Housing, income numbers bleak: Report
ICountPtbo survey conducted in March identified 259 people as homeless in city
A change in the local labour force and increased costs for shelter is a major contributor to the housing crisis in Peterborough.
This finding was released Oct. 10 on World Homeless Day in the 13th annual Housing is Fundamental report authored by Paul Armstrong.
Armstrong has written each report during his 16 years as a housing advocate in Peterborough. He uses census data and information gathered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as well as information provided by local shelters and social service agencies.
Armstrong brings all the information together to publish a report which provides information about housing trends and issues in Peterborough.
Two things jumped out at him while writing this year’s report, he said.
“(The first is) the growing core housing need rate. You’re in core housing need when you’re spending more than 30 per cent of your before-tax total household income for your housing needs,” Armstrong said.
“The other thing that jumped out to me is the change in our labour force. We have gone from a labour force that only had 25 per cent part-time work in 2011 to a labour force that has just slightly more than 50 per cent parttime work.”
Although Jim Russell, CEO of the United Way of Peterborough and District, agreed social problems can arise from low incomes and lack of housing, he added there is another problem that often gets overlooked as well.
“Being poor is a serious, serious health issue,” Russell said. “For people who are poor and homeless, health concerns are dire.”
Statistics Canada documents that men in the lowest 20 per cent of the income bracket are 67 per cent more likely to die in any given year than the wealthiest 20 per cent, Russell said. For women, that figure is 52 per cent.
“These men and women respectively are 67 per cent and 53 per cent more likely to die from heart disease, 46 per cent and 30 per cent more likely to die from cancer, 249 per cent and 264 per cent more likely to die from diabetes, 231 per cent and 211 per cent more likely to die respiratory disease and 88 per cent and 83 per cent more likely to die from injuries than their wealthy counterparts,” Russell told those gathered for the World Homeless Day event.
Armstrong’s Housing is Fundamental report provided a glimpse into other housing issues in the Peterborough area as well.
According to CMHC statistics for the Peterborough census metropolitan area, the cost of rental properties has risen considerably in eight years.
In 2010, a bachelor apartment cost on average $590 per month. In 2017, the average bachelor apartment was renting for around $705.
A one-bedroom apartment has gone from on average $747 per month in 2010 to $850 per month in 2017.
A two-bedroom apartment is affordable if the household earnings are $39,520 annually, Armstrong said.
“But more than 20 per cent of all households have income below $30,000,” he added. “Even worse, more than half of all individual incomes are below $30,000 after tax.”
Other rental market highlights from 2017 include:
• Average rent increased by 2.8 per cent (up from 1.3 per cent in 2016).
• Average rent increase for two-bedroom in downtown core increased by 4 per cent.
• Vacancy rate stable at 1.1 per cent (one of the lowest in Ontario).
• No rental apartment completions between July 2016 and June 2017.
Armstrong said all his research boiled down shed a grim view in housing in Peterborough.
“We are, according to the 2016 census, poorer, less housing affordable and more work precarious,” Armstrong told those at the World Homeless Day gathering.
“More renter households are overspending on their shelter costs than at any time in the past 13 years. This means less money for food, medicine, child rearing, necessities and community engagement.”
Although local housing is bleak, one of the most glaring changes from one census to the next was the local workforce, Armstrong said.
“Effectively our part-time workforce has increased by 223 per cent from 2011 to 2016,” Armstrong said. “Our workforce now has just slightly more part-time workers than full-time workers.”
The area’s “core housing need” rose to 52.5 per cent in 2016 from 48.1 per cent in 2011, Armstrong’s report found.
This increase in core housing need is a recipe of disaster, Armstrong said. Low income and higher housing costs is a “terrible collision” and can lead to many social problems, he added.
The Housing Is Fundamental report was created in partnership with the United Way Peterborough and District.
In recognition of World Homeless Day, the United Way hosted a community event at the Peterborough Public Library. Details of the Housing Is Fundamental report were released along with highlights from the United Way’s ICountPtbo enumeration from earlier this year.
The homelessness count, conducted March 20 to 23, saw more than 80 volunteers approach 364 people, identifying that at least 259 people were homeless in Peterborough, including 142 staying in a shelter or outdoors and 94 staying at someone else’s place or in a hospital, motel or transitional housing. The arrangements for the other 23 were unknown.
NOTE: Read the full Housing is Fundmental and ICountPtbo reports online at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com or at www.uwpeterborough.ca.