Report 2024-420 from Planning and Building Services regarding the draft Housing Affordability Strategy dated October 8, 2024, be received.

2:36:34great we have everybody coming back on thank you

2:36:38all right we're on our last item for tonight everybody it's the draft housing affordability

2:36:43strategy strategy and we're going to kick things off with a presentation from our staff

2:36:53kushla is here and lucas is here um may i just say off the top

2:37:00no no no no no you can go up i'm going to be eight seconds uh i have seen the two of you running

2:37:07around everywhere since you've been given this file and may i just say right up front this is

2:37:14excellent work thank you very very much for what you've done and i'm really looking forward to the

2:37:19we're all looking forward to your presentation uh but i it is not uh it's not not noticeable by

2:37:27not noticeable by anyways me being here in the building all the time i see the amount of work

2:37:32you've done on this both internally and externally and so i just want to thank you very much for

2:37:36this draft that's before us so yeah if anyone is here in the room or anyone's listening online

2:37:41this is draft the whole reason for this being draft is uh the process is to get more feedback

2:37:47and then uh engagement will happen and i'm sure that we'll get get uh discussed today over the next

2:37:53couple of months or so and then it's going to come back for actual final uh approval okay with

2:37:58whatever that however that looks like after more engagement so kushla thank you very very much

2:38:03for what you've done i just wanted to state that right at the top it's this is good work so go right

2:38:07ahead that's on right yep okay great thanks so much um for the introduction margat three so

2:38:13hi margat three and members of council planning just a little bit closer there

2:38:32second is that better that's better okay um so uh thanks again so uh lucas and i are here today

2:38:43to provide you with a brief summary actually maybe not so brief about 20 minutes um of the

2:38:48draft actions contained in the draft housing affordability strategy so these actions were

2:38:54crafted over the spring and summer of this year with the support of our consultants still in

2:38:59consulting and watson and associates but before we get into the draft actions let's quickly go

2:39:05back to the beginning for context and then go somewhat over some of the analysis that has

2:39:09been completed since the spring this project was initiated in september of 2023 and between

2:39:19september to december staff worked on the state of housing and guelph report that can be most

2:39:24easily explained it's a document that identified the gaps as it relates to housing needs in guelph

2:39:31focusing primarily on market housing the five key issues that were generated from this report

2:39:37became the foundation for the draft actions that are presented in the draft strategy

2:39:42essentially we needed to figure out using the tools that we have at our disposal at the municipal

2:39:47level how we can help to close the gaps or alternatively how to stop the gaps from growing

2:39:54bigger so the five key issues that were identified in that report are listed there on the slide and

2:40:02it's going over it very quickly that we're working towards achieving our affordable housing targets

2:40:08that there is a need for smaller units there's a need to increase the supply of primary rental

2:40:13units that the secondary market offers more affordable choices but could benefit from

2:40:20from stability offered by the primary rental market and finally there is a need for an increased

2:40:26supply of non-market rental housing and before we get into the draft actions we will always

2:40:35start with talking about what we mean when we say the words affordable housing we are required

2:40:42and mandated to use the province's definition which very recently changed to a very modest degree

2:40:48so let's first focus on affordable housing ownership so the definition and it's up there on

2:40:55your screen i'll go over it very quickly is the least expensive of housing for which the

2:41:01purchase price results in an annual accommodation cost which does not exceed 30% of gross annual

2:41:07household income for low and moderate income households and i'll go over that low and moderate

2:41:13in a second or housing for which the purchase price is at least 10% below the average purchase

2:41:19price of a resale unit in the municipality we know that the term low and moderate income

2:41:26households is used to define those whose incomes lie within the 30th to 60th income deciles and

2:41:36this would account for approximately 40% of guelph's population so 40% of guelph's population

2:41:42lie within that those income deciles the top end of that 60th income desal range in terms of actual

2:41:50household income is around and it's approximate here 125 000 annually when looking at this from an

2:41:57ownership perspective so with the modified provincial definition also came a provincial

2:42:06bulletin and bulletin is essentially a whole bunch of numbers which will be which we are told

2:42:14will be updated annually and that breaks down what the thresholds are both market and income

2:42:20based for market income based housing and then indicates what the affordable housing benchmark

2:42:26price is depending on what is least expensive so in the case of ownership again we can see

2:42:34that the market based thresholds so those ones in that second to the left column

2:42:39are higher than the income based thresholds so the one next to it to the right so in this case

2:42:46because income based is lower those are the numbers that apply those are the thresholds that apply

2:42:52now if we bring together the information that we have on low and moderate income households

2:42:58which are those again i'm just going to keep repeating similar types of information but

2:43:03those are the households that lie between that 30th and 60th income desal ranges

2:43:07we know a couple of things first we know that 20 percent of Guelph's households are captured

2:43:14in that up to 30th income desal and secondly and this is a repeat again of information but we also

2:43:20know that 40 percent of current households in Guelph fall within the definition of low and moderate

2:43:27so the answer to the question on the slide about what a low and moderate income household

2:43:32could afford in Guelph the answer is that only those in the 60th income desal or higher can afford

2:43:41to purchase a home in Guelph at 398 thousand dollars and would need an estimated minimum income

2:43:49of approximately 125 thousand dollars so we need to stress that this is based again on the provincial

2:43:58definition these numbers are based on the provincial definition not on realistic prices

2:44:02of units which as you can see based on mark the market threshold they do not align and that is

2:44:09ultimately the challenge that we will continue to butt up against as we work through the housing and

2:44:14housing affordability portfolio similarly what do we mean when we say or when we talk about

2:44:22affordable housing from a rental perspective so similarly for the definition of rental it is

2:44:27also the least expensive of a unit for which the rent does not exceed 30 percent of income

2:44:33or a unit for which the rent is at or below average market rent and again we're going to go back to

2:44:43a table of numbers which is again is the provincial bulletin and we can see here that the

2:44:49market-based rents in this case are lower than the income-based rent thresholds so in this case

2:44:56the market-based threshold is what is used to define what is affordable rent for 2024

2:45:03so let's bring in the incomes again for low and moderate income households to see what is

2:45:09affordable in Guelph if we look at the bachelor which is about 1160 dollars the minimum annual

2:45:17affordable annual income is about 46,400 dollars for that and we know that about 70 percent of

2:45:24renter households in Guelph can afford a bachelor unit at that price in terms of a one bedroom which

2:45:33is 1508 up here the minimum affordable annual household income for that would be about 60,320

2:45:41and we know that about 50 percent of renter households in Guelph can afford a one bedroom

2:45:46apartment for two bedrooms the annual household income would be 65,840 approximately and again

2:45:5450 percent of renters and rental households in Guelph could afford that and finally for the three

2:46:00plus bedrooms a minimum annual household income of about 67,800 would be necessary and again 50

2:46:09percent of renter households in Guelph can afford that unit price so I know I'm giving you a lot

2:46:19of numbers I'm going to give you some more but you're certainly welcome to have questions on them

2:46:25afterwards but now let's take a look at some of the data that we've received on housing needs in

2:46:31Guelph beyond what was provided in the state of housing report in Guelph in December so as we've

2:46:37been working on drafting the actions we have also been working on determining how many affordable

2:46:42units both ownership and rental would be needed to support our population to the year 2051 and

2:46:51again it's according to that provincial definition that we just went over so our colleagues from

2:46:55Watson and associates have provided these figures and what it is showing is that out of approximately

2:47:0126,000 units that are needed to be built to 2051 to support a population approximately 8,700 of

2:47:10those are about 33 percent will need to be affordable this 8,700 figure is broken down even

2:47:19further to show that 2640 units or about 18 percent will need to be affordable ownership units

2:47:29and around 6,060 or 53 percent of the total will need to be rental units so we know this is a

2:47:37significant number and while it will be challenging to achieve this number we know that the community

2:47:44need is strong so this is essentially what happens when we've had decades of disinvestment

2:47:53in subsidized and social housing mixed with socio-economic indicators and factors this is the

2:48:01these are the numbers that we're seeing for our community and these are not singular to our community

2:48:06Guelph is in the same boat as many other communities across Canada it's a big number however now

2:48:13knowing these numbers allows us to approach this affordability crisis with open clear eyes

2:48:20knowing these numbers is critical as we work towards achieving these goals with our county of

2:48:25Wellington colleagues community agencies home building community nonprofits and many many others

2:48:37we're able to take the step these numbers one step further in terms of breaking them down

2:48:42for the rental target of that approximately 6,060 units a range of affordability types will be needed

2:48:50this is this table illustrates that range based on a specific percentage of average market rent or AMR

2:48:59by so that blue is highlighted there so by focusing on the 80 to 100 percent AMR we can bridge between

2:49:06the housing offered by the county which is already facing increased pressures and typical market rate

2:49:14and above market rents by supporting that portion that 80 to 100 percent we can cool the pressure on

2:49:19both on throughout the affordability needs by focusing on the area where there is the largest

2:49:27majority of need and in terms of doing a little bit more math if you break on 2120 over 27 years

