Co-operative Housing Association
of Eastern Ontario

Co-ops and Housing Issues in the News!

By the end of this year, as many as 300 units of affordable housing could be built in Ottawa.

The city budget, tabled Wednesday, committed a $1 million for housing this year and called for a total of $14 million over the next five years.

At noon today, the mayor’s task force on affordable housing is to produce the report it began working on last year. Led by Ottawa commercial developer Shirley Westeinde, the task force will tell the city what will be required if both the private sector and non-profit organizations are to help build new housing.

One strategy will be the waiving of development charges and building fees, something the city now does inconsistently, and not as a matter of policy. Another, bolder strategy is to call for a change in property taxation that currently charges more on rental properties than on other types of homes.

The report will also ask the city to allow more “second suite” units in houses, something Ottawa has long resisted.

Council will not waste time pondering the task force’s suggestions. City staff have been working with the task force and have already produced a report for council’s health, recreation and social services committee to incorporate the suggestions into a new housing strategy for the city.

According to Councillor Alex Munter who chairs the committee, that strategy will also look at what land the city may be able to donate to housing projects in addition to the money already set aside. He believes the strategy will lead to concrete results this year.

“I’m hoping for 250-300 units this year,” he said.

There are now more than 14,000 households on the waiting list for social housing in Ottawa, a city with a rental vacancy rate of 0.8 per cent. The number of social housing units in Ottawa is around 25,000.

“I routinely tell desperate people who call my office they could be waiting seven or eight years,” said Mr. Munter.

The city’s strategy is designed to take advantage fo an offer made last year by the federal government to contribute $25,000 of matching funding per housing unit built. The provincial government will contribute about $2,000 but will leave it to the city and whatever private partners it can find to come up with the rest.

The idea is to provide help for builders to create the housing so that they can keep rents down. Apartments that might rent at $1,200 per month at market ate would become available at $500-$600.

Ms. Westeinde, 61, who has been a commercial developer in Ottawa for decades, said her work on the task force has opened up her eyes to the housing problem.

“I didn’t even know it existed,” she said yesterday. “It’s been a real education for me.”

She said she hopes service clubs and other charitable organizations will become more involved in building, adding that ideally she would like to see 1,000 units build annually.