Could Huntsville eliminate homelessness? It’s an ambitious goal but one that’s seen a measure of success in other Canadian communities. Mayor Scott Aitchison told General Committee on November 30 that he’s inspired by those municipalities and believes it can be done here, too.
Aitchison noted that as of September 2016, there were more than 700 names on the District of Muskoka’s social housing waitlist. Of those, 380 are from Huntsville: 230 single people, 85 seniors and 65 families.
“The provincial and federal governments create programs to set billions of dollars aside for housing and trickle that across the province based on what they deem the need to be. We see maybe 10 to 20 units built per year in Muskoka and that doesn’t come close to touching the need… We’d never get caught up. I was inspired by municipalities like Red Deer (Alberta) that mustered the political will to do something about it and have effectively eliminated homelessness in their city.”
Social housing programs are the realm of the District of Muskoka, not the municipality, but Aitchison said that he’s not looking to supplant what the District is doing. Rather, he said the Town can leverage municipally owned land and look at waiving fees to help stimulate private-sector development of attainable housing.
“This is meant to kickstart things and for private sector developers to partner with levels of government as well. If there is a business model to be made out there where there’s free land, no development charges, no building permit fees and you don’t need a capital subsidy… The sooner we can start building, the better.”
He suggested establishing a task force to look at options and make recommendations to the Official Plan (OP) Review Committee, as well as directing Town staff to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) aimed at creating partnerships with other levels of government or the private sector to construct more affordable housing in Huntsville.
Housing has become one of the highest priorities for the OP Review Committee, noted Councillor Nancy Alcock, who chairs the Planning Committee and was past chair of the District’s attainable housing committee.
“We dealt with a lot of these issues (at District) and one of the biggest obstacles is it requires leadership at the municipal level, so I applaud this,” she said. “Our new Executive Director of Development Services (Derrick Hammond) has already revised our action plan going forward. With approval around this table, we are going to start taking a new direction, and it includes in a very big way looking at policies through our land use that will help with the development of affordable housing, and looking at the way we do mixed-use development.”
The District of Muskoka developed the Muskoka Housing and Homelessness Plan 2014-2024 (MHHP) to help address the growing need for attainable housing, but Aitchison said that District policy is to not fund affordable housing projects unless they are on District water and sewer services.
“That serves the District’s policies because we need more customers on water and sewer pipes, but there are a lot cheaper ways to provide housing. We need to look at the bigger picture here and if there’s a way we can build what’s attainable for people to have a roof over their heads and it’s not on pipes then we need to do that.”
Huntsville’s attainable housing problems are due in part to local incomes that sit well below the provincial average. In 2010, the average family income in Huntsville was $84,629 compared to $100,152 across the province, while the median family income was $71,006 compared to $80,987 provincially.
Councillor Jonathan Wiebe said he lived in Red Deer in the mid-90s and called that city’s homelessness “abysmal” at the time. “To know that community took it on and maybe not solved it completely but showed some real tangible results, it’s a testament to their leadership and I don’t think it’s out of our grasp.”
The motion to direct staff to prepare an RFP and for the OP Review Committee to prepare policies to make more attainable housing options possible was carried. It will be sent to the next Council meeting for ratification.
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Mayor Aitchison’s efforts to address affordable housing are commendable. But sadly the province has just recently increased regulations on all new construction. The cost to build has increased by almost $10,000 on a standard home. This is a classic example of the province creating regulation upon regulation and driving the cost of new construction through the roof. The Town is going through the process of divesting itself of properties because they can not afford the cost imposed by the province to make all municipally owned buildings wheelchair accessible. The cost forced on every municipality in the province to achieve something of this magnitude must be significant. Sadly the Town has given away property in its possession for years and will now go to the private sector looking for funding for this affordable housing initiative because the cupboards are bare. Unless things change at the Provincial level we will never have affordable housing in Canada.
380 in Huntsville that we know off…..shame…..JC is now one that does not need a home/room!
How about this one (which has been successfully used in the other named cities) Huntsville doesn’t issue any more residential building permits at all until a certain quota of affordable rental units are built. All within the town’s control…..suddenly builders and politicians have a real commitment to the town’s most pressing need
If Mayor Aitchison and this council achieved even a goodly portion of this goal, it would be an amazing legacy of their time in office. Kudos to Scott for voicing such an ambitious and worthwhile project and to council for its support in principle.