11-14-2021, 06:46 PM
(11-14-2021, 01:29 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: Unbelievably bad ideas.
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Limiting housing purchases to very specific groups of people who would have to be vetted by a whole new bureaucracy? Guaranteed mess. Look, if you’re a communist, just come out and say so. I don’t mean to be harsh, but what we need is fewer weird overly-specific rules about how people can use property, not more. What’s next, the local commissar will decide how many bedrooms you may rent/buy based on your family size?
I didn't say that they were good ideas, but they were the the only things that I could think of at the time.
The reality is that the current construction strategy is not working: no matter how many units are built, the price of accommodation does not come down. This is not limited to Waterloo Region; one only needs to look to Toronto. If anything, the more units that have been built in Toronto, the faster the demand for affordable housing has grown. I realize that correlation is not causation, but gentrifying formerly affordable units through a variety of methods (renovation, demolition or displacement) has failed to replace existing affordable units.
Developers need to get on board and provide affordable units on their new build properties. It should not be up to the neighbourhoods to be asked to make way for development because, "Trust us. As a developer, we only have the best interests of this community at heart. It's not about the money, but we need to double the allowable size of this development so all those poor people who want to buy a luxury condo have a place to live."
Yes, I am cynical of the development industry and I will remain so until they have produced a meaningful contribution to the affordable housing crisis rather than simply tossing a few dollars into the pot and pretending that that will be enough.