This week at City Hall the Audit, Community and Social Services, and Planning and Housing Committees met. In each case we discussed 2024 Draft Budgets, and my colleagues and I were privileged to hear from residents who volunteered their time to delegate at these meetings.
At Planning and Housing Committee, staff are proposing an allocation of $23.8 million for Affordable Housing Capital. I am pleased to see this large increase from the 2023 budget of $15 million. However, we are facing a crisis, and there is an urgency to invest more capital funds. We have almost 1800 units in the pipeline, and they need to be built as soon as possible.
This week we learned an astounding new figure – for every one unit of housing being built, we are losing 31. We lose units through a variety of ways, including renoviction, demoviction, short term rental, and re-listings at higher costs. This is a frightening number.
That is a monumental change from what we were previously seeing, which was one unit built resulting in seven lost. This new statistic should be raising even more alarm bells than ever before. We were already swimming against the tide, but at this rate we will sink if we do not do more and faster.
According to the report from staff, 406 affordable units are expected in 2024, and completion of 463 affordable and supportive units are anticipated.But we need to build more homes and at an increasing rate. We are losing affordable homes faster than we are building them.
With the very low vacancy rate in Ottawa and the lack of options for homes, costs continue to rise, we are seeing more use of the food banks, and more people sleeping rough on our streets. If we are serious about our commitment to housing and ensuring everyone has a home, then we need to invest more as a city.
Coupled with housing vacancy pressure and the rising cost of housing, I and my colleagues heard from many residents, volunteers and not-for-profit groups during the delegations for the Community and Social Services 2024 Draft Budget.
21 speakers came out and the overwhelming focus was the need for affordable housing, the rising a lack of food security, and disappearing services. A City needs partners, but we heard from many organizations and city partners who are seeing the costs of inflation impact their ability to provide services and food. While the City can provide come funding, we also need our Provincial partners to come forward to help. Food bank usage in Ontario has increased by 38 percent over the past year, and Food Banks across Ontario have been urging the provincial government to increase their funding.
Lastly, this week at the Audit Committee meeting we received the Investigation of Allegations Related to Planning Activities for the Conservancy Development from the Auditor General. The report speaks to inappropriate actions by some City of Ottawa staff to influence the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority related to the approval of a cut-and-fill permit for the development in Barrhaven.
This report was very concerning to me, especially given the large floodplain across Bay ward. As such I put forward a motion that asked Committee to recommend Council forward the City’s Auditor General report to the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario for further investigation if they see fit. It is important to forward this report via Council in order to show the provincial Auditor General we are concerned with the way in which the cut and fill application was approved and ensure transparency of process.
The motion failed on a tie vote, but I will be reviving it and bringing it to Council. I hope my colleagues will support the motion and send a sign to the Provincial Auditor General that there is need for further investigation into this matter.
