Corp Comm Connects


Mississauga’s affordable housing strategy excludes city’s most vulnerable: critics

MississuagaNews.com
Oct. 17, 2017
Rachael Williams

The city’s attempt to tackle housing affordability ignores those most in need of assistance.

So say critics of the city’s affordable housing strategy, titled “Making Room for the Middle”. The final report was presented during a lengthy planning and development committee meeting on Oct. 16, with a slew of deputants eager to comment on the report.

Over a year in the making, the strategy targets middle-income households earning between 55,000 and $100,000 per year. It recommends 40 actions to encourage the creation of affordable housing, including developer incentives, inclusionary zoning, encouraging more secondary units and preserving purpose-built rental.

But for some, these recommendations do not go far enough in targeting the city’s most vulnerable populations.

“The strategy that you have now is a start … but people making less than $55,000 have affordable housing issues too and those are the people with the most acute need,” said Madeleine Burkhardt-Jones, lawyer at the Mississauga Community Legal Services (MCLS).

The group assists low-income residents in Mississauga with a wide range of issues, including employment, housing, immigration and landlord-tenant matters. With a unique perspective on housing affordability challenges, MCLS representatives argued the true “missing middle” are those earning between $0 and $50,000, which they say represents approximately 27 per cent of households in the city.

Those sentiments were echoed by Kenneth Hale, legal director for Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO). Hale urged councillors to more closely consider their commitments to lower-income residents.

“The report bluntly states the provision for a range of housing choices for all incomes is critical for the long-term health and viability of our city, but the report’s recommendations have left the most vulnerable third of the city’s population out in the cold,” he noted.

“This was never designed to be a low-income strategy. This was designed to be a middle-income strategy,” rebutted Mayor Bonnie Crombie, adding the Region of Peel deals with subsidized and social housing for low-income earners.

The strategy was envisioned to help middle-income earners get out of the rental market and into homes that range in price from $270,000 to $400,000. The philosophy is that once middle-income earners become homeowners, more rental units would be freed up for those earning less than $55,000.

However, only 22 per cent of the city’s housing stock is currently affordable for middle-income earners. As of August 2017, the average price of a home in Mississauga was $644,770.

And the problem is only going to get worse, with developers lining up to buy property along the Hurontario corridor in anticipation of the $1.4 billion light rail transit project.

“The LRT is a unique situation and it’s going to displace a lot of people who live on Highway 10,” said Coun. Carolyn Parrish, who spearheaded the campaign for an affordable housing strategy.

With older rental buildings along the corridor being demolished in place of swanky new condo towers, the need for municipal controls is crucial to protecting against gentrification. The report recommends the implementation of a demolition control and replacement bylaw and a condominium conversion control bylaw to preserve the existing rental housing stock.

City staff estimate 75 rental units are lost per year as a result of demolition or condominium conversion. The current vacancy rate for rental units is approximately 1.3 per cent, well below the recommended three per cent for municipalities.

Coun. Ron Starr explained once the city puts the necessary controls in place to protect the units, there needs to be assurances that those units remain affordable for years to come. Otherwise, the pressure is on the supply side and with the lack of land availability in the city that could present a huge challenge.

Councillors approved the recommendations within the report. The final strategy will go before council for approval on Oct. 25.

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS: