The city’s housing committee is narrowing its focus, at least by name.
Council this week approved renaming the housing committee, which will become the affordable housing committee.
Coun. Tim Lauer has been on the housing committee for about eight years. He said the committee decided the city’s Affordable Housing Action Plan, created in 2010, should be resurrected (it was shelved by the previous council) and its lengthy list of recommendations should be re-prioritized.
The committee held numerous consultations with community stakeholders, the County of Simcoe, the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) and others as it attempted to revive the plan.
The committee will now focus on 14 recommendations. However, the work on those plans isn’t expected to begin until 2019. It will be up to the next term of council to populate the new affordable housing committee, which could bring recommendations to the table individually for council consideration.
Coun. Ralph Cipolla asked what that would mean for matters relating to regular, not affordable, housing.
“I don’t believe the committee was contemplating holding onto the traditional housing committee as it stands right now,” city CAO Gayle Jackson said.
Most issues relating to regular housing go through the planning or building department, Cipolla was told. Affordable housing always made up the bulk of the matters the committee dealt with anyway.
“The intent of changing the name to the affordable housing committee is just to identify what it’s actually doing,” Lauer said.
The 14 recommendations are as follows:
1: Work with the county to continue to advocate to senior levels of government for increased funding under affordable housing and homelessness support programs.
2: Consider the creation of affordable housing requirements for all new developments as per the Promoting Affordable Housing Act Bill 7 to help meet affordable housing needs.
3: Continue to promote the provision of available municipal incentives in order to achieve the development of the affordable housing objectives as laid out in the Simcoe County “Our Community 10-Year Affordable Housing and Homelessness Prevention Strategy,” with its target of 2,685 affordable housing units, divided into three phases of 895 units during 2014-2017, 2018-2020, 2021-2024.
4: Work with the County of Simcoe and senior levels of government to create an inventory of surplus government lands, and, where deemed appropriate, consider for the development of affordable housing.
5: Adhere to provincial accessibility guidelines for affordable housing, in keeping with the Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Accessibility for Ontarians (AODA) with Disabilities Act’s standards. Collaborate with the Accessibility Advisory Committee to investigate opportunities to provide support and education on new and existing developments under AODA.
6: Continue to promote the various renovation and energy efficiency programs to help educate residents, housing providers, and private landlords on funding programs currently available.
7: Investigate the development of alternative forms of affordable ownership models such as rent-to-own and home ownership co-operatives.
8: Work with post-secondary institutions to create additional post-secondary residence development in Orillia.
9: Investigate the feasibility of establishing a Rental Registry Program.
10: Work with community agencies to develop a feasibility study for creating transitional housing for youth in the City of Orillia and work with community agencies to provide a recovery orientation focusing on individual wellness, which goes beyond merely providing housing and minimal supports by also focusing on building assets, confidence, health, and resilience. It ensures that young people have access to a range of supports that enable them to nurture and maintain social, recreational, educational, occupational, and vocational activities.
11: Work with LHIN, the county and other funded community agencies to secure funding to address housing and support needs of persons with mental health and addictions and vulnerable seniors needing care.
12: Consider dedicating staff and financial resources to advance affordable housing strategies as a city priority. To this end consider the creation of a housing co-ordinator position who would work in conjunction with the County of Simcoe to assist in the coordination of housing programs, facilitate the development of housing policy and incentives, and monitor the implementation of the City of Orillia Affordable Housing Action Plan.
13: Consider the establishment of an Affordable Housing Task Force or a reconstituted Affordable Housing Committee consisting of representatives from the private sector (landlords, developers, and builders), the non-profit housing sector, community support agencies, the county, city council and city staff.
14: Consider the establishment of an affordable housing reserve fund.
