‘All hands on deck’ required to fix housing crisis, says Ontario Chamber

The availability and affordability of housing has reached a crisis point in the province, said the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

No longer an urban issue, this issue now impacts large and small communities across Ontario.

The chamber has released a policy paper,  Home Stretched: Tackling Ontario’s Housing Affordability Crisis Through Innovative Solutions and Partnerships,  offering case studies and opportunities for a spectrum of profit and non-profit players to team up and find innovative ways to address housing affordability and supply.

In the paper, the chamber finds mid-high income earners, who are being priced out of the real estate market, are staying for longer periods in market rental housing, thus hindering movement, reducing vacancies and limiting supply that ultimately extends wait lists of affordable, non-market housing options contributing to homelessness problems.

Housing development has not kept up with the pace of demand, the chamber says, now toss in today’s socio-economic pressures from inflation and supply chain challenges that contribute to the cost of construction.

To mitigate the problem, the Ontario government has committed to building 1.5 million new homes by 2031.  The chamber responds that meeting this target will require an “all-hands-on-deck approach” by the public, private and non-profit sectors.

All have roles in this to develop an inclusive construction workforce, in championing affordable housing solutions, and promoting “complete communities, the chamber says.

The policy paper highlights some innovative partnerships and approaches now underway across the province that aim to address housing affordability and supply, with policy recommendations to build upon the success of these models.

“The growing mismatch between housing supply and demand in communities across Ontario has made it more difficult for employers to fill labour gaps, particularly as the global competition for talent heats up,” commented Ontario Chamber of Commerce President-CEO Rocco Rossi in a news release.

“To ensure the long-term resilience of our economy, we encourage governments to balance consultation with bold action, such as ending exclusionary zoning and working in partnership with public and private sector partners to address labour shortages.”

The report’s key recommendation are as follows:

• Continue to establish and deliver on inclusive workforce development and immigration strategies to increase the labour pool needed to build more housing.

• Incentivize the development and preservation of affordable housing options along the continuum, including purpose-built rentals, missing middle, student, non-profit, cooperative, and supportive housing.

• Support the development and expansion of innovative technologies, data tools, retrofitting, building conversions, as well as mixed-use and climate-resilient green housing. –  tbnewswatch.com

article website here

 The biggest problem in the City of Thunder Bay when it comes to housing is the City of Thunder Bay itself.  There is no incentive for the City of Thunder Bay to develop affordable housing because of property tax rates.  The more expensive the property. the more taxes the city takes in.  Simple math.

Then there is the whole bureaucracy that seems to exist solely to make everyone’s life more difficult, even  impossible at times. An example….Sea cans…containers. You see them on ships, trucks and trains. On ships they can be stacked up to 9 high with each container being able to tolerate a 220 ton load.   They are very strong. Sooo when a local business wanted to use some containers  as temporary structures ( not stacked) for an outdoor market (because these containers could be move. They would not be permanent structures), our high salaried residents of City hall said that the containers would require a building permit.   Yes. I imagine that there are other things required such as engineer certification as well.  You know, to make sure that they would not collapse under a heavy snow load. Remember, they can hold up 220 tons.  In fact, containers are being used successfully right this minute in neighbourhood  markets in cities right here in Canada and the US.   Right now.

Another issue is the size of the homes that are now being built.   They are huge.  Not much smaller than Elvis’s place called Graceland.  Bigger means more expensive.  Most people do not need a house that large.

However, developers want to build houses that large because they can sell it for a higher price.  More money.

What you need is two or three bedroom core floor bungalow.  Single floor.  Not huge.  That’s it.  Look at housing built after WW2 in Thunder Bay.  Entire neighbourhoods of these houses all built using one design.

Prefabs….that technology has come a long way and can offer a more affordable way of building homes.

Then there is the price of the land on which you want to build that house.  There is not much of it available.  Not in the city anyway.

Sooo, as you can see, the City of Thunder Bay and the local developers are incentivized to build bigger and more expensive houses because they make more money.  They do not care about affordability.  They know that if you keep the housing market lean and tight, almost any house, no matter the cost will sell eventually.

What can get in the way of this?  Higher interest rates.  Higher interest rates mean higher mortgages rates. Higher mortgages rates PLUS higher house prices means higher mortgage payments. Higher mortgage payments eliminates a large portion of the public as possible home buyers.

Once again, as you can see, its all bout money.

There was a time when a family with single middle income family could afford to buy a house.  No problem.  Now, even with two incomes, its not possible.  Why is that?  What has changed?  Its greed combined with inflation or inflation that is created out of greed. One of the other.  Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up.  Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up. Everything cost more so people need to make more money.  People making more money makes the cost of everything go up……and so on to infinity.