With Ottawa’s municipal election set for Oct. 24, the Charlatan consulted the city’s 14 mayoral candidates about their plans to address housing, homelessness and affordability. In order of nomination, with those the Charlatan didn’t interview listed last, here’s what each candidate wants voters to know.
Brandon Bay
Brandon Bay said he’d increase housing affordability by neglecting zoning restrictions, which he said can negatively affect home buyers because the restrictions dictate that single-family homes can only be built in established neighbourhoods.
“That keeps us from intensifying and building the sorts of housing that you see in cities such as Montreal, or New York-style long and slender apartments, which you don’t see here because we have essentially banned it,” he said.
Bay would allow developers to build units in places where construction is otherwise restricted due to zoning regulations. He said migration is an affordable housing barrier because those more concerned with movement around the country neglect inter-provincial migration to Ottawa.
“What the city, and even by extension the province, can do is incentivize the younger generation to get into fields like [construction and developing by] increasing wages and/or increasing the marketing campaigns towards high school and college students to pursue these careers,” Bay said.
Catherine McKenney
Catherine McKenney said they’d like to end chronic homelessness.
“I would ensure that we build the supportive housing that’s needed,” they said.
McKenney said they’d also work with the federal government, employing rent supplements and housing allowances to keep people from falling into homelessness. They want to increase density in certain areas, such as Gladstone Avenue, where they said zoning should allow housing that is up to eight storeys high.
McKenney said they’d like to process development applications more efficiently, which would save developers money. Otherwise, “developers will pass along costs to renters and owners,” they said.
Ade Olumide
Ade Olumide said he’d propose an equity income lens for building policy and prioritize drug addiction treatment and prevention. He added social workers should be the first to help homeless people.
Olumide said he’s against making blanket increases to property development charges and wants to turn developers’ focus to less expensive units.
“A modest townhouse is sort of a human right,” he said, deeming himself as not “anti-rich.” “So, if you’re making $60,000 per annum, you should be able to buy a house. You can do that in Gatineau. You can’t do that in Ottawa.”
Olumide proposed structuring development costs to appeal to the lower-income bracket, such as by holding cheaper units to 20 per cent and more expensive units to 80 per cent of development costs.
“Any decision at city hall, I want to first know how it’s going to impact those who can’t afford it,” he said. “And then, is there a way to mitigate?”
Param Singh
To tackle affordable housing and homelessness in Ottawa, Param Singh suggested following the city’s 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan until its cut-off date in 2030. He said he’d assess its efficacy every year and propose new solutions to make it more equitable for the city and people looking for affordable housing.
Singh added he’d prioritize funding through partnerships to build new affordable properties. One of his main goals would be to bring communities together with affordable transit, lowering the cost of living by making services more readily available for every sector of the community.
“What’s nice about Ottawa is we’re such a huge landmass that we have that advantage of diversifying,” Singh said. “We don’t have to concentrate in one neighborhood and say all affordable housing is going to be in one sector of the city.”
Mark Sutcliffe
With his affordable housing plan, Mark Sutcliffe hopes to bring developers, Ottawa Community Housing, social service agencies and city council together to solve affordability challenges.
“First and foremost, we need to build a lot more homes in Ottawa,” he said. “That’s one of the things that’s affecting affordability. We have to make sure a greater percentage of those homes are affordable homes.”
Sutcliffe said the city needs to invest in supportive housing because housing alone isn’t the answer for those who have experienced trauma, suffer from mental illness or deal with substance use disorders.
“We want to make life as affordable as possible for the people of Ottawa, including young people and students,” he said.
Sutcliffe added he’d keep taxes and city services such as recreation as low and affordable as possible. He said he’s considering alternatives to free transit, such as the EquiPass and lower student fares, to drive affordability.
Mike Maguire
To tackle housing affordability in Ottawa, Mike Maguire said his emphasis would be on the city’s planning and zoning control, ensuring there is a vast “range, scope and nature of new housing” being built throughout the city that cater to varying levels of income.
He said he plans to introduce 800-square-foot “tiny homes” as a new type of starter house in the city. These would be available for purchase at the $400,000 mark, Maguire said.
To address homelessness in Ottawa, he said he’d begin by increasing accessibility of mental health services for homeless populations and emphasizing opioid removal from the streets.
Following this, Maguire said he plans to implement portable rent subsidies, which would allow the city to identify individuals who need assistance, and provide them with funds to rent their own accommodations.
“The city will provide funds to offset the costs so they can get into housing quicker, and also [so] they’re not stigmatized by living in very highly condensed … subsidized housing,” he said.