2:49:37which is 2024 to 2051 that's approximately 78 units per year that would need to be

2:49:43affordable rental that need to be built in terms of ownership the city will need to continue to

2:49:51work collaboratively to facilitate the creation of about 2,640 affordable ownership units by

2:49:582051 and that is approximately 98 units annually to 2050 so briefly I just want to go over the

2:50:08this the vision this is a vision that was created through again much of the public engagement that

2:50:14we did from the beginning of the year till till June this is in terms of what people would like

2:50:21how people would like to see us Guelph in the future so I'll just read it very quickly that Guelph

2:50:26is a welcoming community where diverse housing options are available for residents as a human

2:50:31right we have homes that are affordable accessible and suitable regardless of income age or situation

2:50:39by working with our private and not-for-profit part sector partners and other levels of government

2:50:44we will emerge as leaders in addressing housing affordability current and future residents will

2:50:49thrive in their ideal homes we also came up with three goals that we collaborated on with the

2:50:58public and many of the people that we in our terms of our housing affordability strategy focus

2:51:03group as well so we've identified three goals and our actions in the draft strategy are structured

2:51:08under these three goals the first goals that our community is able to access affordable housing or

2:51:14housing that is affordable throughout the city goal two is that our community can contribute to

2:51:20diverse and inclusive housing options for everyone and finally our community knows and shares the

2:51:27importance of long-term housing options so in terms of the draft actions that you that sorry the

2:51:39draft actions that you're going to see are based on what we heard again through public engagement

2:51:44from spring through june of this year we are also able to capture voices during that engagement that

2:51:50typically do not participate in this type of project the draft actions focus on what we can do

2:51:58there are some actions that push the envelope and others that speak to ensuring that it is clear

2:52:04that we will need to continue to work together towards increasing the supply of housing in

2:52:10wealth as lucas will take you through some actions are already underway because we have

2:52:16received funding to advance them ultimately there also needs to be a recognition that that any actions

2:52:24that we advance need to be done so as thoughtfully and as prudently as possible we cannot do everything

2:52:31all at once so when we come back to you in december with the final recommended strategy we will

2:52:37provide some details through an implementation plan that will speak to prioritizing the draft actions

2:52:43so lucas will provide some more details around that and happy to hand it over to lucas now thank

2:52:55you kushla so here are some examples of strategic actions that the city has already started working

2:53:01on some of which have already been in front of council or are coming to council in the coming months

2:53:08so for example the city is currently working on permitting more housing options such as four units

2:53:13as of right in low density residential zones once the province finishes amending ontario

2:53:18regulation 2 9 9 slash 19 for additional residential units city staff will be coming back with a final

2:53:25decision report later tonight well earlier tonight you heard about an affordable housing

2:53:30demonstration project on 14 edembro road south to get to that point staff needed to first create

2:53:37an inventory of city land assets to determine what lands could be used for affordable housing

2:53:43on november 13th council planning meeting city staff will present work on an affordable housing

2:53:48community improvement plan or cip which will include a number of programs to incentivize

2:53:53more affordable housing development including affordable ardu development

2:53:59then finally on september 17th council discussed an information report that contained background

2:54:05information on renovation bylaws staff heard similar commentary during our engagement sessions

2:54:11held as part of the draft housing affordability strategy that kushla mentioned and are now

2:54:15presenting a suite of options to be considered to protect existing affordable housing stock

2:54:21so this could include a renovation bylaw as well as a rental replacement bylaw and a targeted

2:54:27penalty fee or fine system for known vacant homes in the city staffer of the opinion that these

2:54:34three pieces should be evaluated and reported on together as one comprehensive program so these

2:54:45actions in front of council are brand new to the city when it comes to affordable housing development

2:54:49so while some of these actions are new they do include roles that will be familiar to many of

2:54:55us and make use of existing strengths such as an educational role through the development of yimby

2:55:01principles to build community support for new affordable and inclusive housing proposals

2:55:06a policymaker role through changing minimum parking requirements for affordable housing

2:55:11developments to make it easier for those developments to be financially feasible

2:55:16an asset manager role by considering if any new or existing city-owned land asset could include

2:55:22housing and finally a decision maker role by evaluating whether the city should move beyond

2:55:28providing financial assistance and incentives to determine if there's another model to accelerate

2:55:34the building of affordable housing so the city can't do all of these actions alone we need to

2:55:42collaborate with a variety of groups organizations and community members to create that affordable

2:55:47housing so for example this could include working with an equity deserving group to access specific

2:55:53funding opportunities from cmhc for affordable housing development we also want to investigate

2:55:59and evaluate alternative and creative affordable housing types such as community land trusts

2:56:04and target and support funding for these housing models we can also work with places of worship

2:56:10to identify those community assets to develop affordable housing a good example of this is

2:56:15kindred works who specifically works with the united church of canada and they build affordable

2:56:20housing on their place of worship sites we also know that housing is just one part of a community

2:56:26so we want to work with our neighborhood groups community leagues social agencies and others

2:56:31to build that social equity and inclusion so that everyone knows that they belong in guelph

2:56:38so this draft housing affordability strategy is quite large it contains more actions on

2:56:43affordable housing than ever before that's been presented to council a strategy gives us the ability

2:56:48to be proactive and targeted in our approach to these actions so that we have a strong basis to

2:56:53make decisions on what works and what doesn't work this strategy however does not contain all of our

2:57:00housing efforts but is targeted specifically at affordable housing however those other efforts

2:57:05are not stopping our development planning team continues to find efficiencies in application

2:57:10process time we're doing a height study to determine if more heights can be accommodated

2:57:14in our downtown and development planning work on the guelph innovation district

2:57:19claire mulpy and dole lime is ongoing so as we consider these actions and how to prioritize

2:57:24we need a strong implementation plan staff are now building that implementation plan as well as a

2:57:31monitoring and evaluation framework this important component of the draft housing affordability

2:57:37strategy will establish the work plan for how to see these actions through over the next 10 years

2:57:42it will include what will be needed from staff for each action what city staff will be responsible

2:57:48for implementing the action how we track how each action is coming along and what financial

2:57:53implications on budget will be for each action so when it comes to past strategies this particular

2:57:59component is something new but it's just as critical it's the key to making sure that each

2:58:04action is well thought out is reasonable and effective often monitoring and evaluation can

2:58:10be an underappreciated component of strategy related work so although we have significantly

2:58:15expedited the delivery of a strategy of this size and we all want to get to work right away

2:58:20there are differences in actions that are the quick wins and actions that are more complex

2:58:25and thus need more time to develop the implementation plan gives us that full clear picture and

2:58:31something that will inform work plans as well as future reporting so during the next half of October

2:58:38staff will be doing a number of engagement events including some of the dates shown on the slide

2:58:44so this list has already grown and changed we've recently added a pop-up event tentatively for

2:58:49the Mitchell Woods public school in the west end on October 21st so really for the most accurate

2:58:54information on where we will be and if any of the dates change want to encourage everyone to follow

2:58:59our have your say page at www.haveyoursay.gwelf.ca slash housing affordability we'll also be presenting

2:59:07the draft housing affordability strategy to several advisory committees including the accessibility

2:59:11advisory committee the planning advisory committee and the housing affordability strategy focus group

2:59:17as kushla mentioned the final recommended housing affordability strategy which will include that

2:59:21implementation plan and monitoring framework will be presented to council on December 10th 2024

2:59:28and so this is the recommendation before council tonight and kushla and i are happy to

2:59:32answer any questions or take back any comments as needed thank you to you both awesome presentation

2:59:39and uh i'm sure we'll have lots of questions and such and when we get to that point but again

2:59:44thank you very much we do have a few delegations and uh so dominica mcpherson who we know very well

2:59:52is from the guelpham allington uh poverty task force for sorry task force for poverty elimination

2:59:59i said it the wrong way come on down and this is this just so everyone knows is delegating this is

3:00:05five minutes uh not 10 so we've kind of changed to a different thing so it's five minutes no more

3:00:11you'll hear a beep uh or a chime at four minutes and 30 seconds uh and then the microphone will

3:00:16be turned off five minutes so don't let it get to that uh and then to stick around just in case there

3:00:21is uh any uh questions okay dominica thanks and nice to see you go right ahead good evening uh thank

3:00:29you uh mayoring counselors for the opportunity to speak today on this critical issue on behalf

3:00:34of the poverty task force the housing affordability crisis in guelph has reached a scale that demands

3:00:40significant bold action this draft housing strategy presents a strong vision and sets the stage for

3:00:47guelph to become leader in housing affordability i want to commend council and city staff especially

3:00:54kushla and lucas uh for your commitment and work to date in this regard and the state of housing

3:01:01report revealed that only 30 of households in guelph can rent a unit at what would be considered

3:01:06affordable based on their income combined with pressures households face in being able to purchase

3:01:11and own a home this means the vast number of guelph residents are living with housing stress

3:01:18and for many the situation is dire though most impacted it's not just those living with the

3:01:24lowest incomes who are struggling recent research from the canadian center for policy alternatives

