Inclusionary zoning won’t fix the housing crisis

The City of Kitchener has just brought in inclusionary zoning. Will it make a difference for people who struggle to pay the rent?

For a few people, yes. Not enough people. But it’s something.

That was the consensus around the council table Monday as Kitchener councillors gave approval to a plan that will require two per cent of the leasable residential floor space in some new buildings that are near light rail transit stations to be used for affordable units.

(And, since there are many definitions of “affordable” floating around, let’s be clear that the definition being used here is reasonable: $1,200 for a one-bedroom apartment, which is 30 per cent of the income of a person whose earnings are in the 60th percentile.)

Kitchener’s decision is part of its innovative, ambitious and wideranging zoning plan, also passed on Monday, to allow for more, and more diverse, housing to be built in the city, especially near transit routes.

But given the housing crisis we are in, and given the slowdown in building activity, two per cent of residential floor space being made affordable in new buildings near transit stops seems like a trickle when we need a flood.

“This is definitely not the panacea,” said Coun. Bil Ioannidis at Monday’s meeting. “I think it’s a rather lacklustre tool that dances around the fringes of affordable housing. It hasn’t worked in Vancouver and it hasn’t worked in Montreal. So I’m not sure. I’m still not convinced it will do much of anything.”

“I’m disappointed,” said Coun. Debbie Chapman, who noted that the same kind of zoning legislation in the European city of Amsterdam requires 40 per cent of units in the building to be affordable.

There, the cost to the developer is offset by having 20 per cent of the units in the same building classified as luxury dwellings, which means the developer can bring in very high rents to subsidize the lower ones.

Chapman is also concerned that Kitchener’s plan means the affordable units would still be too expensive for people earning minimum wage. But she still supports getting the legislation passed, because it can always be changed later.

“If we reject it now, then it’s gone,” she said before the meeting.

Coun. Chris Michaud agreed that municipalities don’t have many tools with which to alleviate the housing problem.

“Inclusionary zoning alone can’t solve the homelessness problem,” she said. “The feds and the province, they do have to step up. We can’t do this alone.”

All of these opinions are valid. But give Kitchener credit for doing everything it can.

The city recognizes the housing crisis and is taking it on. It has provided municipal land for two nonprofit developments for those struggling with homelessness — A Better Tent City and the YW Kitchener Waterloo supportive housing facility on Block Line Road.

There are two more things the city can do.

One is to find more city-owned land on which to build deeply affordable homes, partnering with non-profit organizations or with developers working on a non-profit basis.

As housing experts have pointed out, when a housing development happens on municipally owned property, the municipality can make the decisions on how it is used, including requiring there be larger units suitable for families, or a rent-control arrangement that protects tenants better than the provincial law.

The other is to recognize that an affordable unit saved is easier and cheaper than an affordable unit that has to be newly built.

At the same time that we are all racking our brains on how to build more affordable homes, Waterloo Region is losing many privately owned low-rent units because of renoviction.

In this phenomenon, a landlord buys an older rent-controlled building and then tells the tenants to leave, saying extensive renovations are required. Once it’s empty, the landlord can add a few cosmetic improvements and get a new tenant at double the rent. They’re not legally justified in doing this, but many tenants don’t know their rights.

Kitchener should follow the lead of the City of Hamilton, and pass a bylaw that specifically protects tenants from unethical and illegal renovictions. And provide a tenant advocate right at city hall. Keeping the affordable units we have is as important as getting new ones built.

I think it’s a rather lacklustre tool that dances around the fringes of affordable housing.

BIL IOANNIDIS CITY COUNCILLOR