Celine Debassige
Celine Debassige said she’s running for mayor to uplift grassroot and non-profit organizations such as ACORN, Black History Ottawa and Horizon Ottawa so they’re taken more seriously. She suggested community-driven solutions to affordability, such as defunding the police to reallocate funds to social services and make housing more affordable.
Gregory Guevara*
Gregory Guevara said he’d solve Ottawa’s population crisis with a “population freeze”—a deliberate attempt to stop the city’s population growth. He attributed the housing crisis to the growing population upping demand and said Ottawa isn’t ready for more people.
“If we can figure out how to live with a million people, who knows?” Guevara said. “Then we can start to expand from there.”
To stop population growth, he said he’d build a wall around Ottawa. Guevara added he’d address homelessness by giving every Ottawan a government job.
“Government jobs are great because you only work one or two hours a day and you get paid for eight,” he said.
Under Guevara’s plan, government salaries would provide the necessary income to pay rent. He also said he’d guarantee a one-bedroom apartment for every individual. For example, a family of five would be entitled to five one-bedroom apartments.
“It sounds like a joke, but [I’m] serious,” Guevara said of his plans.
Nour Kadri
Nour Kadri wants to increase housing supply to decrease the pressure for Ottawans to buy a home. He said office buildings should adapt to those who, largely thanks to the pandemic, prefer a hybrid work environment with more remote opportunities.
“These massive government buildings throughout the downtown area that aren’t fully occupied with workers can be transformed into refurbished housing units,” Kadri said.
He added this would help resolve the labour shortage for businesses by making downtown more populous and vibrant.
Kadri plans to build 160,000 homes over the next 10 years. However, he said building more affordable homes doesn’t address homelessness, which he added must be tackled at its root causes.
“[Homeless people] don’t just need a roof over their head,” Kadri said. “They also need support in things such as addiction and mental health, which we will provide.”
Zed Chebib
Zed Chebib wants to immediately change zoning bylaws from R2 to R1 to protect owners, renters and taxpayers. He said he’d allow homeowners to build multiple backyard units, giving people alternatives to housing that’s far from the downtown.
“You’re allowing the property owners to rent and, that way, give them a little extra income [so] they don’t have to worry about losing their homes, especially now with interest rates going right through the roof,” Chebib said.
He said he’d repurpose some of Ottawa’s warehouses as homes for the unhoused and hire those residents as city workers.
Jacob Solomon
Jacob Solomon wants greater density, centrality and housing stock for Ottawa. He said he’s tired of the city expanding into the countryside and tearing down farms to do so, forcing people to commute 40 minutes to work and school.
“I think we’ve got to start building up. That’s what I believe,” Solomon said, adding that zoning regulations are limiting factors. “When you look at our downtown centre, a lot of our buildings are [only] five or six storeys tall.”
Bob Chiarelli
According to his website, Bob Chiarelli would negotiate with the federal government to speed up housing projects at Tunney’s Pasture and Confederation Heights and build more affordable homes.
He’d defend R1 zoning for single-family neighbourhoods and prevent multi-unit housing on “essentially every urban and suburban lot in Ottawa.”
Chiarelli would build housing on available city land and end inclusionary zoning for developments around Ottawa that contain more than 50 units. He’d also call on the province to defer approval of the city’s official plan until it’s reviewed by the next council.
Chiarelli would freeze property taxes for the first year of term, raise Ottawa’s target of 8,000 new housing units a year to 10,000 and pause municipal work on the Tewin city-building project.
He wouldn’t allow further urban boundary expansion and would incentivize more rental housing by reducing fees and fast-tracking site plan approvals and building permits.
Chiarelli said he’d negotiate an agreement for green housing standards with the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ and Building Owners and Managers associations.
He’d also implement higher taxes and expiry dates for approved projects where developers are “sitting on” undeveloped land.
Chiarelli did not respond to the Charlatan’s request for comment.
Bernard Couchman
According to his website, Bernard Couchman would give $5,000 to every household with a qualified pensioner, widow, orphan or single-parent.
Couchman did not respond to the Charlatan’s request for comment.
Graham MacDonald
According to his website, Graham MacDonald would advocate for more local jobs to put Ottawa’s “best foot forward” and reduce poverty.
He said all Ottawans living in community housing must be given opportunities to move from the city’s system and into their own lifestyle and living space.
MacDonald added he’d bring “solid leadership” to avoid wasting taxpayers’ money due to delays and cost overruns for projects such as the LRT, Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus, LeBreton Flats and Lansdowne Park.
MacDonald did not respond to the Charlatan’s request for comment.
*Gregory Guevara was the Charlatan’s Arts editor for the 2018-19 publication year.
Featured image by Rafka Abou-Khalil.