3:01:30found that even full-time minimum wage workers cannot afford to rent in guelph housing affordability

3:01:36is a challenge that cuts across all sectors affecting our community's overall well-being and

3:01:42economic vitality while i recognize the important role the county of wellington plays as the

3:01:47municipal service manager it's also clear that the city has a vital role to play in supporting and

3:01:53enabling the creation of affordable housing including deeply affordable housing through the

3:01:59city's policies planning decisions and financial tools which you control you hold significant power

3:02:06in dictating how impactful the county's work and an update housing and homelessness plan can be for

3:02:11guelph this strategy is a tremendous opportunity to not only be responsive but bold and proactive

3:02:19over the next 10 years you have the power to shape the future of housing and guelph that means

3:02:24creating the right planning and policy context and offering financial and administrative support to

3:02:29advance affordable and deeply affordable housing in tandem with the county and community's efforts

3:02:35the choice you make now will have long-lasting effects and whether people can realize their

3:02:39human right to housing in this community moving forward i urge you to prioritize the following

3:02:46stop the loss of affordable housing you must act swiftly on preventing the further loss of existing

3:02:52affordable housing stock through advancing proposed actions including a renovation and

3:02:57rental replacement bylaw as you know when affordable units are lost to renovictions or

3:03:03dem evictions they are often replaced with market rate units that many can no longer afford

3:03:08your leadership in this area is critical in ensuring that our city doesn't grow and develop

3:03:13at the expense of people losing their homes second create more affordable housing it's

3:03:20essential to level the tools available to you to increase affordable housing stock including

3:03:24unlocking city-owned land for affordable housing development by advancing actions that include

3:03:29the development and implementation of a land strategy offering regulatory and financial

3:03:35incentives that make affordable housing projects feasible including fast-tracking approvals

3:03:40investing in incentives in the affordable housing reserve as you've done in the past

3:03:44and supporting a favorable planning environment that removes barriers for affordable housing

3:03:48development it's also crucial that you are forward thinking and also considering the direct role the

3:03:54city could play in developing affordable housing and in playing a more intentional role in project

3:04:00partnership third prioritize deeply affordable housing while partnerships with private sector

3:04:07with the private sector can help with land donations inclined support or upper level

3:04:11affordability we must recognize that the nonprofit co-op and public housing sectors are best positioned

3:04:17to create deeply affordable housing if we are serious about addressing the needs of those most

3:04:22impacted by this crisis we must bolster these sectors by prioritizing their projects for city

3:04:28support and ensuring these key players have the capacity to respond both now and into the future

3:04:35in conclusion addressing our community's housing needs is a monumental task that requires

3:04:41collaboration across all levels of government which as you know can be challenging but each

3:04:46must activate the tools available to them this housing strategy is your opportunity to do just

3:04:52that the decisions you make will shape whether wealth becomes a place where everyone can thrive

3:04:57or one that only those with higher incomes can afford as you continue with this process I urge

3:05:03you to be bold and visionary this is really exciting and I hope that you use this opportunity to

3:05:09advance solutions that ensure housing is truly a human right for all in our community thank you

3:05:17thank you Dominica appreciate you coming down for your presentation and we got two questions

3:05:25one from council start with councillor Allt please and then to councillor arourke

3:05:31Guthrie thank you mismic first in for your presentation

3:05:36anecdotally I was wondering if you could provide a couple of examples of how bad you consider it

3:05:43to be and I'm wondering if you can break it down in terms of demographics seniors young people

3:05:50or whomever how bad is the problem with yeah I mean that's a big question

3:06:00but I would say it's it's to the extent that historically it's been uncommon to see

3:06:06different populations experiencing the depth of pressure that they are today I often link this

3:06:11to the type of income programs and and realities that are available for people in the past you

3:06:18know a minimum wage worker could afford a place to live in Guelph and we've seen increasingly

3:06:23through that rental wage research of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives that workers would

3:06:28need to work more and more and more hours at minimum wage far exceeding what's legal to be able to

3:06:35actually afford the rental rates in our community so it's having a significant impact on our on

3:06:39our economy more broadly and and people being available to work but I would also say in the

3:06:45past we didn't see older adults experiencing the depth of housing precarity or homelessness as we

3:06:51are today we have some some basic income tile supports for that in our country and and we're

3:06:58realizing that a lot of that social safety net's no longer working for populations who previously

3:07:03weren't facing those pressures and then beyond that data we know that most of the populations you see

3:07:09coming from more marginalized groups racialized communities you know lone parent households

3:07:14women we're seeing a lot of those intersections continue in terms of the pressure that people

3:07:20are facing we've seen an increase in family homelessness in our community which is something

3:07:25that we have not seen to this depth at all in the past as well as increased pressures for

3:07:31for newcomers or people even claiming refugee status in our communities so it this is dire

3:07:39it's serious I know many of you know this already and just in general just really excited about the

3:07:44prospect of this really being your opportunity to you know choose rather than managing the issue

3:07:49to actually solve it and play a really pivotal role in in addressing that type of pressure that

3:07:55we're seeing inequitably distributed across our population right now thank you very much I'm

3:08:00extremely concerned about elder poverty and I think that you you identified that as a concern

3:08:06there are a couple of other concerns our staff experts who just presented

3:08:12raised some important points about the types of housing that are necessary in wealth I believe

3:08:20that we're we're missing one and that is large family housing and I think maybe you just alluded

3:08:26to that right now are we seeing challenges with larger families requiring two three and even four

3:08:34bedroom units and and that not being addressed or am I incorrect no I would say that's correct

3:08:40based on the data that I've seen is is when we're looking at core housing need data in particular

3:08:45as you get to kind of the higher end of the the income affordability level there what we see

3:08:52disproportionately is who's facing that core housing need pressure our larger family sizes

3:08:57so to your point I appreciate the the research staff have talked about in terms of smaller units

3:09:02and some of those things on a broader scale definitely pertinent but I think when we're

3:09:07looking specifically at the deepest pressures to your point if there's some nuance built

3:09:12within that when you're looking at the specifics of what people can afford so I would say that's

3:09:17true but I would still say we continue to see that who's facing the greatest pressure our single

3:09:21adults who you know are living off social assistance rates and and just not able to get by let alone

3:09:28afford a roof over their head thank you very much for for um parsing that as well I

3:09:34I appreciate that I think the work of staff has been excellent one other area that I think

3:09:39you're a bit of an expert on is renovations what's the climate like out there with that

3:09:45from your experience is it getting worse in my experience it's it's definitely getting worse

3:09:52again there's no formal kind of data on this that I have access to at this time

3:09:57but we do know from data and trends across the country this isn't something that's isolated to

3:10:01gulf alone it's why we've seen other municipalities do measures like renovation and rental replacement

3:10:07but I would say just talking to the legal clinic recently they've seen an increase in those types

3:10:11of of evictions and I think just anecdotally from the community it's increasingly I'm hearing

3:10:17about it more and more we heard recently from brant residence just about how many of the buildings

3:10:22in that neighborhood alone are at risk of broader renovation um measures so

3:10:29yeah the last question is is about the planning environment you made references to barriers

3:10:36that need to be broken down and I'm going to ask the same question to planning because I suspect

3:10:41many of those barriers are legal obligations uh what are the barriers that you see that you would

3:10:47like to see broken down so that's a great question and now you're now you're reaching the limitations

3:10:52of my planning nerdness and I'd actually to be honest I'd like to commend staff um just for

3:10:59identifying some of those barriers and and taking taking efforts to try and move in

3:11:04directions to do that I know a lot was learned through partnering with uh some of the nonprofits

3:11:08in recent years who who are building supportive housing um and to staff's credit especially

3:11:13Christa um I just want to acknowledge that staff have been really looking about that I think some

3:11:18of the measures that will lead to those barriers increasingly being removed are reflected in the

3:11:22actions that you see in this draft policy or strategy thank you for being a better nerd than me

3:11:29yeah and that's hard to do so sorry I'm up for the challenge all right now thank you please

3:11:39stay with us because I have two more counselors that have questions uh ororc and then busatil

3:11:44thank you margathri uh through you to miss person just a quick question I had a friendly

3:11:49disagreement with the developer a couple weeks ago about um quantity of units on the market and I

3:11:55said well we're a drive to the qualify kind of town and so people are gonna come here if the

3:12:02homes are cheaper so we're never meeting the needs in this community right so because you've got this

3:12:08breadth of experience and a broader lens on this than we do are there communities that navigate that

3:12:16better so what the developer said is well obviously every city has to be doing this right but if so

3:12:23what works in a community when they add the units to make sure they're meeting the needs first

3:12:28that they're a local population like people have freedom of mobility but how do we make sure we're

3:12:34meeting the needs that we're identifying today despite the fluidity of all the situations yeah

3:12:39so that's a great question and as somebody that went to the University of Guelph who's the majority

3:12:45of my friends no longer live here because they couldn't afford to live here that rings really

3:12:51true with me personally and and what I would say just in addition to that is a lot of the successful

3:12:57measures around those pieces in particular speak to really bolstering the the the sector that's

