‘Housing emergency’ doesn’t spare Manor Park

When the world ceased to make sense – as it often did during the pandemic – Leigh Adamson went on long walks by the old military base in Manor Park to gather her thoughts.
Leigh had been living in the area for three years before she met Claude Lurette on Hemlock Rd.
After repeatedly noticing Claude by the side of the road in his broken-down car, she decided she had to help.
Leigh says she approached him and asked: “What if we do a GoFundMe?” Given that his car was on private property, surely, it was only a matter of time before he would be asked to move.
Although he had been a strong advocate for mental health and poverty issues in the community Claude was reluctant at first, according to Leigh, he “simply did not want the attention.” Winter was approaching and his car had broken down.
When Leigh launched the GoFundMe for Claude, “it really took off,” raising just over $8,000.
However, despite now having some money through the kindness and generosity of nation-wide donations, Claude confirmed that he continues to struggle to find affordable housing in Ottawa. He continues to use some of the donations to keep gas and heat running in his car for warmth.
“It’s a slow process … due to the housing crisis in Ottawa,” says Leigh. “He’s waiting for the City of Ottawa to either free up a unit for him or provide him with housing [through a subsidy].”
‘Exponential increase’
Claude’s story is only a symptom of the housing emergency declared by the City of Ottawa in 2020. As the number of homeless people increases, so does the concern about rising rent prices and a continuing shortage of affordable housing. The city’s 10-year housing and homelessness plan (2020-2030) has only scratched the surface.
Rawlson King, councillor for Rideau‒Rockcliffe ward, says municipalities are constantly adjusting to the 10-year-plan due to increased needs around homelessness prevention.
“This is a national trend,” says Coun. King. “We’ve seen an increase [of homelessness] across the city and within the ward.”
As a member last year of the city’s Community Services Committee, the councillor says he voted “yes” for the $48.5 million allocated toward the Homelessness Prevention Program in this year’s budget.
“There is an active policy and program to ensure that there are continuous engagements with people who are unsheltered to try to link them with different programs,” he says.
The city should have “continuous and productive” conversations with unsheltered people who have experienced trauma.
“The idea is not to just go and say ‘We’re going to threaten you with arrest if you don’t move. [It’s] to ensure that there’s a … dialogue with people to get them to build trust.”
When asked if he has heard any specific concerns regarding affordability of housing in the Rideau-Rockcliffe ward, Coun. King says the ward has seen an “exponential increase in the cost of housing.”
“[We] are focused on ensuring that we invest in, not just address chronically homeless individuals, but also focusing on the creation of permanent housing.”
Local efforts
Following the federal government’s announcement to fast track the creation of more than 4,400 housing units over three years in Ottawa, Coun. King says the city could see an investment of over $176 million to build more affordable housing.
“We have astronomical rents that are not keeping pace with people’s incomes,” he says. “In this term of council, there’s a clear unanimity that we really do need to focus on ensuring that we continue to develop affordable housing and are making the changes.”
Mary Hickman-Goldfield, community outreach for the Manor Park Community Association (MPCA), says the association really became aware of the disparities in the Manor Park demographic around 2017.
Mary notes Rideau-Rockcliffe ward has around 13 community resource centres. They get money from the city to provide social services and food banks.
According to Mary. the redevelopment of the 15-hectare area of the Manor Park Estates, owned by the Aggarwal family, will be a significant change for the community.
After receiving a unanimous nod from the city’s planning committee, Lalit Aggarwal’s vision to pursue developments over the span of 40 to 50 years could deliver more affordable houses to the community.
She says Coun. King got the Manor Park Association involved with the Community Benefits Network group to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the developer and the city.
Thanks to the MOU, current residents will not be displaced. Mary describes that as a “big” achievement.
‘A policy failure’
Kaite Burkholder Harris, executive director at the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, says people did not experience extreme ends of the homelessness crisis until the last two decades, after the Canadian government stopped funding social housing initiatives.
According to Kaite, Canada used to build a lot of social housing and made sure that “everyone would always have a home.” However, funding for social housing stopped gradually through the 1980s and fully in the ‘90s. As a result, the housing market became unaffordable for most, including those in upper and middle classes.
In a 2022 report, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux warned that “home ownership has become even less affordable through the pandemic for the average buyer, who may find it even tougher to get into the market unless prices drop” and that “the average income earner will find it ever harder to afford a home in the future unless prices drop or wages climb.”
Katie worked as a frontline social worker in her early career years. She’s become convinced that homelessnes is rooted in systemic issues rather than individual failures.
“It’s not a people’s failure,” she says. “It is absolutely a policy failure.”
“Whatever people were being asked to do to fix their situation was really not going to make a difference when they were operating in a system that was extremely difficult and filled with barriers,” Kaite says.
Additionally, she believes our systems perpetuate homelessness. The child who turns 18 in the child welfare system, people exiting jail, people staying in hospitals. They often all go straight into homelessness.
“Every level of government is receptive and wants to do the right thing. But … I think there’s lots of shiny, politically nice things, but [ they] are not actually evidence-based or the right approach.”
Feds should develop housing policies
Carolyne Whitzman, adjunct professor and researcher at the University of Ottawa and a housing policy consultant, collaborated with Kaite on a 2023 report for the Alliance.
The report focuses on scaling-up non market housing in Ottawa. It aims to serve as an urgent “how to” for the City of Ottawa to increase new non-profit housing, according to Caroline.
Carolyne grew up in Montreal, moving from one rental housing to the other. She says her curiosity for housing policies emerged when trying to figure out why houses cost what they did.
Forty years later, Whitzman is still seeking those answers.
She now believes homelessness should be tackled with a top-down approach.
“Municipalities shouldn’t be driving housing policies, full stop . . . The federal government should be coming up with consistent, accurate definitions and assessments of housing needs [and] should be developing targets for its provinces.”
‘So bad we have to act’
Not everyone agrees. Orléans Coun. Matthew Luloff says although municipalities follow federal building code standards, the government should avoid implementing “feel-good” programs with costly repercussions.
Despite the ongoing homelessness crisis, Kaite remains hopeful that ending homelessness in Ottawa is indeed possible.
Increasingly, all levels of government and industry are acknowledging the housing “emergency.” This fact is, ironically, what’s giving her hope that a solution could be on the horizon. “[It’s] so bad that we have to act,” says Kaite. “That’s a place we’ve not been at as long as I’ve been in this sector.”
This article was written by Abyssynia Abebe.
