No time to sleep -by Gerald Folkerts

Where's Home? 2006 - A picture of housing needs in Ontario 

A Province-wide survey of housing managers showed that in 2006 there are approximately 122,426 households on waiting lists for assisted (rent-geared-to-income) housing – down only slightly from 2005. The vast majority had incomes of less than $20,000 annually. There are long wait times for families and single persons so that many household may be discouraged from applying for a rent-geared-to-income unit.

Some lessons can be learned from the review of housing programs and policy in New Zealand, the UK and the US. These are summarized below:

1. There is a need to have a federal housing policy that is long-term, deals with housing in a comprehensive way, commits long-term financing, and sets the stage for housing programs and policies across the country. These policies should be spelled out in a 5-year plan that should be developed with input from provincial and local governments.

2. Ideology is not a good basis for developing housing policy and programs particularly when governments change political stripe on a regular basis. A relatively predictable regulatory and financial environment is necessary for both private and non-profit builders.

3. Local government and or its agencies should be primary program managers and must be given the flexibility of choosing from a range of housing solutions that would fit the needs and market conditions in their area.

4. Housing policy interventions are complex and prone to unintended consequences and, therefore, should be diversified. A housing strategy works best when it has a multiplicity of programs that can be adapted to local conditions. Attention needs to be given to both demand-side assistance to tenants (shelter allowances, grants to purchase homes) and supply-side solutions (building more housing, upgrading housing).

5. The experience in New Zealand and England has shown that an over-reliance on shelter allowances can result in rents rising and prohibitive costs.

6. One way of encouraging more income mixing within public housing in Ontario is to bring in home ownership options or similar options so people do not have to leave their community as they start to earn more money. However, "right to buy" programs should not be used unless replacement rental housing is being produced. (In England and New Zealand the majority of rental housing in the country was public housing which this policy was intended to redress. This is not the case in Canada.)

7. Where there are particularly distressed public housing developments, these could be redeveloped into mixed income communities with the involvement of tenants and local agencies. Such redevelopment needs to be done very sensitively and tenants need to be engaged in planning for such redevelopment.