3:13:04positioned best to to build that deeper affordability so communities that have prioritized public

3:13:09housing projects non-profit housing projects obviously there's space partnership in that with

3:13:15with the private sector there's also some really creative more community oriented private sector

3:13:18players but it's really about creating measures for the those sector players who are best positioned

3:13:24to be able to enact that deeper affordability level and to be honest I would also say staff

3:13:29have done a really great job of kind of scanning those measures at other municipalities and you

3:13:33see some of that reflected in the strategy as well in terms of some of the levers that are available

3:13:38to you yeah and busitil thank you thank you and through the mayor good to see you thank you for

3:13:47the delegation I have a question the first thing when you were listing of the actions in order of

3:13:53priority is the stop of the loss of affordable housing and I guess I'm very familiar with

3:14:00union co-op and Kitchener Waterloo that purchases and retains rental buildings to keep them rental

3:14:08buildings are you aware of anyone in Guelph who is doing this as an organization that is actively

3:14:14I mean I mean it's each other policy that is actually putting money into the purchase and the

3:14:19retention not particularly off the top of my head at the same time I do know there's key players

3:14:29in our community that have considered acquisition and have looked at that I don't want to speak out

3:14:34of place here but I know the county as a as a good municipal service manager is always kind of

3:14:39considering that and the balance is always the cost involved with it because often depending on

3:14:45the property or the opportunity you can have a pressure point of it actually being cheaper to

3:14:50build purpose built so it really depends on the specific site or location but I would say that

3:14:56in speaking in favor of the city having a land strategy I would hope that that also considers

3:15:00acquisition whether it's the city doing direct acquisition or the city partnering with the county

3:15:06around ensuring that we have an active practice of considering acquisition it's there's a lot

3:15:13involved with it it's complex but I do think it's really pertinent and prudent to be to be really

3:15:18considering acquisition if we're losing projects when we did those affordable housing projects

3:15:24we saw almost more units than what we built lost in terms of deeper affordable housing in our

3:15:30community for a number of reasons so I think considering that is is super important but it

3:15:35needs to be considered in tandem with so many other factors because those situations are

3:15:39nuanced and and require um you know that that internal expertise to be able to assess whether

3:15:44or not that makes most sense under those circumstances thank you for that response and that balance

3:15:50sheet is not only the purchase plot price but that homelessness and all those other kinds of

3:15:55bigger bigger costing so thank you very much thank you thank you and with that thank you very

3:16:03much thank you so much okay michael craig is going to now join us by video I believe and michael craig

3:16:14is from the junction village community land trust hello a good evening can you see me we can hear you

3:16:25video there we go and we

3:16:30yeah see you yet but we can definitely there we go all right we can both see and hear you thank you

3:16:36very much for joining us uh mike you have up to five minutes if you need it go right ahead

3:16:41yeah it's great timing um just with that last question because i'm going to be speaking about

3:16:47community land trusts and um so i'm i'm mike craig i've been living in guelph for

3:16:54about 30 years and i have a family here with my wife mary kate me have three kids

3:17:01and my current role is managing property and housing to build community in guelph we're

3:17:08we're in a community called the junction village which is in the junction neighborhood it's it's

3:17:13quite near the proposed site at 14 ediver road south and we so we're building this intentional

3:17:24community inside of an existing neighborhood and we used to recommend that people purchase houses

3:17:32in the neighborhood as a way to become part of the community or or rent apartments and that used to

3:17:38work even 10 years ago but as we know it's becoming increasingly difficult and inaccessible um so

3:17:51what we decided to do was to start a community land trust it's called the junction village

3:17:59community land trust so it's based here in guelph it's almost a year old now and it's so we have a

3:18:07really amazing board it's a non-profit and we have built our bylaws and we we've actually received

3:18:16three grants so far to build the foundation of the land trust and really i'm here to plant

3:18:26seeds with the city council just so you know that we're here and even the question that was just asked

3:18:33you know are there any organizations that are looking to acquire land to preserve affordable

3:18:39housing like that's our mission so um and my wife and i tried to do it on our own but it just we

3:18:48didn't have a powerful enough vehicle and community land trusts have been used in the united states for

3:18:54many many years um and they've they're new to canada um but it's a very powerful vehicle to be able to

3:19:04acquire land um for the purpose of preserving and developing affordable housing

3:19:12and we use the word imperpatuity so maybe that's 99 years plus but um but the idea is that that

3:19:22land is actually removed from the speculative market um and there's a formula that's worked out

3:19:29what it's valuable so it does increase slightly um but that allows it to remain affordable

3:19:39because it's not based on market rates um so the challenge is initially the land needs to be purchased

3:19:49on market rates um and that's where kind of the partnerships really are valuable and this is where

3:19:57um you know us working with the city of wealth becomes a really strong team and and all the other

3:20:03you know organizations that would would contribute um and like we just heard it's not only building

3:20:11new units but it's preserving the existing ones um there's we're actually we haven't even

3:20:20told many people that we exist yet but we're already getting people asking us to

3:20:26purchase their property partly particularly owners who already have affordable housing rates

3:20:33and they really care about their tenants and they don't they want to sell their properties but they

3:20:37don't want to they want to protect their tenants um a good example is uh phil osburn at 41 norwich

3:20:44we've been speaking with who he has the the property that used to be the sewing mill and he's got

3:20:5128 one bedroom apartments and they're all affordable rates and he's basically running an

3:20:58affordable housing unit he even has a percent of supportive and rent to gear to income and he's 80

3:21:06and he would like to move on and he he's built a community there and he really cares about his

3:21:13tenants and he would prefer if an organization like us could purchase it to maintain the affordable

3:21:21housing and develop more there's potential to develop more there as well um so we're just a

3:21:29natural partner um and the challenge is the market value of the property is the numbers don't work

3:21:40so if someone oh i'm just gonna i'm just gonna jump in there uh uh mike your your five minutes is up

3:21:51uh and so don't think that and you you muted mike so maybe we'll just have you unmute right now

3:21:57just as i'm speaking to you um your five minutes is up there mike oh just you can you can feel

3:22:02free to unmute there mike there you go yeah sorry i just want to make sure you could hear me uh your

3:22:08five minutes is up we we really appreciate your presentation um and uh just as a side note i was

3:22:15just in Toronto last week for a couple of days and i actually learned about uh the land trust stuff

3:22:21that you're talking about it is quite interesting and a good vehicle as you say uh let me just see

3:22:25if there's any follow-up questions though at this time on your presentation councillor Allt please

3:22:34mike thanks for joining us i appreciate it uh appreciate um all the information you've provided

3:22:39me in the past on land trust as well uh i want to focus particularly on mr osborn's site um

3:22:49my fear and i think that you would be in a better position to assess it is that this particular site

3:22:54if it does not get turned into something uh that is social capital uh is ripe for renovation would

3:23:03i be correct in that and then we'd lose it that that's my fear as well yeah that's it thank you very

3:23:12much thank you and uh finally uh councillor Busuttil has a question thank you very much mike and through

3:23:20the mayor uh for your presentation just wondering if you have connected with some of the organizations

3:23:26that have been doing this for a while like union co-op that are the structure and the financing

3:23:31and those kinds of things in place to really retain housing stock affordable housing stock

3:23:37um not specifically with union co-op but there are other successful community land trusts now

3:23:45that are um in the united states and in canada that we have been learning from um they have a whole

3:23:53conference now of community land trusts across canada there's one in happening at west in a couple

3:24:00weeks um but we're we're learning we're we're kind of young so part you know learning from the union

3:24:08co-op locally is a great idea and i'll reach out to them as well great thank you there's nothing

3:24:18further uh just to also say interesting timing i actually got an email today for me to reach out to

3:24:24you and your wife about exactly what you're doing so i can see a i can see a coffee in our future so

3:24:32mike thank you very much uh uh we appreciate you coming and presenting okay all right take care

3:24:40morgan dandy is now going to also join us by video and is uh cora read out here is cora here in the room

3:24:50no okay so morgan uh dandy is next and then daniel daniel here yeah i see a daniel you're

3:24:59going to be up next after morgan okay morgan we see you and uh just maybe test your mic for us

3:25:06can you hear me yep you're coming through great thank you very much for joining us you have up to

3:25:12five minutes and you can go right ahead council staff fellow guelphites thank you for the opportunity

3:25:17to speak to you today on the draft housing affordability strategy this report demonstrates to me

3:25:23that staff and consultants are truly listening this report demonstrates to me that there is a

3:25:31commitment within the city to divine and quote identify actions within its control and quote

3:25:38on the housing affordability issue this report demonstrates to me there is the desire to continue

3:25:47the conversations required to understand the truths of the issue while working toward permanent

3:25:52solutions there are definitely places for more conversations especially when it comes to affordable

3:25:58rentals for low and moderate income earners in guelph from the house engagement summary july 2024

3:26:05page six it states quote when asked what they would improve about housing options in guelph 74

3:26:12percent of survey number one respondents selected the availability of housing options for low and

