You can now read a transcript of our June 6/23 housing event, Scaling Up Affordable Housing, or watch the video of the event.
Event Transcript: click here
Video Recording of Event: https://uuhamilton.ca/affordable-housing/
Presentation Slides: click here
Dr. Carolyn Whitzman provides a crash course on housing need and challenges and a
series of key solutions that include:
- Re-focusing the federal National Housing Strategy to fund construction of only non-profit housing, at rents low enough for individuals and households in core housing need, as well as funding to allow non-profits to buy existing market housing with affordable rents, to keep them affordable
- Stepping up provincial funding to provide supports needed to keep formerly homeless people housed, and making provincial land available for non-profit, affordable housing.
- Having municipalities do a thorough housing need assessment; set real targets for the amount of social housing that needs to get built; identify government-owned land and start leasing it or giving to social housing providers, free; work on property tax exemptions that a lot of charitable organizations should be able to get; waive fees; work with non-profit housing providers to change the zoning to make the projects work financially; and to speed up approvals of non-profit affordable housing projects.