I am writing as a staff…

I am writing as a staff member representing West Neighbourhood House, a United Way agency serving over 14,000 less-advantaged individuals a year, helping them to gain greater control over their lives and within their communities. We are also co-founders of the West End Coalition for Housing Justice. This coalition of nine agencies and community organizations is committed to ensuring that the affordable housing needs of low- and middle-income households are met, and advocating for policy change to expand affordable housing supply is central to our work. We have run nine housing policy consultations with over 100 program participants at three United Way agencies; as well as a consultation with representatives of over 20 organizations working in the housing and social service sectors.

Our position is that the new Ontario system of development charges and community benefits charges will need to enable municipalities to use fees from developers to compensate for the full range of impacts of the development, and to meet diverse local needs. This includes funding affordable housing development and preservation.

Time after time, people we've consulted have expressed frustration about the large condominium developments that are coming into many neighbourhoods, which are having complex and troubling effects. These include infrastructure-related issues such as overcrowding of streets, transit, and parks; as well as indirect economic impacts of pushing up prices of housing, goods, and services by attracting wealthier residents into the neighbourhood, making life increasingly costly for current residents. Compounding the problem, the developments are not providing any new housing units that lower-income residents can afford.

Without having the Regulations that will accompany this legislation, it is not clear whether the proposed Community Benefits Charges and Development Charges systems outlined in Bill 108 (Section 3) would give municipalities the tools and flexibility that they would need to both mitigate all negative impacts of new developments, and utilize development charges to meet local community needs, including affordable housing.

We will thus be paying close attention to this legislative process, and looking forward to working with our coalition partners and neighbours to engage actively in consultations around the Regulations, to ensure that these goals are achieved.