Proposed budget would boost spending, taxes and water bills and user fees
Mayor says feds, province likely to match city’s $15M outlay
Minutes after community members and advocates finished a rally at Marion Dewar Plaza on Wednesday morning, calling for more money for affordable housing, the city revealed a 2019 draft budget that contained a record-breaking housing investment.
“Is this right? Are they talking about affordable housing?”
These are the questions that immediately came to mind for Ottawa Acorn board member Gisèle Bouvier when she heard that the city had proposed a $15-million capital commitment on this front.
Bouvier was one of more than 100 people who rallied in front of city hall in advance of the unveiling of the draft budget. Organizers stressed that current demand has pushed the city’s limited and aging affordable housing stock to a breaking point, and called for a $12-million municipal investment in new affordable units. It appeared Wednesday that the city intends to deliver — and then some.
This is new money, Somerset Ward Coun. Catherine McKenney confirmed, put forward specifically for new affordable-housing construction.
Mayor Jim Watson says this would be “the largest municipal contribution to housing capital in the city’s history.”
Further, the mayor also made a budget-day prediction that the federal government is poised to reimburse the city for its costs in supporting refugee claimants from the United States since 2017.
He promised in his budget address to recommend that every reimbursed dollar go into the Housing Reserve Fund and towards the immediate construction of new affordable units in Ottawa. The city hopes this will work out to another $10 million, McKenney said.
Watson also proposed “a significant contribution of City of Ottawa lands to further boost the value of the city’s affordable-housing investment.”
And looking to other levels of government, on which the city has typically depended for much of its housing money, Watson said he anticipates a $15-million municipal investment “will leverage at least the equivalent amount of new federal and provincial dollars.”
The hope, Watson said, is to approve construction on more than 250 new affordable-housing units in 2019, more than doubling the 2018 total.
Last year, the city allocated $1.3 million to its capital program for affordable and supportive housing, with federal and provincial funds bringing the total investment to $15.7 million. Typically, Housing Services has a budget of $2 million to $3 million for affordable housing before allocations from other levels of government, director Shelley VanBuskirk said.
While the budget reveal marked a victory for Ottawa Acorn and partner organizations that have been lobbying the municipal government on affordable housing, Bouvier remained a tad apprehensive Wednesday afternoon.
“We know this is just a draft budget — it’s going to have to go to council, and councillors will have to vote on it.”
But McKenney expressed confidence in council support for the investment. “Many of my colleagues who I spoke to, today, are very happy with what they saw in the draft budget.”
Questions remain. Will the province cut support for affordable housing in its upcoming budget? Will the federal government deliver on money for Ottawa through its National Housing Strategy?
But the future looks very bright if these work out as hoped, McKenney said.
“We could see the end to families’ living in motels. We could definitely see an end to chronic homelessness in the city. We could see a time when our shelters are truly emergency shelters and are not housing people for a year,” she added.
“If all of that comes together, we will see real, significant change in our housing stock in this city. It’s amazing, I’m so happy.”
In the last year, a number of incidents have drawn attention to the challenges of finding and maintaining low-cost housing in Ottawa. A developer-led eviction in the Heron Gate community left hundreds of people struggling to find new homes last summer while their units were prepared for demolition and redevelopment.
The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Ottawa rose by nearly six per cent in 2018, the most in 17 years, while industry observers flagged scarce vacancies and cutthroat competition as major challenges for renters.
Across the city, 250 homeless families were living in hotels and motels in November. In 2014, there were, on average, fewer than 100 families per day in the same situation.
Ray Sullivan, executive director of non-profit housing organization CCOC, said the budget-day developments were “incredibly encouraging.”
While he’s waiting to go through the fine print before expressing unreserved enthusiasm, the draft budget’s affordable-housing commitment was certainly the largest the city has ever seen.
“I think that’s an important recognition that if we just keep doing things at the same level we’ve been doing them, we’re not actually going to advance and tackle this problem,” Sullivan said, adding that it could not have come at a better time.
“We’ve got a window of opportunity as we’re extending the light rail network, as we’re encouraging dense communities to be built up around those transit stations, to make sure that affordable housing is a part of that.”
With the draft budget investment, the promise of city land being made available, and an election commitment from the mayor to move forward on inclusionary zoning, the puzzle pieces are coming together, Sullivan said.
As for why it has taken until now for this level of affordable-housing commitment, Sullivan pointed out that long-standing advocates found new allies in the fall municipal election.”
Returning city councillors McKenney, Mathieu Fleury, and Jeff Leiper were joined at the pre-budget housing rally by new councillors Theresa Kavanagh, Shawn Menard and Matthew Luloff. McKenney said Coun. Diane Deans would have joined them were it not for an early police services board meeting where she’s chair.
We could see the end to families’ living in motels. We could definitely see an end to chronic homelessness in the city.