HOUSINGAGAIN-L Housing Again Bulletin No. 33

[Catherine Nasmith <cnasmith@sympatico.ca>]

HOUSING AGAIN - Bulletin Number 33
May 16, 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. If
you have any tips for the Bulletin please e-mail: gallop@interlog.com.

********
1. Ontario counters housing crisis with working group recommendations.
2. Provincial budget disappoints Ontario housing activists.
3. Houselink combines SCPI and provincial health money to buy four buildings.
4. Toronto votes to move ahead with 'revolutionary' housing experiment.
5. Homeless teens on the rise in Hamilton and Toronto shelters full.
6. Still waiting for the parade.

*********
1. New rental housing - problems and solutions.

Six years after Ontario's Harris government cut back social housing
projects and lifted rent control as part of a plan to encourage private
investment in affordable housing, the Ontario Alternative Budget Working
Group has reported a 74,000-unit deficit of rental housing units. The
group, a part of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says that
rent increases are
running at double the rate of inflation while tenant incomes have
remained stagnant.

Recognizing that its policies have fallen short of its intended goal,
the provincial government struck the Housing Supply Working Group, a
governmnet-industry working group to encourage development from the
private sector.

Key recommendations from its interim report include:

- changes to the tax system and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
(CMHC) lending practices;
 
- incentives like the U.S. Low Income Housing Tax Credit and shelter
subsidy programs to promote affordability in a private market;
 
- powers to municipalities to give favourable tax treatment to rental
properties and to form partnerships with private developers;

- a review of legislation like the Development Charges Act, Education
Development Charges and the Planning Act;
 
- encouragement to municipalities to adopt zoning favourable to
additional apartments in houses (legislation repealed by the government
when it first assumed office) and equalize tax between rental and owned housing.
 

The report has been called too slow and a 'boondoggle' by critics. NDP
housing critic Rosario Marchese argued it was not worth throwing more
money at developers who were offering new units for nothing less than
$1400 a month. Marchese is pushing for capital grants for non-profit and
co-operative housing, and a two-year rent freeze.

Noreen Dunphy, manager public affairs for the Ontario Non-Profit Housing
Association (ONPHA), a part-time member of the working group, says that
while the recommendations may be seen as a series of private sector
'give-aways,' they may hold some promise if governments commit to more
work and research.

"We are interested in changes to the tax system and we would like to see
more private rental housing built," she said. "But we think cities need
a good balance of both government programs and private sector
involvement. I don't think it has to be 'either-or.'"

Dunphy said the non-profit sector is involved in researching tax credits
like the U.S. Low Income Housing Tax Credit and is interested in opening
the possibility of partnerships between the private sector and
non-profit groups. "If the federal government stops at these
recommendations from the province, then we will be disappointed," she
said. "But if this is the beginning of more work and research, then we
support it."

For the Housing Supply Working Group Interim Report:

http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/inthnews/releases/20010508-1e.asp.

For the Ontario Alternative Budget Working group report:

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/oab.html

**************
2. Provincial budget disappoints Ontario housing activists.

A budget that makes 'cheap' concessions and no mention of the pending
federal affordable housing program has disappointed Ontario housing activists.

The one reference to rental housing in the budget is the implementation
of the province's Housing Supply Working Group recommendation to extend
the 1998 concession allowing municipalities to cut property taxes for
new rental apartments, from eight years to 35 years.

While affordable housing advocates welcome this move, they say it is a
cheap concession for the province to make because it is not a financial
contribution but merely permission for the municipalities to cut their
own taxes, after the province has downloaded many responsibilities, like
social housing, on to them.

Noreen Dunphy says the real disappointment is that the province didn't
put any money into the Provincial Sales Tax rebate program, started in
1999 for some new rental buildings. The $4 million in the PST rebate
program was used up by the end of 2000. ONPHA is pushing for the
province to keep the program.

"We are seriously disappointed the Ontario government did not put money
back into this program just when new projects coming out of the federal
homelessness initiative (SCPI) and various municipal initiatives, like
Toronto's 'Let's Build' are ready to apply," said Dunphy. "Non-profit
providers know the proposed federal capital grant program may not be
enough, so combining this with other subsidies delivered through the tax
system in a targeted program for low and moderate incomes could be
important."Dunphy also noted the housing market generated $50 million
more in land transfer tax revenue than the province had budgeted. 

Another big disappointment is that there was no mention of the upcoming
affordable housing proposal expected from the federal government.
Housing activists anticipate the federal program will not provide
sufficient money to create new housing priced low enough to reach
low-income households and the federal government will likely call on the
provinces to contribute capital grants or rent supplements.

Michael Shapcott, researcher at the University of Toronto's Centre for
Urban and Community Studies points out that the operating budget for the
province' s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has been cut in
half over the past five years.

For the budget speech and papers:

http://www.gov.on.ca/FIN/bud01e/mirror.htm.

To read responses to the budget visit HousingAgain Alerts at:

http://alerts.web.net/index.cfm?app=housing.

