Chatham-Kent Civic Centre, July 23, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)Chatham-Kent Civic Centre, July 23, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Chatham

Social housing a crisis situation for CK

When it comes to public housing in Chatham-Kent, the demand is rapidly going up while the supply is staying the same

Shelley Wilkins, director of Housing Services, recently gave council an update on the latest numbers for rent-geared-to-income waitlist trends across the municipality. The numbers painted an eye-opening picture.

The amount of applicants on the waitlist of public housing has been on a steady incline for the past several years. As of November 2019, the waitlist currently has 953 applicants on it for all of Chatham-Kent. In 2017, there were 834 names on the waitlist, 621 applicants in 2017 and 433 in 2016.

While the waiting list has more than doubled in four years, the vacancy rate for public housing has stayed hovering around the two per cent mark. According to Wilkins, on average, 15 public housing units become available a month, while each month they receive around 100 applicants placing their name on the waitlist.

"People can't find affordable housing, so instead of just being borderline on their own somewhere and trying to make due, they're not able to do that, so they're applying to us," she said. "Our waitlist has just shot up incredibly as the vacancy rate has come down."

Chatham currently has the highest number of people on the waitlist with 589, while Wallaceburg comes in second at 107. Throughout the whole municipality, the highest demand is for one-bedrooms, which makes up 73 per cent of the total waitlist. Singles/couple accounts for the largest share of the waitlist with 46 per cent, families account for 27 per cent, and seniors over the age of 60 account for 26 per cent. Overall, one-bedroom units in Chatham for non-seniors are in the highest demand, with currently around 234 applicants waiting to get in one.

When it comes to how long people stay on waiting lists for, Wilkins said it varies greatly by community. On average in Chatham, applicants wait 3.5 years for a one-bedroom, while people in Wallaceburg wait 4.6 years. For two-bedroom family units, applicants in Blenheim have the longest wait times of 12 months, while applicants in Chatham and Tilbury wait 11 months. One of the longest wait times throughout the community is seniors age 60 to 64 waiting to get into mandated senior housing in Chatham, waiting an average of six years. In Blenheim, seniors aged 65 and older wait an average of 3.75 years.

Wilkins said that there is a handful of services and programs available to people who struggle financially while they wait for social housing to become available. However, she said most of them have to make hard decisions to make ends meet.

"How they're managing while they're not getting financial assistance through us is they're probably going without food and using the foodbanks as much as they can," said Wilkins. "A lot of them are living with family members in crowded situations or with friends. Couchsurfing, whatever they have to do to get by."

Wilkins said she believes there are several factors for the increased demand for public housing including more apartments being turned into condominiums and an increase in rental rates.

"We've seen the rental rates for units really increase over time. Because other landlords catch onto that too, the demand is there the supply is not," she explained. "So they can really jump their rates when their units turn over."

As for answers to the problem, the municipality is working towards doing what they can. According to John Norton, general manager of community development and chief legal officer, finding solutions involves tackling several complex problems such as making sure there's the necessary infrastructure needed to build a social housing unit and looking at ways to encourage the private sector to build. Social housing also comes with a hefty price tag of an average construction price of $120,000 per unit.

However, Norton said they are working on solutions and expect to release more details to council about specific incentive programs in early 2020.

"We are preparing various incentives to come to council to incentivize the development and construction of all types of housing," said Norton. "We're hearing not only from the neediest but from people who have jobs who are saying they can find housing or they can't find housing that they can afford. We're trying to put a comprehensive plan in place."

In Chatham-Kent, there are currently 1,592 Housing Services units, the majority targeted for rent-geared-to-income. Although the numbers appear bleak, Wilkins said Chatham-Kent is not alone.

"I do believe we're in a crisis situation but we're also not different from the rest of the majority of the province," she said. "Housing is a crisis situation all across Ontario... it's a crisis in a lot of different provinces as well. Housing supply is not kept up with the demand and we're seeing the impacts of it now."

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