Raise the Hammer

Thanks very much for your comments. I agree that requiring a certain percentage of geared to income residents in new developments is only part of the solution. Not-for profit private organizations are another ingredient, but experience has shown that we should not rely on charitable groups to provide essential social services.

If we agree that affordable housing is a strategic priority for the City, the City itself should be coordinating the provision of affordable housing using a combination of tools (including working with private developers and charitable groups).

However, ultimately, the City itself should be building more of its own social housing and not relying only on others. My impression is that the City has built very little new social housing in the last 20 years.

The Federal Government has an important role to play as well: Canada is the only advanced country without a national housing policy.

The Federal Government needs to get involved in social housing again (as it did in the past). In France, the national government required all municipalities with a population greater than 50,000 to ensure 20% geared to income housing, with 20 years to comply and significant aid and flexibility in how to achieve this standard. That is another approach, which makes cities responsible for results rather than mandating methods. Note that "affordable housing" is not necessarily limited to low income residents in high cost cities like Paris or Vancouver.

Charitable groups can help, but they are not the solution.

Our modern governmental system of welfare, regulation and social programs came about through crisis when the traditional charitable organizations of villages and small towns failed completely to provide necessary services to the new large industrial cities (like Manchester or Sheffield).

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/54...

Like food banks, the fact that charitable groups are having to try to create affordable housing is a sign of societal failure.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2015-11-06 15:44:07