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[housingagain-l] Housing Again Bulletin No. 65
Title: Housing Again Bulletin No. 65
I apologize to readers, there was a technical glitch in sending out the October Bulletin, which has just come to my attention, which I thought I had fixed twice allready!
Catherine Nasmith
Project Manager
416 598 4144
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HOUSING AGAIN – Bulletin Number 65
October 2 , 2003
The Housing Again Bulletin, sponsored by Raising the Roof as a partner in Housing Again.
A monthly electronic bulletin highlighting what people are doing to put housing back on the public agenda in Ontario, across Canada and around the world, sponsored by Raising the Roof as part of the Housing Again partnership.
Our web sites are
Housing Again
http://www.housingagain.web.net <http://www.housingagain.web.net/> .
Raising the Roof Shared Learnings on Homelessness
http://www.sharedlearnings.org / http://www.liaison-itinerance.org
Raising the Roof
http://www.raisingtheroof.org
If you have any tips for the Bulletin please e-mail: gallop@interlog.com.
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1. Elections, Elections, Elections….
2. Community Spotlight: Fort McMurray creates a non-profit housing developer
3. Tenants Organization to Invoke the Charter to Challenge Toronto Shelter By-law
4. Interesting Web features: In-depth profile of Regent Park and a Month-long Look at the Meaning of ‘Home.’
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1. Elections, Elections Elections….
Election season is in full swing as Ontario voters go to the polls on Thursday, Newfoundland voters head to the polls on Oct. 21st and Prince Edward Island declares a majority Conservative government. Here is an updated on how housing and homelessness issues are faring on the agenda:
Ontario
Housing and homelessness activists from many different groups have been incredibly active in raising the issue. While candidates haven’t been campaigning on their social promises, the media has picked up on it and given some focus to social issues just before voters go to the polls.
All party platforms mention homelessness. The Tories are promising to introduce Shared Care Teams that would have the power to forcibly remove people from the streets. Housing advocates have spoken out against this plan saying it could drive homeless people into hiding. (see Bulletin #62 at http://www.housingagain.web.net <http://www.housingagain.web.net/> , go to ‘View Bulletin Archive’). Both the Liberals and the NDP have promised new housing -- with the Liberals estimating 20,000 units over five years and the NDP saying they’d build 32,000 units over four years.
The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) has established a extensive list of links to the literature and election toolkits generated by housing related groups see http://www.tdrc.net <http://www.tdrc.net/> . This page also has a copy of the HOME (Housing Ontario Means Everyone) coalition brochure, which gives a concise outline of the different party platforms and is available in 11 languages.
The TDRC’s Michael Shapcott wrote a piece on investing in affordable housing for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which is posted at http://www.policyalternatives.ca <http://www.policyalternatives.ca/> .
Toronto tenants have also launched a campaign, Tenant Vote 2003, backed by the city, see http://www.toronto.ca/tenantvote2003 .
Newfoundland
Unlike their cohorts across the country, the Newfoundland Conservatives are making a direct promise to improve social housing -- although they are not specific about how they will go about it. The Conservatives released a 65-page ‘blue book’ right after the election was called. Interestingly, the blue book includes affordable housing and work-spaces for artists as part of a strategy to bolster the province’s creative and cultural sector.
Social programs are also on the agenda as the Conservatives promise they will ask the federal government to restore transfers to the 1994/95 level, adjusted for inflation. And, they promise to reduce and in some cases eliminate income taxes for low-income people. The Conservatives also mention special needs assistance for seniors and the minimum wage. They don’t promise to raise the minimum wage however, saying only that they will keep it ‘on par’ with the rest of Atlantic Canada.
The Liberals hadn’t mentioned housing in their Web campaign literature at the time of writing this newsletter. They have, however, promised to raise the minimum wage (thought they didn’t specify by how much) and to increase the low-income seniors’ benefit.
At the time of writing, the NDP had only posted statements on auto insurance and energy on their site.
Prince Edward Island
In the recent PEI election, housing was hardly on the agenda. Seniors home repair was the only housing-related issue mentioned. The Conservatives, who won all but four seats in the legislature, promise to double the budget of the seniors’ home repair program to $500,000 while the Liberals, who hold the four remaining seats, gave a vague promise to ‘enhance’ home repair programs for seniors.
Low income issues fared slightly better with the Conservative government stepping up to the plate with $1 million new money for its social assistance budget aimed at increasing payments.
The Liberals promised to increase allowable earnings for social assistance recipients. They also mentioned minimum wage, but didn’t promise to raise it. Instead they promised to ‘ensure minimum wage is always at the regional average.’
The Conservatives have also promised to foster community-driven projects and double the Community Development Bureau budget to $1 million.
2. Community Spotlight: Fort McMurray creates a non-profit housing developer
When Maggie Dutton and her husband moved to Fort McMurray, they came for the same reason as most new arrivals to this northern Alberta town -- to work. An environmentalist employed by the government, Dutton’s husband makes a solid middle-class income. Yet finding decent housing and paying the rent has been a continual issue since they arrived.
“When we first got here we had trouble finding a place that would accept the fact we had a dog,” said Maggie. “We finally found a two-bedroom apartment.”
