Avoid NIMBYISM over supportive housing projects
At first blush, Ottawa Council's recent vote requiring the housing director to consider “the cumulative effect and community impact” of supportive housing on neighbourhoods before funding such projects, seems benign enough. Just a call to make sure adequate support services are in place for people moving from shelters into supportive housing in established neighbourhoods. But dig a little deeper, and there is a whiff of NIMBYISM — a not-in-mybackyard sentiment that can't be ignored. This is not what we need at a time when shelters are bursting at the seams, and federal money is flowing to build affordable and supportive housing for the many who need it.
The motion from River ward Coun. Riley Brockington was triggered by a Shepherds of Good Hope proposal for a six-storey building on Merivale Road in Carlington, meant to give 70 people a place to call home.
The project is one of 26 the city has identified as priorities for funding from the $176-million federal Housing Accelerator Fund. Ninety per cent of the money will go to non-profit housing, but apparently, the problem is that Shepherds already has three other supportive residences on Merivale, which neighbours say are fuelling crime. Adding a fourth, they complain, could make matters worse.
“Some of my residents are pushing back,” Brockington says, adding that this is not a case of NIMBYISM. He says there has been an increase in calls to police since Shepherds opened a third building in the neighbourhood, and there is a need for pause to consider the broader impact. “These are people coming directly from the shelter system into residences in the community. You need to have resources on-site to help them,” he says.
Which makes sense, but behind the request
These disadvantaged people need a place help them get their lives back.
is an uncomfortable truth: many people would rather not have social or supportive housing in their midst. The reflex action of some residents who suddenly find people from shelters moving into their neighbourhoods is that they are bringing crime and other social problems.
If we are true to ourselves, we will admit that many of us don't want social housing anywhere near us. We fear what an influx of people from shelters and others with all manner of social problems will do to our lives and property values — often with some justification. People downtown who live close to shelters have been complaining for years. It is not surprising that Carlington residents are also complaining about rising crime, real or imagined.
But these disadvantaged people need a place to help them get their lives back, and they need support, not rejection.
Stephen Bartolo, the CEO of the Shepherds of Good Hope, told CBC that what the charity is trying to do, in addition to helping people back on their feet, is “myth-busting.” People working to get back to normalcy are not necessarily bringing crime with them, and they should be embraced and supported, not feared. “We have been able to look at crime data over the last three months where it clearly shows there is no direct correlation to Shepherds of Good Hope and crime in the area in terms of a spike with us moving in,” Bartolo says.
Brockington stresses that he is not asking for the project to be stopped. “You don't see me advocating to shut them down,” he says, and that's good to hear. But there may be others who don't want such projects in their area, and the council directive to consider community impact before funding any supportive housing could open the door to misuse. People who don't want these kinds of housing in their neighbourhoods now have a weapon to wield that could cause unnecessary delays, or worse, for the projects.
The city's director of community and social services, Clara Freire, calls council's directive an “initial step, but not a roadblock.” Let's hope Freire is right. Ottawa declared a housing emergency in 2020, and now that we have money to build more affordable housing, we can't afford to have council policy turn into an impediment.