Students join concerned groups
Yet another demographic is adding itself to the list of those concerned about Regina’s rental housing shortage: students.
Before city council votes tonight on moving forward with a 28-point housing strategy, council members are to hear from Naomi Beingessner of the Regina Public Interest Research Group at the University of Regina (U of R).
According to Beingessner, affordable housing for postsecondary students is a concern of the research group’s, as well as the University of Regina Students’ Union.
“These young people make up a major demographic requiring affordable housing, and very few special mentions of students have been made up to this point, either in the Comprehensive Housing Strategy or at the Mayor’s Housing Summit,” she says in a presentation to council posted on the city’s website.
Beingessner notes that students have expressed concern that rents have outpaced wage increases. Some students have argued their marks have suffered as a result of working multiple jobs to afford a higher cost of living.
Students have also said that high rents are a deterrent to staying in Regina after graduation, Beingessner said.
“Students are leaving our province because they see that they can attain their educational goals, enjoy benefits such as artistic and cultural experiences, and live more cheaply in other places,” she explains.
Beingessner said her organization, which attended Mayor Michael Fougere’s housing summit last month, would like to see rent control and a mechanism that ensures landlords comply with safety and property maintenance standards.
Her address also takes issue with the fact that the city’s comprehensive housing strategy defines affordable rental housing as at or below average market rent. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the average monthly cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Regina is $979. Critics have panned the city’s definition as unattainable for many.
Marc Spooner, a housing researcher at the U of R, doubts an increase to a municipal incentive program (a housing strategy inititive that could start later this summer) will lead to enough truly affordable apartments.
The city will offer builders $15,000 per new rental unit, up from $10,000 under the current program. But Spooner argues that the city will end up subsidizing market rental construction.
“Therefore, under the terms of this new housing plan, the city will pay developers of market (or below) rental housing units $15,000 per unit, and under the terms of this same plan state the city’s program is creating ‘affordable’ rental units which will rent at ‘market or below,’” Spooner writes in an address he is to make at city council tonight. “How many of these units, do you expect, will house low income individuals and families?”
The city, however, maintains the new incentives policy will create more apartments below market rate.
The proposed housing strategy implementation plan lays out 11 “quick-win” initiatives, of which the $15,000 incentive is a part, that could begin as early as next month.
Tonight, city council will also be asked to approve the establishment of a special housing committee that will track progress made toward achieving a three-per-cent rental vacancy rate by 2017.
Other noteworthy items on the agenda include a long-term growth plan for a future City of Regina population of 500,000 and discussion involving transit price promotions.