The owner of Nancy Orr and Associates has just completed her masters thesis at the University of Guelph. Her topic was What Does It Take to Bring Affordability Housing to Non-Metropolitan Areas.
Orr says renters are particularly hard-pressed to find affordable housing.
"We have very little rental stock to begin with in non-metropolitan areas and it's often stigmatized. So, renters are stuck. They cannot move to something closer to their work place, or more suitable, because one, they can find somewhere. So renters are in a real predicament."
And she adds, if they can find something, it's usually beyond their price range.
Orr says we need all kinds of housing rural communities, but there is a particular need for more rental units, partly because the people who would be renters are also the people we need to work in retail and in the service industry.
Orr says we want people to move in and we need newcomers.
"So we want people to move in, we need newcomers because we have so many job opportunities and it's everything from the builders, those that are supposed to be building the housing stock are also struggling for work force, all the way to the service industry, those that have been imposed with the challenges of COVID, are also challenged to find housing."
Orr also points out, we're all impacted by housing in some way, whether it's parents who still have kids living at home, to seniors who are hoping down-size soon, or seniors who, at some point, are going to need a personal support worker and they're hoping the PSWs are able to find housing in their community.