09-21-2018, 02:35 PM
(09-21-2018, 01:11 PM)nms Wrote: Unfortunately, a lot of the affordable housing is clustered in downtown Waterloo and Kitchener. Apartments above stores are being renovated and are now listed as "Executive one-bedroom apartments", clearly out of the range of those who are supported by OW (Ontario Works Social Assistance), or ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program). I would like to see governments acknowledge that just as our horizontal neighbourhoods accommodate a range of income levels, that our vertical neighbourhoods do the same. For instance, if a developer recognized that their development is removing lower rent housing, that any new development include an equal or greater number of lower rent housing in the mix. Removing 20 units (or bedrooms) of lowe income housing to create 200 beds of higher income housing should require also replacing the 20 beds that are being displaced.
The Toronto Star wrote an article on a similar situation in Toronto: those who need to be in the core for work or services can no longer afford to live there.
Clearly we have a shortage of income-geared housing (which is really what you need for OW or ORDSP) in the region. However, I suspect most of the "apartments above stores" are not income-geared and thus not much more affordable than, say, the new (or renovated) mid-market rental apartments being proposed/built by companies such as Drewlo and Vive.
I don't think the cities currently enforce any one-for-one replacement of income-geared housing (or other low-rent housing, however that is defined), either in the cores or in the suburbia. I'm not aware of other cities that do that, either -- but I'm sure some must exist somewhere. I don't think pure zoning would enable this, some other tools would be needed.
The issue pointed out by Toronto Star is somewhat different, and has more to do with lower-paid working people not being able to afford rental housing near downtown Toronto. Apart from our commute distances being much shorter, the way to avoid this is to ensure a solid supply of mid-market housing so that the demand doesn't push the rents out of reach. Rentals in condo buildings like Charlie West and DTK don't really help here (the costs really are too high), but the Vive and Drewlo developments will.