3:26:20middle income individuals and families and quote and quote 68 percent of survey respondents

3:26:30identified unaffordable rent increases as the greatest issue renters in guelphies and quote

3:26:38interestingly on page eight it's noted 56 percent own their own home own the home they live in

3:26:47and 47 percent said they live in housing they can afford it also notes the most represented

3:26:54household income range amongst survey responses respondents was $100,000 or more which brings

3:27:03me back to recommending everyone concerned about anything on housing read the tenant class by

3:27:08rickardo truncant given that the majority of respondents own their home in almost half state

3:27:13they can afford the place they are in what the author brings to our attention on page 20 is even

3:27:18more poignant when we discuss rental affordability and that is quote 30 percent affordability

3:27:23affordability threshold ignores the long-term financial security of tenants the 20 percent

3:27:30below market standard for affordable rental units overlooks that housing markets are out of sync

3:27:36with the rest of the economy the omission of landlords and their profit margins

3:27:43maintains a false veneer of neutrality in housing debates reinforcing the idea of a technical problem

3:27:50for which no one is to blame end quote i believe the draft housing affordability strategy is moving

3:27:57in the appropriate direction with identifying actions which gives me great hope for more conversations

3:28:04first and foremost exploring moving from a housing continuum to a housing spectrum the

3:28:10expounding of the canadian dream of home ownership being the goal of life by governments and the

3:28:16financially incentivized homebuilding industry perpetuates a systemic stigma toward tenants

3:28:22of being less than seeing housing as a spectrum is closer to the reality of life where the billionaire

3:28:29landlord class cannot exist without the tenant class identifying the hidden costs of being a

3:28:35tenant is so important when working to understand what affordable means especially when you're

3:28:41looking at low fixed income earners additional costs at the average a homeowner doesn't necessarily

3:28:48have to consider like laundry tenant insurance key deposits parking and storage my two favorites are

3:28:55community through housing and increased accountability by creating social connections

3:28:59through proximity to daily needs neighborhoods are created which enhances life enjoyment through a

3:29:05true sense of belonging within community in demanding increased provider accountability i

3:29:10believe there are many positive potential outcomes one of the greatest being a database of the

3:29:15actualities for tenants in gual as a university town when it comes to affordability on the ground

3:29:21the current reality is bleak on september 29th kijiji had 444 rental listings in gual 69 were

3:29:29$1,695 or less non-worth three bedrooms many were first shared rooms and approximately one dozen

3:29:39were commercial by implementing a landlord strategy a renovation bylaw a rental replacement bylaw

3:29:45and a vacancy tax as key parts of this strategy the city will also create opportunities for closer

3:29:52community through increased accountability when tenants and landlords all know their rights and

3:29:57responsibilities everyone can live more comfortably a registry would also provide the chance to educate

3:30:03newcomers who are income property owners about the permitting process for renovations like with my

3:30:08previous landlord who notified the household on a friday after 4 p.m that he would be in on sunday

3:30:19hello uh morgan uh morgan it's it's cam i'm sorry your time is up there so sorry to cut you off

3:30:25but that's your that's your limit uh well let me just see and thank you very much for your

3:30:29presentation just wondering if there's any questions from the uh for our delegation tonight

3:30:36okay seeing none so again thank you very much for joining us okay uh and so we have daniel

3:30:44is here you're coming on down nice to see you again daniel thank you nice to see you again yeah okay

3:30:57i'll turn it over to you you got your five minutes if you needed okay go right ahead all right thank

3:31:01you yeah so i kind of happened on to be able to read this uh draft for the affordable housing

3:31:07strategy and i thought it was really good it was very informative i took the couple hours to read

3:31:12it highlight some stuff um but the one thing i wanted to bring to the attention of the council

3:31:16and just generally city planning is that there was almost no mention of the student population

3:31:20when going through the report the word student only came up five times the whole time reading the

3:31:25strategy um i think it's an important uh demographic to consider when considering affordable housing

3:31:31and wealth the student population of wealth just going by what i found online for the population of

3:31:37the university of wealth is 29 000 people now not all of those necessary living glove or a local

3:31:42but when you consider that number and potentially how many of those are living in wealth to the

3:31:46150 000 people living in wealth it's not a small proportion of the market especially considering

3:31:52in the report it shows that 34 percent of the market is rental so a lot of that is taken up by

3:31:58students everybody here knows that the population of wealth fluctuates a lot with students throughout

3:32:03the year so just generally the one thing that i think would be very helpful in the strategy

3:32:08towards affordable housing is working with the schools or of private builders and such to build

3:32:14more purpose built housing for students a lot of students right now are living in those single

3:32:20family homes that we would like to have on the market um there's three to five people in many

3:32:25homes here in wealth if we had spaces that are actually built purposely for students we could

3:32:30save a lot of space first of all because students don't need a whole house to live in together

3:32:34if you you could just give them a room and a shared space it'll save space and then open up

3:32:38those single family homes to potentially be brought back onto the market for other residents to be able

3:32:43to get and just through that increasing the supply because if we go to build homes for families

3:32:50i mean we already have that so that's just the general thing i wanted to touch on there is

3:32:56incentivizing the council to work with the community and schools here in wealth

3:33:01to be able to build more houses for them yeah because also another thing that i noticed in

3:33:09the report there is that the vacancy rate in wealth is very low right now 1.3 percent when the

3:33:15acceptable average that was stated was about 3 percent for a healthy thing so we're not even

3:33:19quite eating half of that it's very hard to find a place right now and because of the squeeze

3:33:24it's making it so that rental prices that are being asked are much higher the market isn't

3:33:28something that's set the market fluctuates the market is something dynamic so if we're able to

3:33:33change how the supply is distributed for example by adding competition and more supply

3:33:40we could see prices stabilized more because i've had friends that go to school i work at a

3:33:44grocery store i worked with a lot of people that are students and they've moved out of one place

3:33:50paying 700 and now they're paying a thousand for a room i feel like especially if we had purpose

3:33:57built housing for them that was properly regulated and under more of one roof is the best way to put

3:34:03it there's less cases where students fall through the cracks and where housing can be better

3:34:10towards their income levels i also noticed that there was the proposal for a fund for students

3:34:17that are going to need help with rental assistance well that will be because it is higher rents

3:34:22that's a great thing but that's also a bandit on the problem i think we need to get ahead of it

3:34:26or otherwise those funds will quickly be dried up by markets increasing in value

3:34:31and i'd say that's most of what i'd like to speak on on that uh yeah thank you okay thank you daniel

3:34:39very much for sticking out right to the very end because you're our last so is there a follow-up

3:34:43question for daniel no uh yes there is councillor too has a question for you thank you mayor gutery

3:34:52and to you through you um i just want to make sure you're aware we do have um a policy planning

3:35:00exercise called the community planning permit system and there's a engagement piece in that through

3:35:06Have Your Say are you aware that this exists because it talks a little bit about you know

3:35:11unlocking that private public partnership that you alluded to i believe there was mention of that

3:35:16as well in the uh draft working towards building out primarily i just wanted to address students

3:35:22specifically when working at the community and building that housing specifically to open up

3:35:26those single-family homes that are currently taken up in guelph by that to then be better you

3:35:31know accessible on the market yeah and i think yeah i really appreciate you saying that um and

3:35:37you're probably aware too that there's a whole of community approach that's needed and

3:35:44not only address the student population but just housing in general i would just encourage you as

3:35:49a comment uh to really look into that community planning permit system because i think some of

3:35:54your comments could be valuable great thank you thank you daniel i'm putting you on the spot a

3:36:01little bit yes and we you know we haven't discussed this but you were here a few weeks just two or

3:36:06three weeks ago specifically about the rent eviction yeah bylaw uh at that time council

3:36:14kind of referred the matter for a discussion and it's already come up both by both staff

3:36:18delegations um to have have it sort of land here at this very very moment um do you have any uh

3:36:26update for us on what you and others are going through and i don't don't mean for you to go

3:36:32into too many details but is there still a desire amongst you and others to make sure that we are

3:36:38you know in the engagement process now that's what this dates for to start another engagement

3:36:42process um that we are still looking at that is that an important issue for you just wanted to

3:36:46hear your thoughts yeah so funny enough actually because i was told on the a to b coming back to

3:36:51this i looked at the agenda and i didn't see it explicitly there so i called in to uh the city

3:36:58uh city council or like city uh yeah and they said no it's not specifically on the agenda however

3:37:04there is this thing about affordable housing would you like us to put you on that to delegate

3:37:09so i wasn't sure to what extent to actually at that point i thought perhaps that you know the day

3:37:13had gone pretty busy you decided to defer it to another date and i was prepared for that so that's

3:37:18why if i could just jump in and thank you for bringing that up just make it just so everyone

3:37:22knows it's deferred to now which means yeah we can actually still address it now yeah uh you might not

3:37:27see it on the agenda which i can see where some of the confusion yeah that's worth maybe that's good

3:37:31then that i asked just to see if there's you know just just a minute of your time where's your thoughts

3:37:37and that of maybe others that you're working with in regards to the rent eviction or the rental

