HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin No. 17

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin Number 17
August 21, 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


In this bulletin
1. Where's Home? update - now on the web site
2. News from the City of Toronto
3. CMHC's Project Development Funding - conditional approvals
4. Atkinson Housing Co-operative - contact details


1. Where's Home? update - now on the web site

Where's Home? is the report from Housing Again's data collection and
analysis project, which looks at rental housing profiles from 21
municipalities in Ontario.  The report created a compelling picture of
the need for affordable housing throughout Ontario, and provides
advocates with enough detailed information to help with their work in
the province.

The web site now contains an update and analysis of new data from the
most recent (October 1999) CMHC survey of vacancy rates and average
rents.  On our home page, go to the original Where's Home? report and
find the update as "1999vacrent.pdf".

Overall in Ontario, the private rental market continues to tighten with
fewer vacant units and predictably higher average rents.  The Ontario
wide vacancy rate of 2.1% is the lowest it has been since 1990, with
1999 seeing the fourth straight year of decline.  The decline in vacancy
rates occurred in 15 of the 21 Where's Home? municipalities.

Average rents in 1999 increased from the previous year for 15 of the 21
municipalities, with 5 registering little change and only one
experiencing a decrease.  The next CMHC survey in October 2000 will
capture the second full year of partial decontrol of rents, and it is
expected to show the continued trend of persistent rent increases.  Over
the ten year period of 1989-1998, 19 of the 21 municipalities
experienced average rent increases equal to or greater than the rate of
inflation despite rent controls. 

As has been the case for several years, little private rental is being
built, and virtually no non-profit housing.  There are a few small
glimmers of hope around the province as non-profit and co-op housing
developers try to piece together projects with a variety of financing
mechanisms.  However, these worthy efforts are only a drop in the bucket
when you look at the housing supply backlog created during the last five
years.

The update contains detailed information about each municipality.  In
the next issue, we'll present more detail about a couple of areas and
about how communities are responding.  The full Where's Home? report can
also be found on the Housing Again web site.


2. News from the City of Toronto

City council will have a final meeting in October.  One of the items on
the agenda is to consider some of the "ideas" submissions from last
year's "Let's Build" proposal call.  Proposals that are likely to move
forward the fastest are those that have "free" land or some other factor
that makes them financially viable.

Funding from other levels of government must be layered on - sources
such asthe federal RRAP program and provincial rent supplements are
particularly important.  RRAP is already administered by the city, and
rent supplement will also be handled by the city once downloading is
complete.  That means that the city could provide "one stop shopping"
for proponents of transitional and affordable housing projects.

So we may be looking at the shape of future housing programs here.  But,
can they deliver enough units to make an impact on the need?  Toronto
needs at least 2,000 new units per year according to the most
conservative estimates, and that's not even counting the backlog from
more than 5 years of senior government inaction.

Toronto City Council previously approved only 250 units on city-owned
sites coming out of last November's proposal call, and even if more are
approved now, that's not very much.  Also, it has taken almost a year
since the proposal call deadline to get to this point.  It can easily be
argued that all levels of government could do a lot more and a lot
faster if they're really serious about addressing the housing crisis.

"Let's Build" will call for proposals again this fall.  Let's hope that
more units are approved more quickly this time around.

Some key committee meetings are coming up in the middle of September in
Toronto -

Advisory Committee on Homelessness and Socially Isolated Persons -
Tuesday, September 12, 1 to 4 PM, committee room 2, City Hall, 100 Queen
St.W., Toronto

Alternative Housing and Services Committee - 
Wednesday, September 13, 9 to 11:30 AM, room 314, Metro Hall, 55 John
Street, Toronto

Community Services Committee - Thursday, September 14 - a community plan
for spending the SCPI money in Toronto will be considered by the
committee at this meeting, and the report will be released publicly
immediately following the meeting.  The report is the result of a
community consultation held during the summer.

Meanwhile, at a recent meeting Toronto housing officials were talking
about SCPI (the federal program "Supporting Communities Partnership
Initiative"). Readers will recall that this e-bulletin speculated about
SCPI's future a few issues ago.  The word now is that the city is
considering pushing the funding envelope for the program by using SCPI
funds to build "transitional housing" and "affordable housing".  You
heard it here first.

On other City of Toronto activities, the Homeless Initiatives Fund will
announce the results of its summer proposal call in mid-September.  167
proposals were received and are now being reviewed by staff. 
Information about the next RFP will be sent out in early October, with a
deadline in November.

The City of Toronto has a wide range of programs aimed at preventing
homelessness - early intervention on evictions, a rent bank, support to
FMTA 's tenant survival manual, and a tenant defence fund are all part
of the solution.  This and other information about city initiatives can
be found in a periodic newsletter called "Housing in the City", found on
their web site at www.city.toronto.on.ca.


3. CMHC's Project Development Funding - conditional approvals announced

CMHC recently sent letters to many groups that applied for their PDF
funding a few months ago.  The results that we've heard about are
interesting.  In one case, the application was rejected because the
project's feasibility is dependent on rent supplement money, even though
a firm commitment has been given for that assistance.  Many projects
that did get approved have onerous conditions to deal with - for
example, some must produce firm commitment letters for their take-out
financing in order to get any CMHC money, even though they are months
away from being "ready to go".  In another case, CMHC told the group to
raise $100,000 privately before any PDF could be advanced.

Past experience with these sorts of conditions has been that they tend
to kill or severely slow down the project.  And this in a time of a
rapidly escalating housing crisis, a clear need for government action,
and some vague government promises.  What is CMHC thinking?

In contrast, the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada has a Risk
Underwriting Fund that can provide small start-up loans to new co-ops
and existing co-ops that want to expand.  Project feasibility and the
track record of the proponent is definitely examined as part of the loan
approval process, but there is no need to have other money up front. 
Bravo to CHF Canada!

Regarding CMHC's PDF program, it might be useful for readers of this
bulletin to share their experiences of what conditions CMHC imposes. 
That way, we can get the "big picture" about what's going on, and be
more prepared for future funding rounds.  Please post a note in Housing
Again Discussion, under thread CMHC PDF fund. 


4. Atkinson Housing Co-operative - contact details

In the last issue, we neglected to put in any contact information.  If
you want to get in touch with Atkinson Co-op or find out more about the
conversion of public housing projects, please contact:

Tom Clement
at the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto
416-465-8688, ext. 102
tom @coophousing.com