Momentum building for new affordable housing non-profit in York Region

A local grassroots movement is afoot to establish an organization that will address the critical shortage of affordable housing by building it themselves

Newmarkettoday.ca
January 22, 2020
Kim Champion

A grassroots movement is afoot to create a new non-profit organization in York Region that aims to address the critical shortage of affordable housing by building it themselves.

Inspired by the success of several nearby groups that have taken on building projects to house their community’s most vulnerable citizens, the Social Planning Council of York Region says it’s time for like-minded local residents to do the same.

“Affordable housing is such a critical problem here and it’s been talked about forever and ever, and the social planning council wants to push it beyond conversation and into action,” social planning council board member Lori Yaccato said.

That momentum kicked off Jan. 16 at the Aurora Public Library as about 50 residents, including Newmarket Mayor John Taylor and Newmarket Councillor Grace Simon, took part in a housing forum that featured first-hand accounts from organizations that have built or are in the process of developing permanent affordable housing.

Guest speaker Alexander Wilson, who is a pastor at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in Scarborough’s east end, shared his faith group’s venture in launching a non-profit housing corporation that will transform its current church building at Lawrence Avenue and Scarborough Golf Club Road into a 109-unit affordable housing complex.

The church group has secured $69 million in funding and key government and community partnerships and hopes to break ground soon.

“It’s been a very exciting journey when we came together as a church and said, ‘What is our future’?” Wilson said. “You could close the church, you could amalgamate, and we talked about the needs in our community. We really thought that the community would benefit from having us there on an ongoing basis but in a very different form.”

Wilson is leading the development of the 11-storey affordable housing project on church property that will provide apartments for youth at risk of homelessness, people with disabilities, and Indigenous people.

“After several potential partners didn’t work out, including a developer, we thought why don’t we create our own not-for-profit and do it ourselves,” he said.

Wilson said there was much to learn about becoming a builder.

“If I could say anything about how you build something, it is to get as many partners as you possibly can and collaborate within that,” he said. “And in terms of how you get something built, there’s a very clear path. You need a capital investment, and a large partner like a city or a region in order to make anything happen in affordable housing.”

The building process resembles a boxing match, Wilson said, with each round involving discussions with various partner groups, the city, region, federal and provincial governments.

“But nothing is really being built, so the need is great in our communities,” he said.

St. Stephen’s housing proposal includes a partnership with various agencies, including the Reena Foundation, East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, all of whom would have access to housing units for their clients. Other units in the building will offer a mix of rents to a diverse demographic.

Closer to home, the Markham Inter-Church Committee for Affordable Housing (MICAH), a non-profit corporation created in 1988 to address the need for housing for low-income individuals, seniors, and families in the southern York Region municipality, is near completion of its fourth affordable housing project.

MICAH president Mike Clare said so far the registered charity has built 299 affordable housing units in three projects that provide housing for 5,000 people.

“What MICAH does is we build,” Clare said. “We’re trying to provide liveable accommodations for individuals. We decided to have a housing-first policy so there is no homelessness. We’ll take people off the street and get them accommodation, that is the first priority.”

Within York Region, itself, there are more than 16,000 people looking for affordable accommodation, Clare said, adding that the region has one of the highest waitlists for affordable housing in Ontario.

“There’s a serious issue with affordable housing in the city of Markham, a city that has the honour of being either the fourth or third richest community in Canada, depending what statistics you use. How can a rich community have an issue with affordable housing?” he said.

MICAH’s affordable housing properties include a 150-unit seniors building on Water Street known as Cedarcrest Manor, a 26-unit complex on Robinson Street, and Tony Wong Place at Kennedy Road and 14th Avenue, which features 123 units.

A new building that’s in construction and expected to open in 2020, also on Water Street in Markham, will have 32 units, two of which will be for clients of 360Kids, an agency that helps homeless youth and those at-risk of homelessness, with the other units geared for seniors.

“The reason why we’re doing this is that we’re trying to do what we think is the best for the homeless and at-risk populations and provide them with safe, affordable accommodation where an appropriate program can be offered to assist them,” said Clare.

The dire housing statistics in York Region bear out the urgent need to build permanent affordable housing.

Elin Goulden, a social justice and advocacy consultant with the Anglican Church, said that York Region has the lowest supply of rental housing for a region of its size, with a vacancy rate of 1.7 per cent when 3 per cent is considered healthy.

“How is a business supposed to want to locate here, if their lower income workers can’t afford to live here?” she said.

“Homelessness and housing need has become acute in Canada over the last three decades due to a sharp decrease in the amount of investment by both provincial and federal governments in housing,” Goulden said. “For-profit developers stepped in, which is fine, except that drives up costs. And rental accommodation is driven for an ownership model or higher end rental rather at the lower end.”

More than 50 per cent of renters in York Region spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing and that puts them at a much greater risk of being homeless if they lose income or face a health challenge, said Goulden.

In 2019, Goulden’s Anglican Church dioceses adopted a motion to determine the feasibility of building affordable housing on land it owns.

“With more funds becoming available through the Canada National Housing Strategy and pressure from our own parishioners, we now have a housing working group. We know we need affordable housing, we can’t do this alone, and we need to find all possible opportunities to work together with various partners,” Goulden said.

More than half, or 29, of the social planning council forum participants expressed an interest in becoming a part of a new non-profit housing group in York Region.

“The commitment is there to do something,” Yaccato said. “It is a humble beginning, so we’re going to build on it until we form a strong non-profit, and the goal is to create affordable housing because that is where the critical need is. “Somehow St. Stephen’s did it. They’re making it happen and it’s very progressive, the building is really state-of-the-art.”

“If this group in Scarborough can do it, then why can’t we?” she said.

To learn more about the Social Planning Council of York Region and to get involved in its affordable housing initiative, visit them on Facebook.