[homeles_ot-l] Toronto's proposed 10-year housing strategy

[Lynne Browne]

FYI, with thanks to Michael Shapcott at The Wellesley Institute

 

Lynne Browne 
Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness 
147 Besserer Street, Ottawa ON  K1N 6A7 
613-241-7913 x 205, lbrowne at ysb.on.ca 
www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca 

   _____  

From: Michael Shapcott [mailto:Michael at wellesleyinstitute.com] 
Sent: November 7, 2007 8:38 AM
To: nhhn-can at povnet.org; hhno-on at povnet.org
Subject: [nhhn-can] Wellesley Institute backgrounder: Toronto's proposed
10-year housing strategy

 

The City of Toronto released a draft 10-year housing strategy called Housing
Opportunities Toronto (HOT) on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2007. The plan is to
create 209,000 new and renovated affordable homes over the next decade. It
is a major step up from the dismal city affordable housing performance in
recent years, which has seen less than 1,000 new homes annually. The
proposed plan goes out for consultation to build political and public
support over the next few months.

 

In summary: It’s great news that the City of Toronto is seriously back in
the affordable housing business and that Mayor David Miller has put his
signature on the proposed plan. There’s still a lot of work on the critical
details to be done during the consultation process and the city needs to
ante up its contribution, while working with others to secure the needed
funds and programs from senior levels of government. But the debate has
shifted from whether Toronto needs to do something to what Toronto needs to
do. Now, Mayor Miller, members of council, municipal officials, the people
directly affected by the housing crisis, housing and service providers,
advocates, business organizations, faith communities, community
organizations and the rest of Toronto should roll up our collective
shirtsleeves and get to work on delivering the desperately needed new homes.

 

The HOT plan is a smart and sensible investment in people and in our city
that will not only deliver much-needed affordable homes, but it will also
help create strong and healthy neighbourhoods; plus jobs, tax revenues and
other economic benefits. The costs of “doing nothing” in the face of
Toronto’s devastating affordable housing crisis are enormous; and the
benefits of investments outweigh the costs. A comprehensive housing strategy
for Toronto is a practical and effective response to massive housing
insecurity.

 

This Wellesley Institute backgrounder provides some initial details on (1)
what’s in the plan, (2) the key critical challenges, and (3) what needs to
be done.

 

1. What’s in the plan

 

The plan sets out a rationale for a new affordable housing strategy based on
four key “powers”: Healthy people, economic prosperity, environmental
sustainability and livable neighbourhoods. It notes the patchwork of federal
and provincial financial support for affordable homes, including the expiry
of the federal homelessness strategy and the federal housing rehabilitation
program at the end of fiscal 2008, along with the locked-in withdrawal of
federal social housing dollars (which will mean a loss to Toronto of $62
million by 2018 and a total of $170 million by 2029).

 

Mayor David Miller’s signature is at the very beginning of this document –
an important sign that there is growing political will at Toronto City Hall
to seriously tackle our devastating affordable housing crisis. Despite the
high-profile Golden task force of 1999, housing and homelessness issues have
not figured strongly on the Toronto municipal agenda in the past decade.
Mayor Miller is sending a clear signal that affordable housing will be a
priority.

 

The plan sets out six specific targets over a ten-year period, including an
annual costing:

 

(1) Help homeless and vulnerable people find and keep homes – 13,000
households over 10 years, $46 million annually.

 

(2) Assist people to afford rents through rent supplements – 60,000
households over 10 years, $120 million annually.

 

(3) Preserve and fix social and rental housing and keep it affordable –
115,000 households over 10 years, $89 million annually.

 

(4) Create and renew mixed, inclusive, sustainable neighbourhoods – 10,000
households over 10 years, $100 million annually.

 

(5) Create new affordable rental housing – 11,000 households over 10 years,
$110 million annually.

 

(6) Help people to buy and stay in their own homes – 10,000 households over
10 years, $4 million annually.

 

Over the ten years, 209,000 households would be assisted at an annual cost
of $469 million, according to the city figures. This target represents
approximately the number of Toronto households in “core housing need” as
defined by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

 

The Toronto plan will become part of a re-invigorated national effort by the
mayor’s of Canada’s biggest cities (the Big City Mayor’s Caucus of the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities), which will launch the new phase of
its housing advocacy efforts in Vancouver in late January – just before
provincial and territorial housing ministers meet for a national housing
summit in the first week of February.

 

A strong and detailed plan in Toronto, coupled with effective advocacy by
major municipalities across the country, will increase the pressure for a
comprehensive and fully-funded national housing strategy.

 

If a lot that is in the latest Toronto plan sounds familiar, it is! Key
parts of the framework mirror recommendations from the Wellesley Institute’s
Blueprint to End Homelessness in Toronto, which was released one year ago
and has drawn widespread support. The HOT plan acknowledges the Wellesley
Blueprint.

 

2. Key critical challenges

 

The latest Toronto housing plan is much more streamlined than the last major
municipal housing action plan, the Mayor’s Homelessness Action Task Force of
1999. With fewer overall recommendations, it doesn’t deal in detail with the
spectrum of housing needs in Toronto. Much more work will need to be done in
key areas.

