Affordable Housing & Rent

 

Affordable Housing and Rent Freeze

publicpower means no more head-in-the-sand approach to affordable housing construction. From high rents to homelessness, Howard Hampton and the NDP tackle Ontario's housing problem head-on and will build affordable housing again.

Relief for tenants is front and centre on the publicpower agenda.

The NDP will freeze rents for two years and return real rent control to Ontario.

The NDP will increase the shelter portion of social assistance to help stop the tide of people being rendered homeless.

Conservatives: Conservatives cancelled 17,000 affordable housing units ready to go in 1995. They did away with rent control and downloaded social housing on municipalities.

Evictions sky-rocketed in step with the Conservatives' gutting of tenant protections, their new maze of tribunal procedures stacked against tenants and their refusal to take action on skyrocketing rents.

The Conservatives said the private sector would build rental housing. They were wrong. Ontario actually has 40,000 fewer rental housing units than we had in 1996. (Statistics Canada).

Liberals: You never know where the Liberals stand on affordable housing. They say one thing one minute and contradict themselves the next.

All they commit to is matching the federal government's announced baby step of 2,000 units per year in Ontario. They even get the math wrong-saying that will mean 20,000 units, when at best it will mean 10,000 more.

Liberals won't restrict public subsidies to co-op and non-profit groups-they want them to go to private developers as well, but they would remove the affordable housing designation after 15 to 20 years, meaning units would jump to market rents, well beyond the average affordability range.

Liberals won't freeze rents-they voted against an NDP Bill that would have done just that -- and they won't bring in real rent control. Their promise of rent control evaporates if the vacancy rates hit three per cent. They won't do anything to help tenants catch up after years of rent gouging and landlord-enriching government policies.

Ending rent controls with a rise in vacant units means there's no trusted protection for tenants in the Liberal policy.

NDP: The NDP would assist municipalities and agencies with funding for 32,000 new affordable housing units (8,000 per year).

publicpower means investing in supportive housing, too, for the homeless and others with special housing needs. The NDP would build 11,200 units of housing for the hard-to-house (2,800 per year), as recommended in the Golden Task Force.

The NDP's publicpower pledge of $536 million for affordable housing is funded through the Ontario land transfer tax as a grant to participating municipalities, co-operatives and non-profit agencies. It will be dedicated to building new housing and maintaining existing non-profit and co-op units.

publicpower will create 43,200 affordable units while keeping the budget balanced.

The NDP built 50,000 housing units over five years in government and brought in a tough
program of rent control that also capped rent increases. Both Liberals and Conservatives
voted against real rent control.

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