On Jan. 16, the Housing Supply Strategy that was presented to council identified 4,326 potential residential units within draft approved subdivisions.
This represents about 10 years of new housing that, for one reason or another, is not getting built. The same report identified development charge exemptions and reductions as an incentive option. I could not agree more.
This is why on May 14 I will be tabling the following motion: “That the City of Greater Sudbury directs the update to the Development Charges by-law 2019-100 include a three-year development charge fee moratorium on so-called ‘missing middle’ homes, including duplexes, triplexes, row houses, townhouses, and small multi-unit apartments of 30 units or less.”
I am also asking that current charges on single-family dwellings be frozen for three years. I believe that a temporary and targeted moratorium on development charges will provide an incentive to speed up the pace of construction.
We are in the midst of an attainable and affordable housing crisis and this moratorium is about getting housing built. The chronic lack of inventory has increased the prices of even older homes and has led to bidding wars and a level of desperation in the housing market that has not been seen before.
We are also in the midst of a rental housing crisis with a vacancy rate of 1.6 per cent. For context, a healthy balance in the rental market is when the vacancy rate is in the four- to five-per-cent range.
Rents have skyrocketed, waiting lists are getting longer and the word “renoviction” has now become part of the housing vocabulary. The impact of all this is severe. So much so that earlier this year I tabled a successful motion targeting renovictions, which are a contributing cause of homelessness.
We need to get more small- and medium-sized apartments on the market, pronto.
People will say that eliminating development charges will only benefit the developer, but they are wrong to think this way. It isn’t just about that one developer or each individual project. It is about getting housing built. It is about increasing the supply to meet the demand. We are in a supply crisis and we need our developers more than ever to build.
The reality is that too many of our young adults and families can no longer afford to buy their own home and find themselves living with their parents well past their fly away date. Renters are unable to save for a down payment fast enough to keep up with the ever-increasing housing costs.
Taking bold action now to create obtainable housing is crucial for our younger generation and to attract the talent needed to continue moving our city forward. Right now, we are growing our population faster than we are growing our housing. This is not good for our city or our taxpayers.
With the population growing faster than our housing supply, we have more people using our roads, water, wastewater, transit, police, ambulance, garbage, parks, libraries, etc., without the necessary increases in the residential tax base.
There is only one taxpayer and the cost burden of the population growth is falling too heavily on the existing property taxpayers. We need to grow the pie.
The provincial government set the tone with its Building Faster Fund which rewards municipalities that meet and exceed their housing targets. Last month, we received a cheque for $1.52 million, of which $500,000 was bonus money.
Development charges are not included in the annual budget and I believe that this targeted and temporary moratorium will keep us in the bonus money and offset any lost revenue. Building more housing faster also adds to the assessment sooner and that is a new property tax payer, year after year after year.
The recent federal budget also set the tone by introducing a $6-billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to be made available to municipalities across Canada. Accessing this fund requires a commitment to “key actions” that increase housing supply on “missing middle” homes, including duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and small multi-unit apartments.
I believe that this targeted and temporary moratorium sends exactly the right message to the federal government. In fact, I worded my motion that way. It demonstrates that we are indeed taking action to unlock housing development and will get us in line for our fair share of this money.
We do not have an arena crisis, but we need a new arena and have found more than $200 million for that. We do not have a library or art gallery crisis, but we want new ones and are finding millions for those.
What we do have is a very real and very painful housing crisis and we need to step up and join the feds and the province with bold commitments to building more housing and building it faster.
This three-year moratorium is about just that. It is about meeting the provincial and federal governments at the table and striking when the iron is hot.
It’s about doing something to unlock those 4,326 units and positively affect all taxpayers. It’s about showing our upcoming generation of homeowners and everyone struggling with availability and affordability in the housing market that we see you, we care and we are doing everything we can to help. It is about telling our builders and developers that we need you and we appreciate you. It is about working to solve a crisis.
Pauline Fortin is the Greater Sudbury city councillor for Ward 4.
