POVERTY IN 905: 21-year wait for Peel affordable housing
Two new projects are in the works, but queue for multi-bedroom units one of province’s longest
Oct 29, 2007 04:30 AM
Michele Henry
Staff Reporter
When Vivian Okolo added her name to the waiting list, officials told her that she and her husband would probably be able to move into an affordable home within three to seven years.
That was in 1998.
Almost 10 years after the fact, Okolo, now a single mother with three young girls aged 2, 5 and 6, is slowly losing hope. She’s one of 13,500 families – more than 30,000 people – in Peel Region’s affordable housing queue. The wait, probably one of the longest in the province, is 21 years for two- and three-bedroom units.
In Toronto, more than 67,000 people are on a waiting list for housing. The average wait time for a one-bedroom unit in the city is five to seven years, while a 10-to-12 year wait is more common for units with three or more bedrooms.
In Brampton, by the time Okolo’s expected to get housing, her nest might be empty and she may want to downsize.
“But I’ll take anything right now,” Okolo, 31, says. “I call the housing people every day and they tell me, `nothing we can do, you are still on the waiting list.”
With a population growing by 35,000 people a year and the number of single families on the rise in the region – 61 per cent of those on the list are single parents – the wait is likely to get even longer, says Keith Ward, commissioner of Human Services for Peel Region.
While Peel Region officials unanimously endorsed a plan this month to build 269 new affordable housing units for families in Brampton, which will serve the region, this will hardly make a dent in the need.
Ward calls the situation “very tragic.”
“A lot of applicants are hoping upon hope that something will magically happen,” he says.
“The list is so long that they’ve got to be pretty desperate to put their name on it. I’m surprised more don’t walk out the door.”
The new housing, a 175-unit high-rise near Queen St. and Hwy 410 and a 94-unit project near Hurontario and Mayfield Rds., is the first infusion of affordable two- and three-bedroom apartments in the city in more than 12 years. They are expected to be completed in the spring of 2009.
“We need a lot more affordable housing,” Ward says. “The family wait list just keeps growing and growing. It’s impossible to keep up.” Even worse, the statistics are inaccurate, he says, because with such a long list, many don’t bother adding their names.
Shelley White, CEO of United Way of Peel, says many families in the region are forced to cram into basement apartments, share single-family dwellings with several others, couch surf or, like Okolo, spend more than 80 per cent of their income on a place to live.
Forced to shuffle her family between emergency shelters when her husband left her in January, Okolo has no choice but to live beyond her means – and she struggles each month just to scrape by.
She pays $975 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in central Brampton, she says, even though social assistance gives her $900 a month. Okolo pays the difference with child benefit money.
Still, the new housing, a $53 million project, is a first step, White says.
“Housing is a fundamental need,” she says. “With good stable housing people can get jobs and their lives stabilize.”
Brampton’s new housing will cost around $170,320 per unit and rent will be $800 a month on average for most. Some units will be geared to income, Ward says.
The federal-provincial Affordable Housing Program has kicked in about $17.4 million, and the Region is allotting $25.6 million to the project.
Ward says delivering family housing has been a struggle in the region over the years and with a small budget building single units has been the most plausible option. More than 400 single units have been built Brampton in the past five years, he says, and the wait list for affordable housing for seniors is on average three years.
“Everything done to date has targeted seniors,” he says.
“Single units cost less money. With limited resources we’ve had no choice but to go to smaller units, higher density.”
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/271418
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