{"id":71642,"date":"2021-12-01T10:35:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T15:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=71642"},"modified":"2021-12-01T10:35:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T15:35:58","slug":"ottawas-housing-services-sector-will-receive-210-million-to-aid-in-homelessness-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/ottawas-housing-services-sector-will-receive-210-million-to-aid-in-homelessness-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s housing services sector will receive $210 million to aid in homelessness prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Ottawa's Community and Protective Services Committee\u2019s 2022 budget will provide nearly $210 million towards housing services and homelessness prevention in the new year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee was approved on Nov. 18 to receive a total of $1.45 billion in 2022, with measures specifically targeting low-income housing. The committee received the largest approved budget, with funding to support paramedic services, mental healthcare, housing and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to their <\/span>2022 draft budget<\/span><\/a>, the committee will contribute a total of $15 million toward the Housing and Homelessness Investment Plan as part of the updated 10-year <\/span>Housing and Homelessness Investment Plan<\/span><\/a> released in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Action Logement is a charity that provides free housing and homelessness prevention services to low-income tenants in Ottawa. Executive Director Marie-Jos\u00e9e Houle says the task of finding suitable housing for individuals has become more challenging in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the housing crisis, there is no housing to move people into,\u201d says Houle. \u201cIn the past, if someone was having trouble paying their two bedroom apartment, we could say, \u2018Okay, well, let's look at your budget. And well, maybe we can move you into a one bedroom apartment, or find you something in a different area of the city,\u2019 so on and so forth. But now everything that's available on the market is a whole lot more than what people are currently paying for.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ottawa Mission<\/span><\/a> asserts that COVID-19 has led to an increase in homelessness. They estimate that since January 2020, an average of 1,900 individuals in Ottawa are in need of food or shelter on any given night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Ottawa\u2019s housing crisis was exacerbated by unemployment and rising inflation during the pandemic, rent prices have been on the rise for over a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to data from the <\/span>Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation<\/span><\/a>, the average monthly price of a one bedroom rental in Ottawa has risen from $888 in 2010 to $1,215 in 2020. This represents a 32 per cent annual rent increase over 10 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ontario is a rent-controlled province, meaning landlords can only raise rent by a certain amount every year. However, this policy does not apply to vacant units, resulting in very few affordable units available to rent at any given time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith regards to rental accommodation, our focus has been to keep people housed at all costs,\u201d says Houle. \u201cThe minute they lose their home...we cannot stabilize their tenancy. Because if they leave of their own choice, or if they are evicted, the affordability of that home is gone forever. Because the rent control doesn't apply to vacant units.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The updated 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan identified key factors contributing to homelessness, such as the impact of inflation on rent prices, and the lack of affordable units available for rent on the market. One of the objectives of the plan was to implement \u201cInclusionary Zoning\u201d\u2014a measure to <\/span>review Residential Fourth Zoning (R4) bylaws<\/span><\/a> in order to permit the development of more new low-income housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Community and Protective Services Committee will invest approximately $15-million in 2022 into housing services. The sector responsible for implementation of the 10-year plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Houle agrees that creating more affordable housing is integral to addressing Ottawa\u2019s housing crisis and will aid in homelessness prevention. But she urges policy makers to consider what affordability actually means to community members who get by using financial subsidies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe affordability question is huge,\u201d says Houle. \u201cSo someone might not need support, they might not need mental health or addiction support\u2014it is strictly a financial issue. And where people who are on OW and ODSP might have eaked by [before] with the help of the food bank and other resources, they might have been able to live on the private market without a subsidy. Now they absolutely can't.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Houle notes that she is happy to hear that the city will be taking financial measures to target housing in 2022, but she would also like to see the city act on prior housing commitments, such as the pledge to soften R4 zoning bylaws, and mitigating the loss of community housing projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to CHUO story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Ottawa’s Community and Protective Services Committee\u2019s 2022 budget will provide nearly $210 million towards housing services and homelessness prevention in the new year. The committee was approved on Nov. 18 to receive a total of $1.45 billion in 2022, with measures specifically targeting low-income housing. The committee received the largest approved budget,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":71655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[11044,370,11045,571,4570,11042,11043,7173,2055],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71642"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=71642"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=71642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}