 

Here are some of the main challenges:

 

(1) Virtually no city dollars to seed the plan. Toronto’s 2008 capital
budget (which is being debated during November, 2007) and the city’s 2008
operating budget (which will be debated shortly) contain almost no new
dollars for housing and homelessness. The only major municipal spending set
out in the plan is to replenish the city’s capital revolving fund to build
new affordable homes – but that likely won’t come until 2009. It’s fair and
appropriate that senior levels of government ante up a major portion of the
costs of the housing plan, but the city needs to seed the pot with its own
dollars to show its commitment and to challenge the province and the federal
government to pay their fair share. During the current budget debate, and
during the consultation process, the city needs to be told to put some of
its money on the table.

 

(2) Household targets are tight. The targets, as set out above, are a big
improvement over the city’s record in recent years, but they fall short of
the current need – not to mention the half a million new residents that are
expected in Toronto over the next 25 years. Almost one-third of the housing
help will be delivered through rent supplements, and more than half will go
to renovate existing rundown social and private homes. Both are important
needs and deserve support. But that leaves only 24,000 – or less than
one-quarter of the total in the plan – for desperately needed new supply.
During the consultation process, the targets should be carefully reviewed
and will likely need to be increased.

 

(3) Not enough detail in critical areas. Supportive housing providers have
not only had to deal with an erosion of housing funding in the past two
decades, but also a shift to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and,
as the ministry prepares to download significant responsibilities to Local
Health Integration Networks, a further fracturing in funding
responsibilities. Aboriginal housing providers have also faced downloading
and cost-cutting, along with stalling and evasion by the federal and
provincial governments over the past two decades. The Toronto plan needs to
take into account the treaty and historical relationships of Aboriginal
people. One key tool to create new affordable homes is inclusive zoning and
planning – which is receives only slight reference in the proposed HOT plan.
During the consultation process, there will need to be lots of careful work
to fill out the details of the plan.

 

(4) Definition of “affordable” needs to be sharpened. Toronto relies on
average rents in the private market and average ownership costs in the
private market to set the benchmark for affordability. But average private
rents / ownership costs are not affordable, they simply reflect what the
landlords / developers are able to charge, and what people who are able to
access the markets are able to pay. Toronto has more than 175,000 very
low-income households – with annual incomes below $20,000. During the
consultation process, a proper definition of “affordable” that is based on
real household incomes needs to be adopted.

 

(5) Toronto’s housing plan needs to be integrated into an overall poverty
reduction strategy. Toronto City Council declared homelessness a “national
disaster” in 1998. The homelessness disaster and underlying affordable
housing crisis is part of a broader problem of deep and persistent poverty
in neighbourhoods throughout Toronto. Throughout Toronto’s neighbourhoods,
there is a direct connection between poverty, housing insecurity, higher
rates of illness and premature death and a range of social and economic
concerns. During the consultation process, specific links from the housing
plan to a broader poverty reduction strategy need to be addressed.

 

(6) The racial and gender dimensions of housing insecurity need to be
specifically addressed. Toronto is proud to call itself one of the most
multi-cultural cities in the world, yet poverty and housing insecurity are
increasing becoming racialized – with certain groups bearing the heaviest
burden. Women also bear a heavier burden of poverty and housing insecurity.
The “intersection” of the two (women of colour) adds an additional
dimension. The consultation process needs to take specific account of the
racial and gender dimensions of housing insecurity and ensure that
racialized groups and women are fully engaged in the solutions.

 

(7) A municipal champion is needed. Mayor David Miller has personally signed
the HOT plan. That’s a great start. The city has an affordable housing
committee, and it has an affordable housing office. But it’s not clear
whether these alone will have enough clout to ramp up the delivery of the
new homes. As of 2006, the meagre amount of new affordable homes were
scattered in less than half of the city’s 44 wards. Some local politicians
have behaved like feudal lords to block new homes from their neighbourhoods.
This has, in turn, encouraged a small but vocal minority of NIMBY (Not In My
Back Yard) groups that oppose all new developments, often with hateful and
personal slurs. Mayor Miller needs to take leadership on the housing issue
and Toronto urgently needs a housing champion. During the consultation
process, the barriers to new development in a number of Toronto wards needs
to be acknowledged and answered.

 

3. What needs to be done

 

The HOT plan is a long overdue and eagerly awaited commitment by the City of
Toronto to become engaged in housing solutions. The strategy should be
welcomed and Toronto politicians and municipal officials should be
encouraged to demonstrate their commitment by putting some cash on the table
– and starting to ramp up work in all areas of the proposed plan.

 

The consultation process offers an excellent forum to build political and
public support

 

The HOT plan sets out for consultation questions:

 

(1) Has the framework set the right goals and targets?

 

(2) What should Toronto’s affordable housing priorities be for the next 10
years?

 

(3) Are there ideas, innovations, programs or policies from other places
that should be considered?

 

(4) What role can you or your organization play in providing affordable
housing?

 

Some key questions for the consultation process are set out above. The city
needs to work with groups and individuals throughout Toronto to quickly to
develop and implement specific answers.

 

The Wellesley Institute will continue to support the development of a
comprehensive, practical and effective affordable housing strategy for
Toronto. Stay tuned for details and developments in the coming months.

 

- Michael Shapcott       

 

* * *
 
Michael Shapcott, Senior Fellow
The Wellesley Institute
45 Charles Street East, #101
Toronto, ON., Canada M4Y 1S2
Tel. - 416-972-1010, x231
Mobile - 416-605-8316
Fax - 416-921-7228
www.wellesleyinstitute.com


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