Parkdale housing fund pilot aims to help tenants

A Parkdale rooming house fund could give non-profits a “fighting chance” to preserve vanishing affordable housing in a city where existing rules favour private development and profit over people, says one city councillor pushing for the plan to move forward.

“We are losing affordable housing faster than we can build it. That is because in the private market the conditions are such that it is profitable for a landlord to do everything in their power to evict low-income tenants in order to build luxury apartments or luxury homes,” said Councillor Gord Perks, who represents Parkdale-High Park.

“This is specifically designed to deal with the problem of the private market moving faster than the existing funding programs from the government,” he said, or provide that “fighting chance.”

The goal is to create a $1.5million fund that a non-profit could use to help purchase a Parkdale rooming house. The non-profit has to locate the property, then oversee renovations and operations. The city would, as part of the deal, support that agency on an application to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., to try to secure more money for the project from a new national housing co-investment fund. The $1.5 million would come through Section 37 benefits, or a process where the city negotiates with developers to secure money or community benefits in exchange for flexibility around zoning rules, including height and density.

Perks spoke with the Star after the pilot project was given the green light by the city’s affordable housing committee on Monday morning.

The next stop is the mayor’s executive committee, then city council and, if approved, staff will send out requests for proposals.

Perks said Section 37 funding will never be enough to operate the program long-term, but the pilot should give the city the tools needed to argue for provincial, federal and, more likely, municipal support, given the current political climate.

“We may need to, as a local government, step up and say this is something that deserves direct municipal funding out of the tax base,” Perks said.

The Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust is already planning to submit a proposal, said development co-ordinator Joshua Barndt. The group studies gentrification in Parkdale and released a report last May titled “No Room For Unkept Promises, Parkdale Rooming House Study.”

They identified a total of 198 “rooming houses, bachelorette buildings, community nonprofit buildings and possible rooming houses,” capable of holding as many as 2,715 people. About 60 were at risk of being sold, potentially putting close to 810 people out of their homes, the authors found.

“What we need is a large-scale intervention, where we develop an acquisition pipeline. But we need to demonstrate we can do it cost-effectively,” Barndt said about the pilot.

The trust had tried unsuccessfully to secure funding through the city to buy several Parkdale rooming houses, but the current application process is too slow and cumbersome and landlords don’t want to wait, Barndt said. Parkdale resident Paul Snider was part of the community-based research team that collected data for the study.

Snider, speaking with the Star last spring, said he relied on Ontario Disability Support Payments and living in a rooming house allowed him to remain in a community he loved and to access vital support services.

“I can survive in a way that is not completely degrading,” Snider said at the time.