As conversations surrounding affordable housing and renovictions continue to grow in the region, the City of Quinte West received a presentation about the state of affordable housing in the region at its council meeting on Wednesday.
Shannon Lawrence, with the Quinte West Affordable Housing Coalition, outlined the priorities of the group, stating that the coalition is organized by local citizens to combat the affordable housing crisis in the community.
“We’re just a grassroots movement of local citizens,” Lawrence stated.
“Citizens who worry about making their mortgage payments. Citizens who are worried about where our children, our grandchildren, would live in the future and we’re citizens who want to do something about it.”
Lawrence said the group was working to classify itself as a non-profit organization.
During the presentation, points discussed included rising rent, shortage of houses, short-term rentals like Airbnbs, and the ongoing renovictions by Bedford Properties.
Multiple surveys and news articles were cited in the discussion surrounding housing.
“The local motto is Quinte West is the best and while that may be very true for some, it’s untrue for a fast-growing number of locals,” Lawrence said.
“I keep hearing it’s not just us, it’s everywhere and I understand that, but it’s not a valid excuse.”
Lawrence wrapped up her presentation with several recommendations to address the issues of affordable housing.
Among them are changing by-laws to attract more affordable housing projects, implementing taxes that discourage vacant rentals and vacant private homes, and the city purchasing buildings for the purpose of turning them into affordable housing.
“Our children will work harder than us to be far poorer than we are today. That’s not right,” Lawrence told council.
“That’s setting them up for failure. What parent wants that? I know I sure don’t. We’re letting down entire generations of young people. We all have to do our part to fix this, government and citizens alike.”
Shannon Lawrence delivering a presentation on behalf of the Quinte West Affordable Housing Coalition. September 6, 2023. (Photo: Zach McGibbon/Quinte News)
After the presentation, several members from the coalition spoke during public input to describe their current living situation.
Among them was 24-year-old Thomas St. Louis, who explained the process of looking for affordable housing as a young person.
“My husband and I got kicked out by abusive parents and we were very fortunate to find rent for $1600 a month. All inclusive. That is a great deal.”
St. Louis hopes council will be able to come up with a solution, as well as other levels of government.
“People who are my age do not bother to come to these meetings and see you guys and talk to you guys,” St. Louis said.
“They’re more than happy to hide behind a screen and stuff but it just feels like saying anything does nothing and that we are not heard and we are labeled as lazy.”
Quinte West Mayor Jim Harrison outlining what the city has been doing to address the affordable housing crisis. September 6, 2023. (Photo: Zach McGibbon/Quinte News)
After public input, Mayor Jim Harrison provided an update to the residents in attendance on what was being done from the municipal level in order to address the issue of affordable housing.
Mayor Harrison said council members met with ministers about renovictions and how to address them.
“We presented a couple of proposals, one being that if they’re going to do renovations to an apartment, that some third party, a neutral third party, take a look at what has to be done and determine the length of time that it should take to do it,” Harrison told the gallery.
“The second part that we did discuss is the fact that if the landlord deems that the tenant has to find another place to live, then that’s the landlord’s responsibility to find that and provide it.”
Harrison noted that the asks were made to then Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark, who has since resigned in the fallout of the Ontario Greenbelt controversy.
The mayor also said the city had recently applied for the Housing Accelerator Fund.
“We have recently applied and put our application in for the accelerator fund which is giving funding to the municipality that we can then hopefully encourage other people to build and to build affordable housing in our city.”
Harrison concluded that the city was doing its best to improve and increase housing while also looking at ways to improve what the city does when it comes to affordable housing.
