[homeles_ot-l] How can Ottawa tackle affordable housing and homelessness? (Ottawa Citizen)

[Mike Bulthuis]

The article below is available online, and is expected to be published in
tomorrow’s Ottawa Citizen. With the municipal campaign underway (and
imminent federal campaign), let’s keep the discussion going! (FYI: we’ll
have our election resources on the Alliance site early next week).



How can Ottawa tackle affordable housing and homelessness? (Carys Mills,
Ottawa Citizen)


<http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/how-can-ottawa-tackle-affordable-h
ousing-and-homelessness>
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/how-can-ottawa-tackle-affordable-ho
using-and-homelessness

More than 10,000 Ottawa households waited for affordable housing last year,
facing an average of almost five years on a waiting list.

The wait, a 3.8-per-cent increase since 2012, was outlined this week by the
Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association’s report on rent-geared-to-income
spots. Those statistics have added to calls for the next city council to
take further steps to boost affordable housing and tackle homelessness
municipally, as well as advocating for more money federally and
provincially.

Jim Watson’s first campaign promise, announced last weekend, is a good
start, says Michael Shapcott, director of housing and innovation at the
Wellesley Institute, a Toronto-based non-partisan think tank on urban
issues. If re-elected as mayor next month, Watson says he’ll add $2 million
annually to a housing and homelessness fund and aim to reduce
emergency-shelter use by 15 per cent in five years.

But a grander vision could accomplish more, Shapcott says.

“There’s not one solution that’s going to meet the range of housing
needs. What the mayor needs to do is enlist a whole series of experts,”
Shapcott says, adding that includes planning and financial gurus.

“Ottawa has all the forms of expertise that are necessary. What’s really
been lacking and continues to lack is the visionary leader who says: ‘Let’
s pull everything together and set some bold objectives and let’s go for
it.’ “

Big picture

A year ago, city council approved a 10-year housing and homelessness plan
with three main, huge goals: make sure everyone has a home, get people
support and bring together the more than 130 organizations involved.

“The city is doing a lot of the right things,” says Ray Sullivan,
executive director of the non-profit housing organization Centretown
Citizens Ottawa Corporation. “What they’re looking at is transforming the
system so instead of spending a lot of resources on supports for people who
are homeless, moving those resources to actually housing those people.”

There’s been progress - since 2010, for example, there’s been an
18-per-cent decrease in the number of families needing emergency shelter  -
but Sullivan says it’s important to remember people living in shelters are
“the tip of an iceberg.”

A broader approach is needed to look at affordable housing, Sullivan says,
suggesting one simple way would be to add an “affordable housing
implications” section to reports going to city council’s committees.
“What’s the implication on housing affordability if we rezone this
building to 25 storeys? If we locate a transit stop over here? If we rezone
this farm as residential? Those are the kinds of things that citywide have a
huge impact on housing affordability,” he says.

Set realistic goals

Each year, Ottawa aims for one-quarter of new homes to be “affordable.”
Last year, the city determined that was a home costing up to $247,924. But
only 10.1 per cent of new homes were actually within that range.

“We’ve never come close to meeting (the goal),” says Ottawa Alliance to
End Homelessness chair Mike Bulthuis. “It hasn’t played out to be
realistic. So maybe the question is, what are the barriers to that
happening? How do we either make it realistic or what would a realistic
target be?”

Planning chair Coun. Peter Hume says there would be backlash if the city
tried to reduce its targets. “The advocacy community would never allow us
to change that goal,” Hume says. “Even though we could never meet it.”

But Bulthuis says talking about the target could start a productive
conversation between the city, developers and community services about how
to build more affordable housing together.

Bring developers to the table

When developers want to build extra-dense apartments or communities, a
section in Ontario’s Planning Act lets municipalities negotiate community
benefits in exchange.

Shapcott calls “Section 37″ one of the most important tools cities have
now to get affordable housing within new developments. The flaw, he says, is
it’s rarely used for housing instead of amenities like parks. “Section 37
everywhere in Ontario, including Ottawa, has been distinctly underwhelming
in terms of its ability to deliver affordable housing,” Shapcott says.

One example of the idea working well, according to Shapcott, is a Toronto
waterfront condo that will have 80 affordable rental units for artists, in
partnership with a not-for-profit. In Ottawa, $800,000 has been secured for
the creation of affordable housing units through Section 37 agreements since
2012. But no units have been built so far, John Moser, general manager of
planning and growth management, said in an email.

Shapcott says the idea could be even pushed further. “In the United States,
they’ve moved beyond the kind of ‘Let’s-make-a-deal’ mentality of
Section 37 and they’ve said there are fixed rules,” he says, referring to
“inclusionary zoning,” which sets mandatory percentages of below-market
priced homes for developers.

Shapcott says he approached Watson years ago, when the mayor was minister of
municipal affairs, suggesting Ontario should adopt such zoning.
“Unfortunately he chose not to when he was minister and now as mayor he’s
suffering,” Shapcott says, adding Watson that could publicly push the
province to change the legislation now.

More money

The extra $2 million per year Watson is promising would add to the city’s
existing $14-million “housing and homelessness program,”  one of many
budgets going towards housing and homelessness initiatives.

Extra funding - focused on more rent supplements and housing allowances,
community supports to prevent homelessness and repairing existing housing
units - would come from “uploads” the province directs to the city towards
social services previously handled by Queen’s Park.

Bulthuis says an extra $2 million next year is a good start. But he
questioned whether the increase could grow each year with uploads, which are
expected to increase by almost $5 million annually until 2018. Sullivan
raised the same question. “It strikes me that there’s an opportunity to
expand beyond that $2 million,” Sullivan says.

Smaller steps

Having a plan spanning a decade is good for long-term goals, Bulthuis says,
but he’d like to see some more focus on short-term goals that regular
citizens can wrap their minds around.

“Let’s not just suddenly get to 2023 and finally figure out whether we’ve
made it or not,” he says, adding short-term goals can give communities
something to rally around, pointing to a 100-day challenge in Salt Lake City
to house 100 homeless veterans.

“It kind of became this civic-building project,” Bulthuis says.

Joanne Lowe, executive director of the Youth Services Bureau, says she’d
like the city to adopt a youth-specific policy within its housing-first
framework.

George Dark, an urban designer and partner at Urban Strategies, says people
often think housing problems are only for governments to solve.

“It’s not. This is for everybody to solve. I think fostering as many
creative partnerships as you can with all kinds of private sector, not just
the development community, is a big part of the solution,” Dark says,
pointing to a Habitat for Humanity in Toronto partnering with condo
developers.

In Ottawa, Habitat for Humanity hasn’t moved its model to highrises and
doesn’t receive government funding, says local chief executive officer
Alexis Ashworth. The group works with low-income families living in
inadequate housing, to build homes that are paid for based on income.

Ashworth says she’s worried, partially based Watson’s pledge, that there
isn’t much support for affordable home ownership.

“I’m a bit concerned to see that (Watson’s pledge is) mostly geared
towards rental and homelessness, which is obviously a valid cause,”
Ashworth says. “But it’s not taking people out of social housing and
allowing them to become home owners and truly breaking that cycle of
poverty.”

 <mailto:cmills at ottawacitizen.com> cmills at ottawacitizen.com







Mike Bulthuis

Executive Director



Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa

171 George Street, Ottawa ON K1N 5W5

613-241-1573, ext. 314



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