3:37:41replacement issue that's been brought up um as an option as of now as we discussed the

3:37:47renovation bylaws i think most of them are good like i said before i largely talked about transparency

3:37:52and that's the kind of stuff i'd like to be seeing implemented uh our current struggle right now still

3:37:58is the fact that a lot of people do feel very discouraged um i feel like we have lost a lot

3:38:02of tents unfortunately in our building to that i guess best word is despair of not knowing

3:38:08you know if basically put the city's got their back as long as we don't have these rent eviction

3:38:13bylaws in place a lot of people are still gonna feel that way a lot of people don't know if it's

3:38:17gonna make it in time or something like that people get numbers floated around all at them some

3:38:21people thought we'd have to be out in November 30th some people understand that we have more time than

3:38:26that so yeah great thank you and so yeah i'm sure you know we might have that come up uh we might

3:38:35come up in conversation now um so we appreciate you and thank you i know you i know you put i put

3:38:39you on the spot no no no thank you very i appreciate it thank you very much appreciate your presentation

3:38:45okay um it's back to step back to us and staff for our conversation and as we know this is just to

3:38:51receive um i believe councillor Allt you said you'd be willing to move for receipt for now

3:38:57and clauson will second thank you and then let's just uh uh just be aware of timing on this

3:39:05because i know we can kind of go on and on on this because and by the way by the way i know we

3:39:09can go on on because there is so much stuff to talk about here which is a good thing so that's

3:39:13that's fair um but uh there's been a lot of questions already so just be aware of time

3:39:18councillor alts could have kicked us off with some uh questions to staff and then i'll start looking for

3:39:24i'll go i'll stick on the screen first so i'll go with alton uh caron okay and then we'll we'll move

3:39:29around thank you mary guthrie through you to staff and this will be for various staff uh one of my

3:39:37concerns which i uttered to miss mcpherson is the the challenge of seniors uh who are experiencing

3:39:46high costs and having some challenges with either their rent or with uh with with their housing

3:39:53affordability in general i think this might be best for um our ceo um with seniors uh what

3:40:03we've had challenges with tax deferral how can we make that a great a more attractive option for

3:40:10seniors to keep them in their homes um just i'm particularly concerned about it um so uh through

3:40:22the mayor to councillor alts i would just say that we can take that feedback here at this point

3:40:27it wasn't part of um the action plan but i think uh we don't we're here to listen today and we'll

3:40:32we'll take that away yeah thank you very much and perhaps uh maybe this is more for feedback

3:40:39because i'm hearing more and more of seniors using food banks and i think this is a canary in the

3:40:44coal mine i hope that we would take into consideration in the final report how do we encourage people

3:40:49like me now being a senior to downsize and uh how uh what kind of incentives might we be able to offer

3:40:56um as well the other concern that i do have is um focusing as much on larger rental units

3:41:04in particular i know of new canadiens in the west end who are having a great deal of difficulty

3:41:09housing larger families uh is there any comment that staff might wish to make on that uh perhaps

3:41:15mrs mathews or uh lucas uh three america three to councillor alts sorry could you um repeat that

3:41:28yeah uh in i know of new canadian families um i'm going to turn off my camera in case there's a

3:41:36problem i know of new canadian families especially in the west end who are having difficulty finding

3:41:41appropriately sized housing and and i think that we've identified very clearly that that there are

3:41:48challenges with small single bedroom units what about the large units can we expand our work on

3:41:55that as well i think that's a that's an important area so get through america three to councillor

3:42:03alts um yeah i think in in the state of housing report that was that was um done in december so

3:42:09it was yes the single or this the smaller size units were identified as the biggest need and to

3:42:162051 but i think there was also some commentary in there as well on that family size or multi

3:42:23multi um bedroom units were also part of part of that need so in terms of the housing affordability

3:42:29strategy and the action draft actions that are included within that um it speaks to looking at

3:42:35a diverse range of housing options in which um larger sized units would be included within that

3:42:41yeah thank you i believe about councillor Busuttil might even raise this as well she's had some

3:42:47similar challenges um another takeaway if our staff could look at uh if i'm not barking up the wrong

3:42:55tree uh some tax relief for co-ops and non-profits uh who are are seeing challenges because of the

3:43:02states of their property and finally uh to the planning staff i don't believe miz mcpherson meant

3:43:08anything other than positives but there are people that believe that there are barriers put in the way

3:43:13by our planning staff and i wanted to give staff an opportunity to talk about legal obligations and

3:43:19best practices that regardless what we are doing must be implemented through the matter to the

3:43:30councillor so um staff and council have been working for the past few years specifically on

3:43:36ensuring that we can move development applications for affordable or supportive housing more quickly

3:43:42um we through the comprehensive zoning bylaw we removed uh we added sorry supportive housing

3:43:48as of right in any residential zone uh we know we had challenges with that on some sites and

3:43:55appeals to OLT but most recently the county of wellington was able to take advantage of that

3:44:00provision and bring forward norfolk manner so through the actions of council we have been able

3:44:05to bring on affordable housing and social housing much more quickly uh council also provided us a

3:44:11direction i think two years ago to bring forward any affordable or social housing uh projects within

3:44:1890 days we we took that to heart and we've been able to move that forward uh and a recent example

3:44:23was the uh Habitat for Humanity project on on Speedvale that needed an OPA as well and that's why

3:44:29it was a larger project so staff can and council continue to move these things forward uh depending

3:44:35on the use we do have legislative requirements that are in the planning act such as notice

3:44:40requirements which we we do have to provide um and we are starting to see housing developers

3:44:46on their own uh talk about affordable housing and you know we heard it earlier this evening

3:44:52with the developer of 8 Mitchell saying he would be providing two affordable housing units which

3:44:57staff weren't aware of but we will be looking at that when we bring back the zoning the zoning

3:45:02bylaw so um i think the discussions through council um have elevated this and we're starting

3:45:09to see it a little bit more and we've had some great success success stories in the community

3:45:13with um landlords also and uh developers providing land such as the Shelldale project so i think uh

3:45:21councillor altow i'm not sure if i uh really got the question but i think uh we've seen the support

3:45:26in support of groups like Dominique's to to help us advance those priorities and make sure that

3:45:31we're addressing it as quickly as we can when we when we're able to yeah and i appreciate it you did

3:45:36answer the question i think what you've said is that we make every effort possible to accomplish

3:45:42what is necessary in glove and and i'd like to say mayor guthrie that i think that that is the

3:45:48glove factor we are getting things done and we are expediting things as we can all right thank you

3:45:58councillor Caron please uh thank you through you mr. mayor i want to address some questions that

3:46:05one of the delegations raised about the mention of of student housing within the report

3:46:12and i i mean i just want to declare as most people know i work for the university so this is not a

3:46:17planning application there's no pecuniary interest in in addressing these questions but i want to

3:46:22give staff an opportunity to respond to that because whenever we're talking about any matter of

3:46:27planning we don't we don't people's zone and we don't talk about a certain demographic and yet

3:46:32when we talk about affordable housing we do talk about seniors we do talk about um supportive low

3:46:40income housing demographic and we do talk about multi-generational families in new canadian so

3:46:47i do see students mentioned in the report but i wonder if staff could further address it through

3:46:52the lens of um first of all um university towns across canada um a significant portion of their

3:47:04affordable housing stock uh is is for the post-secondary market um and how does that affect affect our

3:47:13ratio of affordable housing in the community or are we are we built for that and then the second lens

3:47:19is the purpose built lens my understanding is that we have about 2000 identified purpose built

3:47:29student housing projects um in on the books or zoned and ready to go and what are the impediments

3:47:37of moving those forward because i know we're not seeing those get built and i know staff have been

3:47:42on top of that issue for quite some time so if you could address that delegation when it comes

3:47:47specifically to that market and how that market affects our affordable housing um as as outlined in

3:47:54this report. Through you migratory to councillor Caron um thank you for bringing up the question on

3:48:07student housing and you're right we do talk about um sort of more equity deserving groups um in terms

3:48:13of housing like like older adults or aging adults or um immigrant families that sort of thing um and

3:48:20yes student students could be captured within that um in terms of how that can affect uh the

3:48:29affordability i think is your question in in in guelph as a city and how that population can affect

3:48:34affordability overall and might is that sort of capturing what you're kind of i mean in a city without

3:48:40university there they with with no demand on its affordability there may be a lower number of

3:48:50affordable units but i think guelph and all the university and college towns um have a high

3:48:59market for um rental units because so it's kind of it's supply and demand because we're a university

3:49:06town we have more rental units is that the case or not that i think we'd need to to to look into

3:49:15two more in terms of getting you some more um firm uh answers on that um i think in some some respects

3:49:24yes i think a university town the students can um they do need they do need homes around the university

3:49:32or rental places around the university and it can affect our housing market um but in terms of your

3:49:38question i don't think i can answer that right now but i can certainly take that away and we can we

3:49:43can have a look at that and get back to you okay i appreciate that and then i guess my my second

