County questions who will pay for affordable housing

Essex County Civic Centre.

Eighty percent of all households do not have the income required to purchase a home in Essex County and over 20 percent of all households lack the necessary income to pay market rents.

That is the harsh reality that local politicians are facing but the  bigger concern is who will pay for affordable housing.

At last week’s Essex County Council meeting, SHS Consultants presented two reports – Regional Affordable Housing Strategy and A Housing Needs Assessment.

“It’s been a long process that began back in 2021,” said county director of legislative services David Sundin.

Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong said that those who can barely afford housing now in the county should not have to be responsible for paying for affordable housing for those who need it.

“They can’t afford to subsidize the failing housing situation and the inability of the upper tier to recognize and fund this,” said DeYong.

The reports presented by the consultants indicate that over the next ten years, the county will require 15,000 more dwelling units of which 2,250 need to be affordable.

There were five key insights that came out of the report including a need for more affordable housing to a broad range of income levels and a greater variety of housing options to reflect changing household structures and growth patterns.

“There wasn’t a lot here that we didn’t already know,” said DeYong of the report. 

“We are struggling with how to help people in our community but how are we going to pay for it and who is going to pay for it?

Several council members said that the provincial and federal governments should be financially contributing, and Lakeshore Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt commented that local taxpayers are already stretched to the max.

And while Sundin said it could take generations to fix the housing crisis, Amherstburg Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb felt the county should be looking at it very closely.

“This is a great first step in something I think we can spearhead,” said Gibb. “We are investing $100 million into the hospital that is really the responsibility of the province. Why can’t we invest in housing? I think we can.”

Ed Starr of SHS Consultants said that it takes a village to build affordable housing and he elaborated by saying all levels of government need to help.

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy brought up supportive housing and noted that the services are lacking for those who are in that type of housing.

“We need to completely gut what’s happening in the city and the county in terms of what we are doing with our housing portfolio,” said Bondy.

County questions who will pay for affordable housing

By Fred Groves