Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreiner was in Huntsville today, knocking on doors with Matt Richter, the party’s candidate for Parry Sound—Muskoka, to talk affordable housing and green jobs with constituents.
“The thing we’re hearing at the door over and over again is about the housing affordability crisis that people are facing,” said Schreiner. “And I’m just so proud of the housing affordability strategy the Ontario Greens have put out that really shows how we can increase the supply of affordable housing for people, and do it in a way that doesn’t pave over the farmland that feeds us or just the beautiful landscape that so much of us enjoy here in Ontario.”
Ricther noted that the lack of affordable housing is not a new issue. “This is something that’s been going on for far too long, and as an old problem it needs new solutions. It needs better solutions. And when we’re at the door and we’re talking to people and they hear this, they’re agreeing…they’re saying that we need to get this action rolling along as soon as possible.”
At the heart of the Greens’ strategy is engagement with the private sector to increase supply by changing zoning rules and with the public sector “to finally get the provincial government back into investing affordable housing by building affordable housing spaces as well as permanent supporting housing in this province and in Muskoka,” said Schreiner.
The party’s housing strategy also includes making zoning changes to allow homeowners to add more rental units like secondary suites and basement apartments, providing low-interest loans to help homeowners add those units to a primary residence, and requiring that all housing projects above a certain size have a minimum of 20 per cent affordable units.
“We need to make the zoning changes [so] that we can help people make quick supply increases through things like being able to do duplexes and triplexes, basement suites, laneway suites, granny suites…there’s a whole host of ways in which we can quickly ramp up supply through our existing built environment,” said Schreiner. “And then on top of that which is more medium- and longer-term solutions is to actually get government back involved in building housing by supporting nonprofit, co-op, and social housing. The province got out of doing that in the 1990s and the housing affordability problem has been getting worse every year since then. It’s reached a breaking point, and we have to change that.”
The Greens’ housing strategy also targets vacant homes, real estate speculation, and short-term rental accommodations.
“Another one of the short-term quick solutions is to regulate the short-term rental market in a way that it doesn’t take that housing supply off the market,” said Schreiner. “In particular you’re looking at, you know you’ve seen a lot more waterfront condo developments, for example, that instead of being homes for people that actually live here are being utilized for short-term rental and that’s taking housing stock out of the market… We also need to be looking at things like vacant homes taxes to help cool down speculation in the market.”
He said that green jobs and housing affordability can go hand in hand. “I look at green building construction, obviously Muskoka has a ton of people in the trades who could be part of a building retrofit workforce to help people save money by saving energy and creating thousands of jobs in renovation and green building renovation in particular.”
The challenge, added Richter, is the political will of all of Ontario’s parties to address the problem. “And as Mike has said, the Green Party of Ontario is ready to champion these solutions forward and by getting into Queen’s Park and having our voices down there and working in collaboration with the other parties to get the job done. We have seen time and time again, municipalities and mayors from the past presenting these solutions and now it’s time for the provincial government to get the job done, and that’s exactly what we are prepared to do. And get the province in as a partner again.”
See the Green Party of Ontario’s housing strategy here.
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The Ontario Green’s housing strategy is excellent: practical, workable and it provides rapid, appropriate-density development for a variety of affordable and walkable community solutions. We’d be wise to support them.
This is welcome news, indeed! As a volunteer with Circles, we know that residents need affordable AND safe housing. The rental price of a one bedroom apartment is sky high – even if you can afford it, availability is an issue.
Do I pay my rent or buy groceries? Food insecurity adds to the stress of making ends meet.