It’s election season in Ontario again and the biggest issue is housing. Each of the major parties has made a point of tackling housing unaffordability in their platform. What’s odd is that even though they all ostensibly come from different ideological backgrounds, they’ve reached something of a housing consensus. The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP have all outlined measures to spur housing construction. They’ve all decided that the problem with housing in Ontario is that there isn’t enough of it and what is being built is taking too long. Let’s take a look a closer look.
A Housing Consensus?
The Liberals, Conservatives and NDP have all promised to build 1.5 million new homes over the next ten years. Not to over make this point but it’s weird to see everyone agree on something. Even so there are some notable differences.
For starters, the Conservatives are the odd one out when it comes to rent control. Both the Liberals and NDP have promised to reintroduce it. After forming government, the Conservatives removed rent control for all rentals built after 2018. The major difference between the Liberal and NDP plan is that NDP wants to be more comprehensive with its rent control policy, establishing measures to prevent landlords from raising rents between leases. This practice is a key driver of rent inflation and gets at a common eviction tactic. Landlords often convince tenants to leave for a renovation and then the next tenant then faces a significant rent increase. Perhaps we could see the end of these so called “renovictions”.
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Affordable Housing
Going further still, the New Democrats aim to establish Housing Ontario, an agency that will construct and finance 250,000 homes. It should be noted that these homes will be affordable and nonmarket rentals. If not owned and operated by non profits and housing co-ops, they’ll be publicly owned. This is important because it provides direct access to affordable housing. While newly built housing can filter down to the realm of affordability, that can take decades. At that point a house will probably need any number of repairs and redesigns. Providing affordable housing now provides an immediate solution to a problem we’re facing right now.
These 250,000 affordable homes stand out in the housing consensus. Expanding the supply of market housing is on everyone’s agenda but it is a certain solution to a certain housing problem. Creating more market housing gives options for people who can already afford a home. The problem being tackled is that many buyers can’t afford a home in their neighbourhood of choice. That is a problem, but it is not the only housing problem. Earmarking 250,000 homes as affordable opens up housing options for people who may not be able to afford a home anywhere in Ontario, let alone a home in a neighbourhood they’d like.
No matter who forms government following the election in June, it looks like we’re in for a lot development. The question we have to ask is if there’s development for everyone.
