Municipal Housing Roadmap

Roadmap for Affordable Housing

Affordable housing retention:

The last several years have seen an acceleration in the loss of affordable market rental housing. Private capital firms seek out buildings where rents are lower than they potentially could be.

They acquire the buildings which they deem “underperforming” and, as tenants leave the firms upgrade building amenities and units to charge higher rents.

With near-zero interest rates and rising real estate values, financing for such activities was cheap. After the upgrade, the owner could re-finance the building at a higher value.

This kind of activity is made possible by rent de-controls, where rent is only regulated so long as the same tenant stays in a unit. Once a tenant vacates a unit, the landlord can seek whatever rent the market will bear. 

The key challenges to tenants maintaining their tenancy, and affordable units staying affordable, are above-guideline rent increases, eviction and low incomes. There are a number of small programs supporting tenants with these issues, but they should also be increased, as keeping a tenant in their housing is tantamount to avoiding the loss of an affordable housing unit.

Affordable housing acquisition:

Hamilton lost over 10,000 housing units with rents under $750 between 2011 and 2016. Between 2016 and 2021, it lost more than 13,000 more. This is a situation repeated to varying degrees across the country. We need sustainable and aggressive programmes to allow affordable housing providers to compete on the open market.

The Rapid Housing Initiative rolled out by the federal government in 2020 is one such programme, but the scope needs to be broadened, the timeline extended and the budget increased.

Another stream of acquisition could focus on affordable home ownership.

Affordable housing construction:

Construction alone cannot make up for all the losses of affordable rentals, but most of the resources available under the National Housing Strategy (NHS) are earmarked for the construction of affordable housing.

We must maximize this source of affordable housing.

To do that we need resources to improve  organizational capacity, accelerate and simplify the  municipal approval process, and  find and use available land.

Housing Supports

Homeless encampments are a symptom of the inadequacy of supported housing. Many people who need affordable housing also need more human service supports. This is also evident in many public housing buildings where tenants are aging into the need for supports.

A tactical roadmap should address the need for supportive housing for the following priority groups:

• People with severe mental illness, addictions and others at-risk for homelessness, or who are homeless. Demonstration projects have showed that supportive housing for high-needs clients costs less than the costs avoided in other sectors, notably policing and criminal justice, acute care services, emergency response and social services.
• Low-income Older Adults: A Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) study showed that 1 in 9 people going into Long Term Care (LTC) didn’t require that level of care. In these cases LTC is being used as affordable housing for people, often older people, who could otherwise live in the community with supports.
• People with developmental disabilities require supportive housing and there is a severe shortage. At the start of Ontario’s Task Force on Housing and Developmental Services in 2017, there were an estimated 14,000 people in need of supported housing in this population.
• Women and LGBTQ+ have a significant need for supportive housing that is safe and meets their unique needs.

It is time to break down the silos preventing change and  scale up activity in 1. Retention 2. Acquisition 3. Construction 4. Supports

Links:

• Toward a Sustainable Housing System in Hamilton: Framing the Issues: Steve Pomeroy – General Issues Committee – March 9, 2023
• Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap – General Issues Committee – April 19, 2023