Strategy in works to tackle dwindling affordable housing in York Region

YorkRegion.com
May 2, 2017
Heidi Riedner

Developers may have to step up to the plate through a combination of “carrot and stick” initiatives to help solve affordable housing issues in York Region.

“We can’t solve this on our own,” the Region of York’s chief planner, Valerie Shuttleworth, said in a presentation to Georgina council last week providing a high-level summary of the region’s work to date and possible solutions being explored to tackle the issue.

Roughly 14,000 people are on the region’s subsidized housing wait list and even more find themselves priced out of a soaring housing market that continues to increase over an average $1.1 million asking price in York Region last year.

“Affordable” means a maximum $468,000 threshold asking price that a family earning just over $116,000 a year could purchase, according to the region’s numbers.

Only 16 per cent of new homes constructed last year, however, met the threshold for the lowest income bracket, with only five per cent being sold in Georgina.

A total 6,800 government-assisted housing units and a 1.5 per cent rental vacancy rate, or half of what is considered a healthy rate, didn’t get much help from only 101 rental units built by the private sector in 2016.

Recent public/private partnerships, 2,600 subsidized units available via the region’s Housing York Inc. and 638 specific to Georgina have made headway, but Shuttleworth and the region’s director of strategies and partnerships branch of Community and Health Services, Lisa Gonsalves, said it is not enough to address issues surrounding supply and affordability.

In addition to federal and provincial funding and public/private partnerships, the province’s recently announced 16-point housing plan may provide local governments the tools needed to bump affordable housing numbers for residents.

Key among them is giving municipalities the option to implement inclusionary zoning, which requires affordable housing to be included in new residential developments.

Georgina’s director of development services said inclusionary zoning is a “major step forward from the province to tell basically developers you must build a certain level of housing for a certain income range.”

Only 16 per cent of new homes constructed last year, however, met the threshold for the lowest income bracket, with only five per cent being sold in Georgina.

A total 6,800 government-assisted housing units and a 1.5 per cent rental vacancy rate, or half of what is considered a healthy rate, didn’t get much help from only 101 rental units built by the private sector in 2016.

Recent public/private partnerships, 2,600 subsidized units available via the region’s Housing York Inc. and 638 specific to Georgina have made headway, but Shuttleworth and the region’s director of strategies and partnerships branch of Community and Health Services, Lisa Gonsalves, said it is not enough to address issues surrounding supply and affordability.

In addition to federal and provincial funding and public/private partnerships, the province’s recently announced 16-point housing plan may provide local governments the tools needed to bump affordable housing numbers for residents.

Key among them is giving municipalities the option to implement inclusionary zoning, which requires affordable housing to be included in new residential developments.

Georgina’s director of development services said inclusionary zoning is a “major step forward from the province to tell basically developers you must build a certain level of housing for a certain income range.”