Deep dive into local housing data fills void

Database gives decision-makers picture of needs and demographics

It’s a collection of raw numbers that could help Niagara in its endless search for a solution to an affordable housing crisis by giving decision-makers in-depth data on our housing stock.

“There is no existing source of data with accurate assessment of current and future demand for public housing,” Doug Giles, Niagara Region’s director of community and long range planning, told the municipality’s planning and development committee last week.

The Canadian Centre of Economic Analysis has filled the void and created a database for Niagara of demographics and housing needs. The database contains detailed geographical mapping of demographic, housing and income trends in all 12 municipalities.

It comes at an opportune time. A booming real estate market and a lack of affordable housing is putting the squeeze on residents — and the Region is in the midst of constructing a housing strategy.

“It is not a policy-related project,” Giles said. “It’s a project where we have brought a lot of data together. It will be packaged and brought together to inform policy across the region.”

Giles said the information will be sent out to the lower-tier municipalities ahead of a one-day housing summit that will bring together all planners from across the region. The information will also eventually be released to the public and developers as part of the Region’s opened sourced data project.

“What you now have is what you can call a fully linked database of all the municipalities with incomes, dwelling types, location,” said Paul Smetanin, president and CEO of the Canadian Centre of Economic Analysis.

“It begins the look at policy and who may be most in need. It helps us understand the communities and the needs of the people in them.”

Among the findings are 31 per cent of households are singles, 28 per cent are couples without children, 25 per cent are couples with children, 10 per cent are loneparent, and six per cent are multiple family.

In terms of housing stock, 73

per cent is low density, 21 per cent is medium density and five per cent is high density.

Individual owners own 89 per cent of low density stock, 10 per cent of the medium density, and one per cent of the high density.

When it comes to renters, 54 per cent live in medium density, 28 per cent in low density and 17 per cent in high density.

The information showed that Niagara renters are twice as likely as owner households to spend more than 30 per cent of income on shelter, and the rates are higher for households with someone younger than 35 or older than 84.

In addition, there are 16,000 households that can’t pay more than $730 for their home per month.