HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin No. 25

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin Number 25, January 15, 2001

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 issue:
1. D-day in Waterloo
2. D-day in Muskoka
3. Toronto’s somewhat hospitable shelter
4. Research support needed for HRDC project 
5. Check out our Alerts!

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1. D-day in Waterloo

The infamous D-Day --for Downloading according to Bill 128 -- arrived
January 1. The sky didn’t fall, but the civic housing business is a
lively place to be these days. 

Waterloo Region, though much smaller than the Greater Toronto Area, 
surprisingly resembles Toronto. The vacancy rate is less than 1%. The
area sees large numbers of recent immigrants, many with large families,
and has a broad based economic structure. Unlike Toronto, though,
university students influence housing availability and costs because
they probably make up about 10% of the entire population. Students can
cram more bodies in per square inch than any family would, and so, they
can afford to pay more for the same house that would suit a single family.

Because Waterloo has been in the housing business for years, it has the
expertise to handle the transfer of housing administration. On January
1, 2500 Ontario Housing Corporation units were transferred to the Region
and OHC staff moved over to work for it, instantly bringing the
municipality’s supportive housing stock up to 8000 units. City council
here started staffing for the changes two years ago, but the last minute
legislation left the  competent, willing administrators stymied and
frustrated as they have waited for crucial regulations to come down from
the Ministry.

Sybil Frenette, Director of Housing and Community Services of the Region
of Waterloo says, confidently, `The take-over is complicated, but we can
rise to the occasion. The worst nightmare is the unknowns, the future.
What if rising service costs and mortgage rates force property tax
increases that the community will reject? We can manage as is, but if we
are asked to increase the housing or improve it, just how can we do it?
There would be serious political trade-offs."

In Toronto, one experienced civil servant is more sanguine. "We all feel
overwhelmed, even though we talked and talked for so long that it’s hard
to imagine that it’s happening. It’s sort of like the experience of
someone dying even if you know it’s coming. The chaos is real."

Frenette thinks the bigger problem is housing need. "We can’t seem to
get the message across to the provincial and federal governments about
the increasing demands for housing,’ she says. "We can’t get it across
that charitable groups can’t do it all."

Waterloo has taken a number of steps to encourage building affordable
units. The rent supplement program has been moved out of the OHC
portfolio into the Department of Planning, Housing and Culture in the
hope that putting rent supplements units in the right place will
stimulate new low cost housing. 

The Region’s Housing Partnership Programme uses money in its  Social
Housing Reserve Fund (council has provided $ 1 million) to provide
$10,000 per unit to organisations prepared to build affordable rental
housing. Four such projects run by not-for-profit corporations are
underway. The Homeless Initiative waives levies for supportive and rent
supplement housing. Ironically, the Harris administration’s Planning Act
forbids giving benefits to private sector builders even though builders
say they need more than rent supplements to make affordable housing
profitable for them. But no grants or cost reductions are allowed.

In many ways, Waterloo is better off than Toronto. The OHC stock is in
mostly single units form, not the high rise, high density, developments
with costly necessities like elevators, and the community is based on
historic Mennonite foundations which have created a strong public social 
conscience.

Municipalities have been paying the housing bills since ’98. The biggest
downloading controversy remains the big picture. In the midst of every
municipal budget is the huge maw of housing needs and costs, both of
which are beyond the control of local government. Since 1998 when
municipalities were made financially responsible for social housing,
costs have gone down because of falling mortgage rates, and service
costs, so provincial bills to municipalities have decreased, but
everyone fears an economic downswing that will lead to increased costs.
Higher interest rates will increase the financing costs for
municipalities. Perhaps the biggest hidden cost for local taxpayers is
long-term maintenance in co-op and non-profit housing projects which
have been consistently underfunded by the province for years. And there
are virtually no reserves for public housing, which is the oldest stock
and most in need of long-term maintenance.


And most worrisome, the only way municipalities can raise the money to
pay for these extra costs is by raising property taxes -- a perfect way
for any local administration to run into trouble.

2. D-day in Muskoka
 
On D-day Muskoka inherited 11 relatively well maintained public housing
buildings, in three towns, adding 222 units to 350 non-profit units
managed by the Muskoka Housing Corporation. The three staff of the Local
Housing Authority have been transferred to the corporation without much
difficulty. 

