Barrie’s affordable housing strategy needs to be rebuilt.
Sitting as planning committee Tuesday evening, city councillors took the first step by approving a staff review of the current strategy, the preparation of a report card and having staff report back with interim recommendations to the strategy.
“I think we’re going to need to be even more ambitious with the strategy, especially in terms of encouraging the market to build purpose-built rental to the point where it actually starts to bring rent down, because at the scale we’re doing it, we’re not going to touch the needle,” Mayor Jeff Lehman said.
“At the scale we’re working now, we have a decent chance if the (planned affordable housing) projects go through and happen of ending chronic homelessness, or at least having enough units to end chronic homelessness,” he added. “However, that problem of the nurse who can’t afford to live in Barrie anymore to the manufacturing workers who have to commute from Midland is going to get worse.
"And I think we’re going to need some really carefully considered planning policies with a whole bunch of different built forms to make up the kind of numbers we need," the mayor said. "We need thousands of rental units to actually start bringing down the average rent.”
Barrie’s affordable housing strategy set a goal of 840 new affordable housing units by 2025. The strategy’s purpose is to encourage, stimulate and increase the supply and range of affordable housing options to meet the needs of residents at all income levels and stages of life. As of Dec. 31, 2020, there was a cumulative total of 872 affordable housing units in Barrie.
But Michelle Banfield, the city’s director of development services, told councillors those numbers aren’t the whole story.
“If you take a look at those units you do see… quite a large number of second suites,” she said. “While it’s fantastic that second suites have taken off across the municipality… the difficulty with them is we’re truly trying to determine how affordable they are and for how long they’re affordable. It just becomes a bit tricky.
“Out of all the units that are second suites, the expectation is that 75 per cent of them are not affordable,” Banfield added. “So if you take that affordability discount… and apply through the entire reporting period (2018-20), we’d be looking more at having 619 new units. Again, still great, still new units, but not necessarily the 872 and it’s just important to note that.”
Most of the city’s affordable housing units are second suites, while only 14 per cent are units in new, affordable rental developments.
Coun. Mike McCann asked how much staff time was being spent on the affordable housing strategy and the housing market in general.
“House prices are soaring, especially in Barrie… and we keep on asking our developers to put in units that are subsidized,” he said. “Just because we want this to happen doesn’t mean we’re going to have development come forth. I don’t want to see a lot of staff time being used up in this type of marketplace when really the unknown is huge.
“The market could go up another 20 to 30 per cent and I just don’t know what the impact would be on the subsidized housing.”
Lehman pointed to the affordable housing task force, approved by city council Monday night. It’s a plan to co-ordinate Simcoe County, Barrie and charitable/not-for-profit housing projects and policies, to aggressively expand the supply of affordable housing, with particular emphasis on addressing the hardest to house.
But Barrie’s affordable housing problem reaches deeper, the mayor said.
Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre "is now telling me that nurses can’t afford housing in Barrie, as if there’s any question as to why this (the affordable housing strategy) is important,” Lehman said. “Purchasing a home is no longer possible for a nurse, on a nurse’s salary. At least early in his or her career.
“Purchase prices are still out of range for a single person on a pretty solid income,” Lehman said. “It’s all indicative of the impact of a housing market that no longer meets the needs of lower- and middle-income households. And our employers are starting to get worried about it, our business community. That’s a symptom of the run-up in prices.
“That’s way bigger than (a shortfall of) 200 second suites, as a problem and our housing strategy has traditionally targeted trying to create some more affordable units through various incentives, but the scale of the problem is way bigger than a municipal strategy can feasibly tackle," he added.
The 2021 city budget includes $3 million for the proposed development of a supportive, modular housing project on Vespra Street.
Councillors did suggest some other possible solutions at Tuesday’s meeting.
Deputy Mayor Barry Ward suggested future commercial plazas having residential apartments above their stores, noting families used to live that way in the 1940s and 1950s.
Coun. Robert Thomson suggested more variety in built forms of housing, such as back-to-back townhouses. Lehman said old church sites could be redeveloped for residential use.
The definition of "affordable" used in the housing strategy to establish the benchmark for measuring the number of affordable housing units in Barrie is what’s used in the Provincial Policy Statement and the city’s Official Plan.
In the case of ownership, it’s the least expensive of housing for which the purchase price results in annual accommodation costs which don’t exceed 30 per cent of gross annual household income for low- and moderate-income households, or housing with a purchase price at least 10 per cent below the average purchase price of a resale unit in the regional market area.
In the case of rental housing, it’s the least expensive of a unit for which the rent does not exceed 30 per cent of gross annual household income for low- and moderate-income households, or a unit with rent at or below the average market rent of a unit in the regional market area.
In addition to reviewing the city’s current affordable housing strategy, preparing a report card and reporting to councillors with any recommended interim updates to the strategy, staff would participate in and provide technical support — mapping, feasibility, expertise — to the affordable housing task force to aggressively expand the supply of affordable housing with the particular emphasis on addressing the hardest to house.
Staff would also develop a policy and mechanism for collecting cash contributions in lieu of affordable housing units in development applications and report back to councillors.
All applicable city fees, including planning and building services application fees and associated legal and administrative fees for qualifying affordable housing projects, would be waived as of Jan. 1, 2021.
“Affordable housing is a complex matter and there’s no one response that’s going to solve it all or someone would have done it by now,” Banfield said. “I think it’s about kind of finding our sweet spot, if you will, in terms of where we think we can make the most headway as a municipality. We’re suggesting let’s revisit that affordable housing strategy.”
City council will consider final approval of this motion at its April 12 meeting.
