Affordable housing is getting scarce in Ottawa ( Photo: Christopher King )
The need for affordable housing is not just a problem in Ottawa, experts say. Housing issues need to receive more attention all across the country, especially in today’s economy.
Donna Hicks, CEO of Habitat for Humanity – National Capital Region, said Ottawa needs to focus more on housing, especially after last year’s layoffs.
In November 2008, as a result of a “corporate realignment,” the City of Ottawa laid off several senior managers. Among them was Russell Mawby, director of housing. In addition, the city restructured their social housing departments.
“[Housing] is not a priority,” Hicks said. “Without a director of housing in the city of Ottawa it’s difficult of us to explore different models for making homes more accessible and affordable.”
The wait for affordable housing is now reaching five to seven years in the city, and Hicks is among many affordable housing experts who are calling for a stronger commitment to housing.
Affordable housing is defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. as housing that costs less than 30 per cent of total household income.
Trudy Sutton, executive director of Housing Help, an organization that helps people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness find affordable rental housing, said finding housing is often a huge challenge.
With the need for funding a constant issue, Sutton said all levels of government are not doing enough to support housing in the city. She said she finds the lack of commitment to housing “very discouraging” and is unsure whether the housing situation in the city will improve in the near future.
The economic slowdown is only hindering efforts to build more affordable housing, said Allan Moscovitch, a social work professor at Carleton University. The federal government is not at all focused on low-income people in need of housing, Moscovitch said.
"When this financial crisis is shaking the economy, it’s shaking it from top to bottom. The only response has been to help those at the top,” he said. “It hasn’t been to help anybody at the bottom.”
In order to help the homeless and others in need of affordable housing, a national housing strategy is needed, but Moscovitch, as well as Sutton, said there is little hope for a national housing strategy.
A national housing strategy would allow for everyone to have safe and affordable housing, Sutton said, and added that she is not optimistic about Ottawa.
“It’s not the way our community thinks is that everyone needs a place to live,” she said.
Organizations like Habitat for Humanity have taken a different approach to housing, through homeownership. Hicks said homeownership can be far more beneficial to low-income families than renting.
“[Homeownership] gives [families] equity long-term so they’re actually building for their future and the future of their children,” she said.
In order to get people off the streets and into suitable housing, whether it be to own or to rent, the government needs to continue to make affordable housing a priority, said Mary-Martha Hale, director of Centre 454, which provides support and social activities to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Ottawa.
“We need a government that wants to provide housing for people, that sees the value in providing stable housing for people, and that in and of itself is an investment in the community,” Hale said.
Even with the economic crisis, the question that Lorraine Bentley of Options Bytown is asking of the municipal government: “What’s more important: roads and sewers or people?”