3:49:48question was the number of purpose built units identified specifically for students when they

3:49:53were zoned i think there's probably about 2000 um are they more expensive to develop i mean we're

3:50:01not seeing them get built and i just wonder if you could publicly provide any information about

3:50:06why that is is it just market labor materials interest rates bank financing um just to address

3:50:13the delegation um regarding that question uh through the marriage to the counselor so um i

3:50:24don't think we have a firm answer on that certainly there's been a reach to some of those property

3:50:28owners and ask about timing some have been have been zoned for a decade and ready to go

3:50:34um and i don't think we have a a clear answer from the property owners on that on that particular

3:50:41situation and why they have not moved forward i appreciate that being in the public discourse

3:50:46thank you thank you so much i have two more busitil and caution and then no roark can i go

3:51:00yes yeah thank you and through the mayor thank you to the south this is an amazing report

3:51:04i have a couple quick questions some of them are yes and no quick responses um so the first one

3:51:10for me what's most urgent is creating some movement in not-for-profit subsidized social housing um

3:51:17and so from where i sit in the community huge needs huge waiting lists there so my question is in the

3:51:22process of developing this report um did you consult with or engage with you know co-op other

3:51:29housing not-for-profit operators and so on and i don't like the word but to right size you know

3:51:35we hear a lot from housing managers that um we have individuals who are over housed but we can't

3:51:41move them out because we don't have single kinds of units um and then at the same time you know

3:51:47housed individuals that really need supportive housing was there a lens to this and i think about

3:51:53this as a housing parking lot to create some movement in in that supportive housing kind of

3:52:01area was that a bit of was this included in the process um through America 3 to council post

3:52:08till um so we didn't to answer your first question on engagement um there we had a large variety of

3:52:18people that that we engage with including um those who sit on our housing affordability strategy

3:52:24focus group um those with live experience those from uh the county and then through engagement

3:52:30we've also talked um people from nonprofits as well came um in terms of your second question

3:52:36about creating movement um specifically around supportive housing um so the focus of the housing

3:52:44affordability strategy really is on the private is on private market because that is where we have

3:52:51as a municipality the most ability to influence um housing so where movement could be created would

3:52:57simply in creating not simply but um for this answer simply in creating more housing supply

3:53:04and then the movement would be through that but in terms of the focus on supportive housing that

3:53:09really um didn't factor in um in terms of the creation of this housing affordability strategy

3:53:18because that that wasn't the focus thank you for that response i and i i read the report so i

3:53:24understand about where our tools are and where they're not but my concern remains not for profit

3:53:29subsidized in social housing and in the order of priorities from where i see um our vulnerable

3:53:35population needs that the most and relying on the market and relying on you know the governments

3:53:40that haven't provided the funding is in addressing that so that to me is it's critical i it's critical

3:53:47at this point um and so that's why i was asking about uh the consultation with those organizations

3:53:54and people who manage that housing stock to say how can we help you where's any how can we create

3:53:59some movement here um how how is that incorporated into the plan because quite honestly i i don't

3:54:06think i've been to you know some of the the city sessions i you know i i don't have huge amounts

3:54:12of uh faith in the market adjusting and meeting the needs of our most vulnerable population

3:54:18who cannot afford market rent in any way so that's uh the first question my second question is

3:54:26in your presentation in the earlier one as well speaking about public parks and lands and city

3:54:32owned property uh there was reference to a framework and evaluation and we all know that

3:54:38evaluation and frameworks are value laden so my question is will that be coming back to council

3:54:43or is this something that staff is taking and the values that staff have around the table

3:54:48will determine what the recommendations are and then i have one more um through you mayor

3:54:59got three two councillor bruce still so we will have to report back to you on the evaluation and

3:55:03whether that will be coming back to council um but i would flag that it is part of the half um

3:55:10sorry the housing accelerator fund uh work program that that was one of the initiatives

3:55:15included within that but we can get back to you on that thank you it's not the evaluation it's the

3:55:20framework of and i think back to you know parks and recreation saying what is valued in a park is

3:55:28bookings versus from my perspective might be the organic picnics that you know the new

3:55:34canadian women in the community organize and so on so it is value laden and how you create a framework

3:55:41that then you use as a lens to evaluate yes no so a little bit question about that um i just

3:55:49follow my arrows here oh um the last one is about the affordable housing when you were

3:55:55referring to developers you know the 25 years after the dc's for affordable housing and other

3:56:01planning concessions are made can you speak to what kinds of measures are in place to make sure

3:56:07whether it's 25 or 99 years in the market rent developers and that's all thank you

3:56:30for the mayor to counselor um so i think you're maybe a step ahead of us on some of these in

3:56:37the implementation plan so these are the draft actions to go out for consultation and get more

3:56:41feedback and we report back to council it's the implementation plan um as well as the prioritization

3:56:47so i think you know we're maybe just you're might be a step ahead of us um implementation plan and

3:56:53agreements on title and and how we secure that is is important and certainly conversations were

3:56:58we're already into but we're just not there with the with the details that we can put out until

3:57:03we're at that implementation plan yet if i might have supplementary know is that our community

3:57:08engagement with some developers it would be great to not only have you know boards about incentives

3:57:14and money and so on but also the expectations around what we as city as expect of the developers back

3:57:23take that away great thank you very much okay again just being aware of time everyone

3:57:31clausen orork and katin yep through you mr. mayor uh to staff um i just i had a question with regard

3:57:39to um 6.0 monitoring and implementation so i think partially my question was answered here

3:57:45by counselor busatel uh with a response to your previous question um but i just wanted to understand

3:57:52when when those kpis would be set up and how often i think it's yearly but when would we

3:57:59start to expect to see uh reporting back thank you uh through america three to council class and

3:58:08so again i think we're still we're still in that figuring out phase right now so um between now

3:58:15and when we report back in in december with the final strategy that's when we will have a

3:58:21uh an answer for you on when specifically specifically we would report back on the

3:58:27elements of the monitoring and evaluation component of this work okay thank you just wanted to

3:58:33clarify we should it or work and then katin and i just wanted to remind her of kind of the

3:58:42the outlook on this report is a receive report uh takeaway feedback now which is important um and

3:58:48just make sure that our questions are you know starting with questions not not long preambles

3:58:54let's get to the questions thank you everybody thanks margaret three three you to staff i just

3:58:59want to ask a question on behalf of a constituent who sent me this uh message that the the uh strategy

3:59:07alludes to different types of households but the income data is aggregated so her question was

3:59:15because the number of lone adult-headed households which are primarily women-headed

3:59:21and guelph's motion to declare intimate partner violence and epidemic she wanted to know if it's

3:59:27possible to disaggregate the calculations around income at least at a gender level because we know

3:59:34there's a wage gap right so it's just to get a better sense of um how much more difficult it can be

3:59:43or could be women could be newcomers so not to create a whole more world of work because the

3:59:49province's threshold is what it is but is it possible to illustrate that and you know we're

3:59:56we're going to a meeting tomorrow on county social services and we know there's lots of

4:00:01people in violent situations waiting for subsidized housing so they can't get subsidized

4:00:05housing they can't necessarily get affordable housing so um would you consider adding that to

4:00:11the final report that disaggregated data if it's available through you mr. mayor uh to councillor

4:00:19rourke um that data would be available through statistic Canada but that would be through a

4:00:24custom run and i wouldn't be able to guarantee that we would have that in time uh for the final report

4:00:30okay through you mayor Guthrie could we get it anyway through you mr. mayor yes we could yes

4:00:37thank you because my next question through you mayor Guthrie is this is obviously a

4:00:43dynamic situation right so folks build at gordon and stone we have 900 units primarily for students

4:00:50and so do we foresee updates and with what frequency to this plan um through you mayor

4:00:59gathry to councillor O'Rourke so again i think we currently do updates annually on growth management

4:01:07and affordable housing through the modern report that that jason jason does here um in terms of any

4:01:13additional um uh indicators or kpis or targets that we may introduce through this housing

4:01:21affordability strategy work again um some may be on an annual basis and some may be on a five-year

4:01:29basis but again i think we're still trying to um trying to determine what those those indicators

4:01:35are and and report back to you through the final strategy great thanks and through you mayor Guthrie

4:01:40to staff there's lots of evidence that shows that cities that have universities that built more

4:01:46student housing um saw the rental rates decrease in the surrounding neighborhood which frees up

4:01:53those townhomes for newcomer families or young families instead of renting by the room um has

4:01:59the university been invited to participate or comment uh or to provide you know some direction

4:02:06on whether they intend to do that so so i'm asking where's the university in in this report

4:02:10as you know as daniel pointed out sure through mayor Guthrie to councillor O'Rourke so we do have a

4:02:16housing affordability strategy focus group and we do have a representative from the real estate

4:02:22division of the university sitting on that focus group who does participate and does provide

4:02:26comments for us um on the work that's being completed okay and to katin please thank you

4:02:36through you mr mayor um so we know that folks who have various disabilities are in need of housing

4:02:44and i was wondering if we had data on the breakdowns of the different types of disabilities

