On November 20, 2024, we presented to Ottawa's City Council about the City's draft budget.
While the proposed budget includes modest increases in operations funding, as well as stable and predictable capital funding, the needle continues to move in the wrong direction on housing in Ottawa.
We presented the remarks below to contend that the only way to truly end homelessness and tackle the housing crisis in our community is through scaling up non-profit housing.
Good Morning Chair and Members of Committee,
My name is Meg McCallum and I’m the Interim Executive Director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. The Alliance represents over 70 community agencies and partners in the housing and homelessness sector in Ottawa, working together to end homelessness.
I’d like to thank City staff and members of the Committee for the work you do. I’m here to speak about the draft budget, but this needs to be framed in the context of the needs in our city.
According to the most recent data on rentals.ca, it costs just over $2,000 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment in Ottawa now. The good news is that the rate hasn’t changed since last year. The bad news is that this is far out of reach for anyone on a pension or receiving social assistance, for students or most single parents, or anyone earning below $82,000 a year. Almost one quarter of renter households in Ottawa are paying more than they can afford.
2023 marked the highest numbers on record in Ottawa’s shelter system, and an estimated 10% of people in shelters are employed but just can’t find a home they can afford. We’re waiting to hear the results of the Point in Time count that took place last month, but we know the numbers of people living in encampments is growing each month.
It can take 4 to 8 years to get subsidized housing through the Housing Registry. Even for people with urgent medical priority status, the wait can be up to 2 years.
Council set a Term of Council priority to create a City that has affordable housing and is more liveable for all. I would urge you to use all of the tools at your disposal to achieve this goal: funding, policy and program design, advocacy and innovation.
If we don’t keep up with need, we fall further behind.
We know that the only way to truly end homelessness and tackle the housing crisis in our community is through scaling up non-profit housing. We need to prioritize solutions that increase the amount of permanent, nonprofit affordable housing, along with the supports tenants need to stay housed.
We also know we’re losing low-rent private market rental units faster than we can build new affordable rentals. While we need to focus on adding new units, we need to stop the loss through non-profit acquisitions.
Acquisitions prevent people from becoming homeless. When people who have had stable affordable housing for years lose their housing due to demolition or renoviction, the chances of finding something affordable in today’s market is slim to none.
As critical as it is to house people experiencing homelessness, ensuring that people stay housed is equally important to reduce the flow into the shelter system. If we relieve pressure on the “emergency” part of the system we can target our efforts to best results: prevention and permanent housing.
Let’s talk about what’s good about the City’s housing budget: modest increases in operations funding, stable and predictable capital funding, the willingness to explore new financial tools, and the commitment to ongoing advocacy with other orders of government.
But let’s face it: The unfortunate reality is that despite our best intentions, the needle continues to move in the wrong direction and we are talking about people’s lives. The housing crisis was created over decades and is exacerbated by factors beyond our control, and responses require funding outside municipal control.
I urge Council to push as hard as you can to increase our city’s investment towards non-profit housing, both new development and acquisitions. It is cheaper, smarter, and more compassionate to invest in making sure that everyone in our community has a home.
Thank you.
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