Words matter when it comes to housing

Plus, Ottawa's latest development dashboard

Words matter, especially when they come from the mouths of our political leaders.

Doug Ford made some comments about housing and infrastructure this week and I immediately focused on what he did not mention.

Ford talked about the types of housing his government wants to build: “We’re going to build homes, single-dwelling homes, townhomes, that’s what we’re going to focus on,” he said.

“Apartments” and “affordable, non-profit housing” was missing from that sentence.

He also announced a new infrastructure fund to help municipalities support housing growth. “We're launching the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program with $1 billion in funding that will support building core infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and water infrastructure,” he said.

But “transit” was sadly missing from that list.

I know that voters love to hear about more single family homes and roads, but it’s disingenuous for politicians to suggest these are sustainable solutions. We’re not going to solve our housing crisis without more investment in non-profit housing. And we’re not going to solve our transportation challenges without a lot more buses and trains. I’m pretty sure our leaders know this, and I wish they’d talk about it more.

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Residential pipeline target: We (almost) did it!

The latest Residential Dwelling Approval Pipeline report is on the agenda of this week’s Planning & Housing Committee. These are the full-year numbers from 2023 and – surprise! – despite tracking well below our provincial targets for most of the year, we ended up at 93%.

How did we finish so much better than expected? A bit of goalpost moving, I think:

• A year or so ago, the province gave us a 10-year target of 151,000 homes, so we assumed the yearly target would be 15,100 homes. Then in February, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) gave us some clarity on yearly targets and moved the number lower to 11,073 for 2023.

• Second, the province decided to count not just housing starts, but also “additional residential units” like long-term care beds and basement apartments. That boosted the number by more than 20%.

With over 90% of our target met, we’re eligible for additional growth-related infrastructure funding from the province. We still have no idea how much, or what it can be used for. Stay tuned I guess?

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Recommended reading this week is from the Globe & Mail: Why you can’t afford a home, in 10 charts. Demographics, rental vacancy, construction challenges, supply chains… it all lines up to paint a very grim picture.

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Next week: I’ll write about OC Transpo’s New Ways to Bus, coming soon to a bus stop near you.

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