Ian Turnbull of the new Muskoka Housing Corporation is confident that
municipalities can manage housing better than the more removed
provincial government. But Turnbull thinks the bigger issue is the
inadequate amount of housing: "At the end of the day, we may find we
have many people on couches," he says. "How many people cannot access
adequate shelter? It’s completely uncharted and that’s very unsettling."
 

The municipality will be studying the effects of the affordability gap.
" We are going to see what’s needed. No other level of government has
done that here," Turnbull says.  

Although Muskoka is incorporating housing into the Community Services
Department along with Ontario Works, long term care facilities, and
homelessness problems, the Planning Department will be working with
Community Services to determine what can be done to stimulate building
of new affordable housing. It hopes early identification of needs will
give municipal counsellors options.

"What keeps us exhausted is all the downloading, and having to design
new programmes, like childcare for example. There’s so much new to
do—both challenges and opportunities for municipalities," he says.

3. Toronto’s somewhat hospitable shelter

The desperate need for housing in Toronto is being spot-lighted by the
mud-slinging between Mayor Mel Lastman’s office and the provincial
government over the future of the old Princess Margaret Hospital. The
province has loudly offered to ‘give’ it to Toronto for affordable
housing, or to combat homelessness in some way, but because the Mayor
didn’t accept it immediately, the city has been accused of wanting to
sell it off and build luxury housing.

Though the building is owned by the Ministry of Government Services, the
city pays for 120 people not provided for elsewhere-- women and
couples--to shelter there from the winter nights. Overcrowding forces
couples to share rooms with other couples. The compartmentalised nature
of the building and its dependence on the adjacent Wellesley Hospital
site for power and other services makes it the most expensive shelter to
operate in town - twice the rate of others. 

Originally the province wanted the city to warehouse 500 people in the
Princess Margaret site. The city refused because of issues of density
and the cost of all the renovations required for short term use. (There
is a commitment to close the building, and this is its last winter as a
shelter.) The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and others have been
pressuring the city to increase capacity to 200 from 120. On January 11
a city committee refused the request to add more beds. 

Cathy Crowe, the renowned street nurse and articulate advocate for the
homeless, says simply, "Where else can they go?" 

Administrators at city hall admit no other shelter is available, and
nothing that could be opened quickly to accommodate them. In any case,
shelters close up in April when the weather is supposed to be
sufficiently clement for people to sleep outside.

Sean Goetz-Gadon in Mayor Lastman’s office, fears that in the long term
the Princess Margaret structure may be a white elephant like the site at
Black Creek and Eglinton Avenue that the province offered to the city.
The cost of cleaning the contamination at that site would cost between
$500,000 to $1 million before anything could be built.

Goetz-Gadon points out, "There’s not much history of converting
hospitals to residential use."

The city is bound to carry out a ‘due diligence’ study before it makes
any decision. The former Wellesley Hospital, ordered closed by the
province and scheduled for complete moth-balling in April, is adjacent
to Princess Margaret, and it’s board is considering a mixed use
development with some health care components.  Perhaps using the site
combined with the old Princess Margaret, the city and the Wellesley
Corporation could create a mixed income housing project - although
contrary to some reports, there is no intention of creating luxury
housing there.

4. Research support needed for HRDC project

A note received from researcher Mary Eberle <m_eberle@sympatico.ca> 

"HRDC has initiated a study entitled  "Lessons Learned on Homelessness".
There is a growing need to assess and analyze the efficiency of policies
and programs in Canada and abroad (i.e. what works, what does not work,
and why?).  The 'lessons learned' study synthesizes what evaluations in
Canada and other countries have taught us about addressing homelessness.
It will summarize what we know about the effectiveness of policy
initiatives, programs, services and funding mechanisms.

We have located few Canadian evaluations of homelessness interventions.
It would be helpful if you know of any such studies if you could either
send me (Mary Eberle) a copy (electronically preferred) or let me know
how to obtain. Thanks for your assistance." 

5. Check out our Alerts section!

Check out the 'Alerts' section of HousingAgain for fresh news up-dated
daily and mportant 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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