Dilkens tells Ottawa national strategy on affordable housing is key priority

Mayor Drew Dilkens is putting the federal government on notice that social housing in cities across the country needs to be addressed in the upcoming fall release of the National Housing Strategy.

“From our perspective, it’s making sure that they understand that we need the investments today in the stock that exists and money to look at building new stock,” said Dilkens, who issued a release Tuesday as mayor and as a member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Big City Mayors’ Caucus.

The National Housing Strategy was announced in the 2016 budget and will see the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. recommend how to spend $15 billion to address the problem.

“We have some of the oldest stock in the province of Ontario so pretty much like every city across Canada there has been underinvestment in social housing and its really a function of downloading by the province and not enough money to support the download that happened many years ago,” said Dilkens.

The Windsor-Essex County Housing Corp. oversees 7,743 units in Windsor and throughout the county, and much of that housing stock dates back several decades and is in need of repair and upgrading.

“We’ve got over 4,000 people on a waiting list for new stock. So for us it’s about expanding existing social housing stock but more importantly, in the short-term, renovating and repairing the stock that we have,” said Dilkens.

“We just know there’s $15 billion that’s been committed, which is a huge amount of money, but you recognize that’s for the whole country, so that can go pretty quick, so big city mayors have been really trying to drill down and see what the needs are on the ground in the cities.

“The federal government has the money and we’re the ones that have the problem.”

Dilkens said Windsor has been trying to deal with the problem by providing incentive programs to get people into homes, such as the Ontario Renovates program that provides forgivable loans to those who qualify so they can stay in their own home.

Another is the Home Ownership Downpayment Assistance Program, which is a forgivable loan to assist with the downpayment provided the recipient stays in the home for 20 years.

Dilkens said ideally Windsor would receive funding to build enough housing for the 4,040 people currently on a waiting list for social housing.

“There’s a big gap there,” said Dilkens.

“I just don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that this is Windsor-centric. This is what you’re seeing nationally.

“In some places it’s more heightened, like Toronto, it’s denser, they don’t have the land to build a lot of new social housing. Toronto wouldn’t even have a home ownership payment assistance program because even with the downpayment you couldn’t afford it.”

Dilkens hopes the government will allow for the individual needs of each city.

“So you put that money they get into different things that are appropriate for their city,” said Dilkens.

“Cities our size are much in the same boat. Every city in Canada is in the same boat where they need new social housing stock, and they need the existing stock repaired,” he added.