4:02:50and the needs that are not being met so that we could have targets and find out where the gap is

4:02:56in what's currently in the market versus what we need and where we need to be uh through you

4:03:06mr mayor uh to the councillor we don't currently have that data uh i do know that there is the

4:03:12canadian survey on disability that uh that we could perhaps review in greater detail but

4:03:19that that hasn't previously been a source for for our data in the past is that something that i can

4:03:25chat you all about um on the side about yes absolutely yes thank you very much thank you

4:03:34council katin seeing nothing further i just councillor billings um i just wanted to ask um

4:03:46well let me let me start it this way so one just one of the takeaways i got from the report was that

4:03:52i believe from further financial incentives will be recommended coming forward in the report in

4:03:59december is that is that accurate that stuff will be recommending further financial incentives

4:04:07yeah through the mayor to the councillor so um we'll be bringing several um incentive packages

4:04:18associated with the housing affordability fund that we already have money for so the cip for example

4:04:26and there's some adu policies and incentives in there so that's what's coming forward in the in

4:04:31the short term is incentives of which we have budget through the federal government already for

4:04:40okay and then the other one was the with the comment the need to reduce or essentially eliminate

4:04:45parking requirements so right now we'll just take the adu's um there's only one parking

4:04:54spot that's required and so we even this evening so in the basement you can have three bedrooms

4:05:03there's a request for the second one to have four bedrooms and we're only requiring right now one

4:05:09parking spot per adu so how can we justify eliminating even that one parking spot through

4:05:24the mayor to the councillor so we'll be looking at several parking reductions one of which we had

4:05:29already implemented by the time we applied for the half funding to receive it which was the

4:05:34downtown parking reduction which then was further reduced to the province by to zero so downtown

4:05:40so that's one of the parking reductions we've also talked about parking reductions for affordable

4:05:45housing so what is the what is the true number we're looking at for affordable housing so we'll

4:05:49be looking at that through that and when we came forward with the you know four units as a right

4:05:56public meeting we had also suggested a reduction of one parking space for four units so

4:06:02depending on what the province does with the regulation that recently was released on accessory

4:06:07dwelling units that may come back to council in a form as well once that regulation is brought

4:06:12forward so we're considering all different types of options and different types of parking

4:06:18regulations based on the use so through you mr. mayor so then essentially maybe you're

4:06:23saying we'll be relying on whatever it is the province is going to tell us what we have to

4:06:29whatever the province tells us for for downtown for example we're relying on but the number we're

4:06:34bringing forward for four that we took to the public meeting was one less than what the province

4:06:38had recommended okay and then so and it's just well it's just it's just a question with respect

4:06:48to the report because we're going to be going out for further community input there were no

4:06:53financial implications attached to this package so for example even when we're looking at the

4:07:01affordable housing and waving DCs we would know how much that is whether it's an apartment or a

4:07:08town home or a semi but that that information wasn't even included in the report so that people

4:07:16could see to give input as to this is the amount that we're waving so far and that and that we

4:07:22are picking up so I was just wondering would that information be part of this next round of

4:07:29community input so that people could see that those dollars amount yeah through the mayor of the

4:07:36councillor you know I certainly hear that and that would have perhaps shed a little bit better

4:07:43picture but at this point we want to you know engage on the items first and find out which

4:07:50ones go forward before we do the financial calculations on each one and then prioritize them

4:07:55for council and then when it comes back when we you know as part of that prioritization exercise

4:07:59there is potentially a financial component to that and that's where council will have to

4:08:05consider those financial components and and you know probably agree or disagree with the

4:08:11prioritization based on that and then what year some of those would land in as well

4:08:16at the time depending on the short, medium and long term but I absolutely hear you and we are

4:08:21working on that right now I can say that. Okay thanks Kristen. Thanks councillor Billings.

4:08:30Okay nothing further except some very short ones for me I'll try to ask them all as best as I can

4:08:36in quick manner. So in some of the research I've done I've seen some other cities actually do like

4:08:48MOUs partnership agreements with non-profit developers so that the process of them actually

4:08:59working upfront and collaboratively with city staff as their identifying land as an example

4:09:06the developer can actually be working in parallel to get stuff done quicker. I'm just going to say

4:09:15it out loud the city of Kitchener with Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity has some sort of

4:09:20agreement with Whitby and so as things come up then that that local developer gets to be actually

4:09:30like working alongside quickly to get shovels in the ground for those needed homes. Is that

4:09:36something that is being looked at locally here? I guess it's not through MECA 3 it's to MECA 3.

4:09:49So yeah I think in terms of the draft actions that are presented in the housing affordability

4:09:54strategy so the 1.1.2 which is looking at evaluating the city's role in developing affordable housing

4:10:03I think that one speaks to your question in terms of MOUs.

4:10:08We could look at that and see if that's an option but we just need to do that first and it does come

4:10:15with a cost in terms of all of these as we know in terms of the draft actions. Also the land

4:10:21strategy as well would also be one of the draft actions that may address what you're seeing in

4:10:28other municipalities as well and what we could what we are hoping to do here. Okay perfect and by

4:10:35the way I just I said Habitat for Humanity just as an example it doesn't matter to me like whoever

4:10:40wants to get it done I don't care if it's a co-op I don't care but you know instead of the sort of

4:10:46constant let's put it an RFP for this and an RFP for that one and we're always waiting 30 60 days

4:10:54you have an agreement up front with whoever that is and they are working in parallel to get those

4:11:01things and get going so thank you that's a takeaway for you and then the final thing is is that the

4:11:07prioritization that's been discussed and this I was wondering how is that going to come back for us

4:11:13is it literally because you know we have like 25 30 ideas and you're going to come back and go hey

4:11:18here's here's the best bang for your buck here's the top five or whatever that is

4:11:25are you going to divide that into sort of the best top five of of keeping existing housing stock

4:11:32that we need and then sort of a top five for what we need to do for new stock new supply

4:11:38or is it going to be a mix of the both in that in that prioritization so it will be a mix of both

4:11:49yeah so we in terms of prioritization okay and then the final this takeaway from me is something

4:11:54I know that I've said before but I'm going to say it again because I think this is the opportune time

4:11:58to do it I would really really appreciate an actual little bit of a deeper dive into determining

4:12:09whether wealth municipal holdings Inc. GMHI can be used as a vehicle to help us build

4:12:19exactly what we're talking about here tonight. One of the things that we are consistently talking

4:12:26about is partnering with these people and partnering with those people and waiting for

4:12:31upper levels of government all agree I agree on all of that and we often say you know when someone

4:12:39comes to the microphone like a habitat for humanity again as an example we're like great put the

4:12:43shovels in the ground when is there an opportunity for us to talk about us putting our own shovels

4:12:51in the ground and not having to can always wait on the county or always wait on private or always

4:13:00wait on non-profit I really think as you get these land asset land things together is there an

4:13:09opportunity for the city to start actually becoming a developer and us putting our own shovels in the

4:13:15ground and getting going on these types of things and I don't know who's the best okay our new CAO

4:13:22thank you so to you Mr. Mayor I would say we're absolutely in terms of investigating the city's

4:13:30role in housing that's like first and foremost in terms of what we want to look into and if the

4:13:34model of a housing corp is the right way to do it versus you know there's other ways it can just do

4:13:40that as a division of the city as well like like the the administration of a housing corp is actually

4:13:46you know expensive yeah and and so what does that what is the value that comes out of that

4:13:51so I would say I just wanted to say that is that is part of the the action in that I think you said

4:13:57it was one point one point two so and anyway so I just I wanted to just confirm that that is that

4:14:05is being addressed in that item great thank you yeah and again gmhi department doesn't again

4:14:12none of that bothers me what what what matters to me is getting it done fast right that's what

4:14:19that's what gets to me so I appreciate that you've acknowledged that that's being looked into

4:14:24because I I firmly believe that we have to have a greater role in the actual either purchasing

4:14:33and operating or building housing stock I believe the time is actually now for that

4:14:41but okay with that I appreciate everyone's comments and feedback there has been this

4:14:49already been moved and seconded I believe yes yes clerks are saying yes so I will look to call

4:14:55the vote now is there anyone against the receiving of this hey mirror go three oh I wasn't aware that

4:15:02we were doing just calm questions and comments did I just do a very quick comment very quick I

4:15:08really want to bring it's okay I will allow a very quick comment okay thank you I'm gonna call

4:15:13the vote I know everyone wants to go home but I think to Mayor Guthrie's plan to everyone's point

4:15:20like I would love to draw everyone's attention to item 1.1 one and it's the creation of a

4:15:28community planning permit system I think this is the ultimate way in which we can be a convener

4:15:34of these conversations and personally like this is what brought me to municipal world

4:15:40and I think there's opportunity to bring the university there's probably public stakeholders

4:15:45and everyone should be aware of this and go on have your say and thank you yep I'll leave it at that

4:15:53no problem no problem thank you okay I'll call the vote is anyone against receiving this report

4:16:00nobody thank you very much staff that is excellent work appreciate it okay we are done we got bylaws