For the Ontario Alternative Budget:

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/oab.html

*********

3. Houselink combines SCPI and provincial money to buy four buildings.

Houselink, one of Toronto's largest providers of permanent supportive
housing for people with mental illness, has taken a different approach
to the housing money provided to mental health organizations by
Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. This funding is part of
a $67.6 million commitment from the Ontario government for immediate and
long-term housing needs across the province as well as $4.8 million for
community mental health providers to expand their services.

While the province's plan was for organizations to use the money to top
up rents for units leased from landlords in the community, Houselink has
instead combined the money with funds from the federal SCPI program to
buy four buildings - a four-plex, a 30-unit walkup, a duplex, and a
commercial space that, pending approvals, will be converted to 26
loft-type apartments

The need for security for tenants, greater control of building standards
and proximity between tenants in order to run programs efficiently are
the three main reasons Houselink decided to take over buildings rather
than work with landlords in the community.
"We do have two small buildings where we've negotiated leases with
private landlords and we have spent an amazing amount of time and money
dealing with them. The landlords just don't want to hear our concerns,"
said David Dufoe, manager of properties for Houselink, "It is difficult
to work with people whose only motivation is profit." Dufoe said rental
subsidies work well when organizations use them with municipally or
non-profit owned buildings.

This issue may also hinge on the vacancy rate in a particular community.
Last month  Bulletin reported that landlords were happy to enter into
agreements with Thunder Bay's Alpha Court Non-Profit Inc. But the
vacancy rate in Thunder Bay is at 5.5 per cent compared to Toronto's
vacancy rate of about 0.6 per cent. Dufoe said he has heard from at
least four different colleagues that higher vacancy rates make it much
more possible for organizations like his to work with private landlords
in the community.

********

4. Toronto votes to move ahead with 'revolutionary' housing experiment.

Passed 16-8, minutes before the end of an eight-day sitting, Toronto
city council is pushing ahead on a plan to erect a neighbourhood of
pre-fabricated houses for a community of people who have been living in
a 'tent city' on a piece of industrial lakeshore land.

Toronto city council will now issue a Request For Proposal process for
proponents to come forward with bids for pre-fabricated houses for the
new community.

For more information see the following HousingAgain Alerts:

http://alerts.web.net/show.cfm?app=housing&id=2734.

http://alerts.web.net/show.cfm?app=housing&id=2762.

********

5. Homeless teens on rise in Hamilton and Toronto shelters full.

Statistics from the shelter system in Hamilton and studies in Toronto
indicate that the homelessness situation is dire in the Greater Toronto Area.

Hamilton's Wesley Centre, an emergency shelter that was not designed to
deal with street kids, has noted that teens are the fastest growing
segment of its increasing population. The centre has seen the number of
kids accessing its services more than double in less than a year. The
city's Notre Dame House for youth has seen an 84 per cent increase in
its numbers from two years ago, while a breakfast program at Living
Rock, another youth-centred agency, has seen its numbers jump from 10
youth accessing the program when it first started last January to 35
youth currently using the program.

Meanwhile in Toronto, councillor Joe Mihevic's office called around to
shelters for 10 days in March to see how many empty beds they had. The
average occupancy of the shelters was 97.3 per cent, ranging from a high
of 100-per-cent occupancy in shelters for women and children, to 94.3
per cent for youth shelters. Mr. Mihevc said that the survey shows that,
from the point of view of homeless people looking for a place to sleep,
the shelters are full.

This bleak picture is further confirmed by the `Vital Signs' report
released recently by the Toronto Community Foundation. The report
concludes that rents are rising faster than tenant incomes and there is
a sharp rise in the number and size of families using homeless shelters
in the Greater Toronto Area, even as the amount of housing grows
downtown. For more information see the following HousingAgain alert:

http://alerts.web.net/show.cfm?app=housing&id=2735.

********

6. Still waiting for the parade

Activists still waiting for the federal government to release details of
its program to create affordable rental housing are sounding the alarm
that the program might not help low and moderate income Canadians and
Aboriginal people.

The National Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, made up of labour,
non-profit, social justice and native rights organizations, wrote a
letter to the minister, Alfonso Gagliano, outlining its concern that
early drafts of the proposal suggest the program will benefit those
paying mid-to high-end market rents rather than those most in need. MP
Libby Davies raised the coalition's concern during question period in
the house. For more information see the following Housing Again Alerts: 

http://alerts.web.net/show.cfm?app=housing&id=2733

HOUSING AGAIN e-bulletin is published by the Housing Again Partnership.
If you have news and views about housing, please visit us at
www.housingagain.web.net where there are great opportunities to share
your news and opinions with hundreds of others who are interested in
housing issues.

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE: The Housing Again e-bulletin is distributed by
e-mail free of charge every two weeks. To subscribe or unsubscribe, log
onto the main page at www.housingagain.web.net. You'll see the
Bulletin's subscribe/unsubscribe box at the bottom right hand of the page.

Please circulate this e-bulletin to your friends and colleagues.
- end -