, and/or live in overcrowded or inappropriate housing.

But there are still undercurrents of hope, and constructive action. Grant
Wanzel, Professor of Architecture at Dalhousie University, President of the
Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia and former President of the
Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (C.H.R.A.), works behind the
statistics both studying what is really going on in people's lives and
trying to find solutions. Like many in the business he is angry.

"For the most part," he says, "we've exported our homelessness problem."
Unemployed Nova Scotians from rural areas, and the north mainland and Cape
Breton-where 250 steel-workers were just laid off-only pass through Halifax
on their way west. The government has been artful in making it so difficult
for people that they have to go someplace else."
He also points out that in the city core, the rental vacancy rate is 0%. "The
cost of the average single family house has gone from $115,000 to $160,000
because new homes are bigger. It's the same in rental downtown."

A hope-inspiring project just under way in Halifax shows what can be done,
maybe even in Ontario, if the will of dedicated advocates can be combined
with reasonable understanding from all levels of government.

Wanzel has kept his head above the mire of frustration and despair, focusing
a huge effort on one city block in Halifax's North End. "It's the worst area
of the city for drugs and prostitution," he says. "It has most of the social
and low income housing, now abandoned by federal agencies. We are trying to
provide alternative housing to people who can't buy elsewhere. This is the
first in a long time. There are many people in public housing who are ready
to graduate, but can't find anything they can afford. When our houses get
built, they will be cheaper than public housing!

"I know people who want to return to this neighbourhood- their
neighbourhood. They will provide resistance to the bad elements.

"The danger is becoming a `white-painter' (another term for
gentrification)). It's very difficult to walk the narrow line, especially
with little government money. There is no magic in the provision of decent
housing. It's the same problem across the country of the government bailing
out."

"Historically," says Wanzel, "this was a black neighbourhood. Now it's about
50\50 and also an immigrant area. We want to create a respectable working
class neighbourhood."

Construction on this $7million housing project started in March after the
development corporation Wanzel helped form  was given half a city block and
bought the other half. . "We started construction in March and found
contaminated land a few feet under," Wanzel laughed, woefully looking at a
costly delay to clean up the land at a time when construction costs are
rising quickly

The first stage involves 19 self-contained units for low income, hard to
house singles, in a supervised building with a housing support centre. The
second stage includes 40 units of two-three bedroom, two floor stacked
condos, which Wanzel hopes will sell for under $70,000 to $80,000. The third
stage will be twelve free hold houses, both attached and semis, to be sold
for less than $90,000. Lastly a 20,000 square foot multi-purpose building
for the black community that Wanzel hopes will bolster and help restore the
dignity and self-respect of a once proud neighbourhood.

Finding the money

Cobbling together funding for the North End project has been a work of art,
possible only for someone who knows the business inside out. Wanzel is
chair of the executive of Creighton Gerrish Development Association,
made up
of four organizations: Affordable Housing of Nova Scotia; Metro Non-profit
Housing Society (recently privatized); Harbour City Homes, a non-profit
society also formerly of the city; and the Black Community Work Group, an
umbrella organisation in the black community. One member of the
executive of
each of these four groups makes up the executive of Creighton that meets
weekly.

"If you're going to develop something, you have to be professional about
 it." Wanzel explains. The process can be looked after by the four
organizations but at the top it is tight and business-like. Quick decision
making is possible because the board is empowered to act. On the other hand,
weekly meetings mean I'm not forced to go out on a limb to make a delicate
decision on my own."

"Private developers advised us to work with the best, ask for the best and
not cut corners," Wanzel explains, so they pulled together "a blue chip'
team of consultants which they offered to pay full fees, "with the
expectation of 150% commitment,"  which they have received. Wanzel himself
is a professional architect, paid by the university, so Dalhousie pays him,
both for his hundreds of hours of work annually in addition to a full
sabbatical year. He points out that this is not volunteer work. It is not
free.

Just to think through an idea, let alone a plan, costs money. The Centre for
Public-Private Partnerships through the CMHC, provided interest free loans
up to $75,000 for development costs-'soft costs' such as designs and legal
advice -repayable if the project is completed.

Despite his criticism of provincial withdrawal from the provision of new
housing, Wanzel is full of praise for the ready provincial assistance in "a
quiet but major role" for this project. The province provided over half a
million dollars in an interest free loan and working capital to buy two
thirds of  the property, dependent on the city contributing the remaining
two properties on the block. The province has also agreed to provide rent
supplements to all the units.

The private lender, the League Savings and Mortgage, an arm of the Credit
Union system, agreed to a premium rate as well as agreeing to provide extra
services like financial advice and preparatory assistance to prospective
home buyers.

It sounds like a Chinese puzzle, but the message is clear for people in
Ontario: without municipal-provincial co-operation, and federal help on the
side, affordable housing is almost impossible to create.

3. Sorry for being late - and off-line

Our server, Web Networks, was attacked last week by a hacker from Indonesia,
and Web Network users had trouble with their sites and their e-mail for most
of last week. It meant that it was impossible to log on our site.

We're pleased to report the problem is now under control. Web Networks is
back in business, and so are we.

4. Correction from Julie Wolfe re: Bulletin #12

Hi Catherine, 
I was dismayed reading yesterday's bulletin and wish to submit an
addition.  The Houselink fourplex for homeless families is a joint
initiative with our Homeless Families Outreach Program here at Community
Resources Consultants of Toronto (CRCT).  The tenants are all referred
and followed for long term support by our workers. Funding for the three
positions working with homeless families was obtained through the
Homeless Initiative fund and the program was up and running in Oct. of
'99 and the
house was filled as soon as it was ready in Jan'00. 

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.  

Julie Wolfe, Prog.Mgr., CRCT,
482-4103, jwolfe@crct.org

5. Visit our web site

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
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can post it to the site by clicking on "post".   - end -