These are the stories that created change that resonated far and wide within our community in the last four months of 2018. The issues and challenges raised will continue to have impact in the year ahead.
Housing affordability, lack of rental apartments and increasing homelessness in Newmarket hit home for many in our community this year.
Seniors said they feared being squeezed out of the community in which they raised their families, and a report from NewmarketToday showed that an individual would need to earn an annual salary of $85,860 to comfortably rent a two-bedroom apartment in town.
In addition, Newmarket’s seasonal homeless shelter Inn from the Cold itself is looking for a new home as the rent on its current facility is breaking the bank. On top of that, the shelter saw a 55 per cent increase in the number of clients it served in the 2017-2018 season.
Once you lose your housing, it’s exceedingly difficult to get back in, shelter executive director Ann Watson said. Over time, there’s little income, credit record or landlord references. For the chronic homeless, mental health issues prevent them from likely ever securing their own housing or using shelter facilities.
The issue of affordable housing is widely regarded as reaching crisis levels, not only here at home in Newmarket and York Region, but in cities and towns across the country.
Politicians of every stripe and at all three levels of government agree a comprehensive strategy is needed to provide housing for everyone in the community.
Newmarket Mayor John Taylor has repeatedly called the situation “one of the greatest challenges facing councils across the Greater Toronto Horseshoe Area”. The solution lies in all levels of government working together to build more rental and affordable housing, he said.
The NDP, meanwhile, is going so far as to promise to push for housing as an explicit human right in advance of the October 2019 federal election.
“You can’t secure other human rights without shelter, you can’t properly vote, you can’t receive social assistance that you need, it’s very difficult,” York-Simcoe NDP candidate Jessa McLean said. “And that’s also talking about homelessness, as well as those sheltered precariously.”
The only tool the Town of Newmarket had to stimulate the building of rental and affordable apartments was the use of incentives that make it more attractive to developers to set aside some space for such apartments, as is the case with a new development at Yonge Street and Davis Drive.
Last month, the provincial government announced it had eliminated rent control on new rental units in a bid to increase the supply and affordability of much needed rental housing, and cancelled the development charges rebate program.
As York University assistant professor Teresa Abbruzzese, who teaches urban studies in the social science department, pointed out: “What we have now is municipalities dealing with things like housing on their own. There’s still a reliance on providing incentives for developers to build, and when the supply of housing is left to the market, you’re not going to get the diverse mix of housing you need, particularly for families and the elderly. Housing that’s provided through the market is divorced from social needs.”
