Jack Hanna
The housing crisis in Centretown is only getting worse.
“I am shocked at the degree to which people are being priced out of living downtown,’’ MPP Joel Harden said at a workshop presented by the Centretown Community Association on April 27.
The generally accepted maximum which people must spend on housing is 30 percent of their monthly income, workshop organizer Mary Huang said. For someone working full time at minimum wage, this is just $728 a month for rent, she pointed out, barely enough for a single room. One-bedroom apartments in Centretown start at $1,800 a month.
For those living on government programs, the situation is even bleaker. A single senior, receiving the usual benefits, would have $485 for rent. A single person receiving provincial disability support has a shelter allowance of $497.
“If someone is low-income, we know that spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent means they are living unaffordably, without enough for food security, clothing or the children’s well-being,” said City Councillor Catherine McKenney.
There is a waiting list of more than five years to get into rent-geared-to-income housing in Ottawa. A year ago, the most recent period for which statistics are available, more than 12,000 people in Ottawa were on the waiting list for affordable housing. That’s enough families to fill half of all affordable-housing units in the city. “It is unconscionable,” said McKenney. “We are a wealthy city. Yet we are leaving people behind. And we are doing that with our eyes open.”
Some new affordable housing is in the works. The city’s affordable-housing agency, Ottawa Community Housing, is building Rochester Village at Gladstone and Rochester with 140 units and has plans for Gladstone Village in Little Italy with up to 1,100 units. A significant portion of both developments could be affordable.
The city has methods available to partially address affordable housing that are not yet implemented, for example, a tax on investment properties left vacant, or “inclusionary zoning” that requires developers to include affordable units in every development. (The Centretown Community Association has advocated for both.)
However, McKenney says such measures can only make a marginal difference. Governments need to step up to build affordable housing and help the most disadvantaged rent it. “Without deep affordability, we are not going to move people out of homelessness,” they said.
McKenney says the city should increase its budget for rent subsidies from $3 to $8 million. This would move 800 to 1,300 households a year out of shelters – homelessness – and into an apartment home. The cost to Ottawa homeowners would average under one dollar per month.
McKenney says the best thing citizens can do to get more affordable housing is speak up. “Always push whoever is representing you politically. Be louder.”