The price? $1,700. Utilities not included. Welcome to Fort McMurray, where single people with incomes of $30,000 and families that bring in $60,000 are struggling.
Due largely to jobs created by the rich oil sands nearby, the community experienced overwhelming growth in 1997. About 15,000 new people arrived that year -- an increase of about one-third of the community’s total population at the time. Average rents for apartments increased from $600 to $1,600.
The city has a Salvation Army shelter. About one-half of the people in it have jobs. Dutton says there is one bus stop in the city where riders watch while people emerge from the bush with their backpacks to catch the bus to work.
“You couldn’t stay in this town if you were on disability or unemployment insurance, “ says Maggie. “Working people are camping in the woods.”
The city decided to take matters into its own hands, even though housing is not a municipal responsibility. It put out ads calling for someone to come to Fort McMurray and spearhead a non-profit housing and development company.
Gilles Huizinga, a man with 30 years experience working with government-funded housing programs in British Columbia and Manitoba, answered the call. When he started talking to City staff, the focus was on social housing. But it was soon recognized that that the focus should be not only on social housing but on middle-income housing that, in any other community, would be readily available and affordable.
They decided to found the Wood Buffalo Housing and Development Corporation -- a non-profit development company with board members from the city’s large private businesses, social agencies, churches and small business organizations. While it is a community organization, it is a corporation, so it doesn’t have to run every decision through city council. Instead it reports to the municipality once a year.
Since 2001, with money and land from the government, it has created 175 units -- now fully occupied with rents-geared-to-income of between $300 and $900. Another 30 units are under construction, funded through the National Affordable housing project. And, two projects -- one with 130 units and one with 40 units are on the drawing boards.
Last year the corporation was nominated for a CMHC financing award after it convinced the provincial government to hand over $1 million block funding from the rent subsidy program to build rent-geared-to-income housing.
“The problem with [rent subsidies] is that when market rents rise quickly—as they do in Fort McMurray—the province pays more and more in subsidies because incomes don’t keep pace with rents, “ said Huizinga. “I believed that if the government were to transfer 140 rent subsidies to us and give us some land, we could develop affordable housing and protect the government from market-based rent hikes. It was a win-win situation.”
Not everyone is in favour of Fort McMurray’s non-profit solution. Federal housing critic Peter Goldring visited the community and says that he thinks that the non-profit approach to building housing is expensive and too precious for the kind of housing crisis that Fort McMurray is facing.
“Non-profit groups become fixated on the details in these one-off projects, and they end up needing twice as much money,” said Goldring.
He uses a metaphor to explain his point further: “Fort McMurray needs a developer that will build hundreds of Chevy Caveliers, not individual, custom-built Buicks.” Goldring added that the Wood Buffalo Housing and Development Corporation was building units that were of comparable quality to condo units down the street. This, he says, creates the expectation that low-income people can live in the same conditions for low rent as someone who pays $150,000 -- thus upsetting the marketplace. Goldring also added that although a majority of the new arrivals in Fort McMurray are single, the project plans he saw didn’t include housing for single people.
Huizinga says Wood Buffalo has a project with 29 units for single occupants currently under construction. Twenty will be long-term housing units and 10 will be available as transitional housing for people who need a place to stay while they get established enough to find proper housing in the community.
And on the roster for the far future? Huizinga says the next step for the non-profit developer is to get involved in creating affordable ownership housing -- to get people to buy-in to the community. It is looking to partner with Fort McMurray’s business community and groups of regular folks such as the one formed by Maggie Dutton -- a co-housing group that has been meeting in her back shed about creating a development with combined private and shared space.
3. Tenants’ Organization to Invoke the Charter to Challenge Toronto Shelter By-law
The Ontario Municipal Board has just started a hearing about an incredibly controversial City of Toronto shelter by-law.
The by-law places many new restrictions on where new shelters can be located in the city. Most notable is the fact that it places a moratorium on shelter beds in the two downtown wards where the majority of visibly homeless people live on the streets. It also makes it even more difficult to build shelters in the city’s outlying areas -- where currently no shelters exist.
NIMBYists (not in my backyard) and anti-homelessness activists are actually united in arguing against the by-law. But while the NIMBY folks want more restrictions, the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) says the by-law contravenes Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
ACTO, which has intervenor status at the hearing, will argue that the zoning restrictions on shelters that are proposed by the by-law are actually zoning restrictions aimed at a particular group of people. This, they say, is contrary to the equal rights protections enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is not consistent with planning principles. The hearing started on September 29th and will continue for three weeks.
4. Interesting Web features: In-depth profile of Toronto’s Regent Park and a month-long look at the meaning of ‘Home’ in Montreal.
The CBC Web site has a couple of features for folks who are interested in housing.
The first is an in-depth look at Toronto’s Regent Park, Canada’s oldest and largest community housing project. To check it out, visit: http://www.cbc.ca/webone/regentpark .
CBC Montreal is also taking a month-long look at the meaning of ‘Home’ with a combination of community forums and film screenings, TV and radio programming. For more information, visit: http://www.cbc.ca/montrealmatters .
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