Social Policy in Ontario

Queen’s Park newcomer aims to move the yardsticks on housing

Posted on November 26, 2014 in Inclusion Delivery System

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – Newly elected Liberal MPP Peter Milczyn uses private member’s bill to require developers to include affordable housing in all new projects.
Nov 25 2014.   By: Carol Goar, Star Columnist

It was a modest breakthrough. But in the fight for affordable housing, every victory counts.

Last week, Peter Milczyn, the newly elected MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, introduced his first private member’s bill: the Planning Statute Amendment Act. If it passes — and that’s a big if — it would give municipalities across Ontario the authority to direct developers to set aside a number of units in every residential project as affordable housing.

It’s called inclusionary zoning. The idea is not new, but it has never gained enough traction at Queen’s Park to become law.

What is different this time is the bill’s sponsor is a member of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government. It set off a flurry of online cheers, tweets and e-mail exchanges among housing activists. Even Jennifer Keesmat, Toronto’s chief planner, got into the act. “Peter Milczyn introduced essential changes to improve planning in Ontario. Exciting!” she tweeted.

His bill would amend the Planning Act, the City of Toronto Act and the Building Code Act, giving cities a new tool to address the chronic scarcity of affordable accommodation in their jurisdiction. It would give the 165,000 Ontario households on the waiting list for social housing a sliver of hope. And it would allow urban planners such as Keesmat to accelerate Toronto’s move toward a mix of market-priced and rent-geared-to-income housing.

Inclusionary zoning is certainly not the whole answer to the shelter woes of low-income Ontarians. But it would make a tangible difference.

“It aims to restore local decision-making,” Milczyn told the legislature. “This bill will grant municipalities the right to promote (a) built form that is well-designed, encourages a sense of place and provides for public spaces that are of high quality, safe, accessible, attractive and vibrant.”

Hundreds of communities in the U.S. have implemented some form of inclusionary zoning since the mid-1970s. In Canada, it has been studied, promoted by anti-poverty advocates and debated by legislators for at least a decade. Parkdale-High Park New Democrat Cheri di Novo has put no fewer than five private member’s bills on the order paper calling for inclusionary zoning.

But Milczyn is the first MPP from government ranks to champion the concept. As an architect, he knows it is feasible. As a 14-year veteran of Toronto city council — and chair of its planning growth management committee — he has consulted with developers, community groups and planners in other municipalities.

Typically, 10 to 30 per cent of the units in new residential developments are set aside as affordable housing. Milczyn estimates that would work out to about 20 units per project. He isn’t rigid about the formula or the implementation. The designated units could be handed over to a non-profit housing organization such as Habitat for Humanity, he says. They could be entrusted to the city to rent out at an affordable rate. Or the developer could donate the cash equivalent of their value to build affordable housing elsewhere.

He projects a newcomer’s confidence that all or most of the provisions of Bill 39 will eventually become law. His supporters are less sure:

– The odds of a private member’s bill being enacted are extremely low. Most run aground at the committee stage or die on the order paper, as Di Novo’s five-year crusade for inclusionary zoning illustrates.

– The government is sending mixed signals. If this were a Liberal priority, the bill would have come from Housing Minister Ted McMeekin, not a first-term backbencher.

– Condo developers, on whom the Liberal Party of Ontario relies for election funds, don’t like the prospect. To them it constitutes an additional tax.

– Purchasers of new condos and townhouses don’t like the idea. They fear it will lower the value of their market-priced units.

– Even some anti-poverty groups don’t like it. They contend inclusionary zoning serves moderate-income households, not those in the greatest need.

Given their choice, most housing advocates would rather have a comprehensive national housing strategy or an aggressive provincial investment program in affordable housing than a zoning adjustment. But neither of those is on offer. Harper is ideologically opposed to national social programs and Wynne, constrained by a $12.5-billion deficit, is promising a mere $80 million a year.

Inclusionary zoning is within political reach. All it would take is an effort of will at Queen’s Park.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/11/25/queens_park_newcomer_aims_to_move_the_yardsticks_on_housing_goar.html >

Tags: homelessness, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living

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