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Cornerstone
The Prince Edward Learning Centre works to equip individuals with literacy, numeracy and other academic and job-seeking skills in our community. A quarter of the folks who participate in the Learning Centre’s Aspire program aren’t certain where they will sleep each night. More than half live in conditions few of us would consider adequate or tolerable.
Imagine attempting to focus on your studies when you’re unsure whether the couch you’ve been sleeping on is still an option this evening. Or if this arrangement means another conflict, more argument.
Some must continually worry whether they will be safe tonight or homeless.
This is what the County’s housing crisis feels like.
It’s not new. The challenge of housing for those on the margins has been mouthed by successive councils over the past 15 years, each new set of leaders promising to fix it, but never quite getting around to it.
Last week this pattern changed— council took a momentous step forward, forming the Prince Edward County Housing Corporation. This move holds the promise to be an inflection point in the lives of those existing on the margins in our community. It is that important.
The new Housing Corp. will operate distinctly from council, though the municipality will be the sole shareholder. The Housing Corp. will act as a catalyst to agitate for action between the private and the public sectors— forming connections, sourcing investment and prying loose land that may otherwise sit dormant and useless. Agile and responsive in a way County council could never be, the Housing Corp. will be focused on making deals and getting projects built.
How will it do this? Let me give an example.
Eight years have passed since the Dukes moved into the new rink in Wellington. The old arena property had since been earmarked for redevelopment as attainable housing, but nothing seemed to materialize. There were a handful of folks who kicked the tires, while others offered to take it off the County’s hands in exchange for rich concessions and the promise of a boatload of profit.It had no champion at Shire Hall. There was no urgency. No dealmaker. Several groups, as well as community- minded individuals, stepped up with plans, dollars and concepts for attainable housing, but found no counterpart in our local government. No agent willing or able to make a deal. So it languished.
I anticipate that one of the first actions of the PEC Housing Corp. will be to kickstart discussions to draft a workable plan to construct a mix of attainable housing on this land. With a single-minded focus on this objective, a local housing authority can at last move through the required due diligence and negotiations to find a deal. It can help guide the project through the County’s regulatory hoops—efficiently and speedily.
The Housing Corp. will also be very well placed to access capital. Both the federal and provincial governments manage pools of capital dedicated to addressing the issues around homelessness and affordability. As Zainab Mynetto, of the Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Community Futures Development Corporation, explained to council last week, there are a growing number of what are known as Social Impact funds arising too. These may be targeted for the specific aim of addressing attainable housing in this community.
Further, the Housing Corp. may be able to tap other innovative funding sources. Zero coupon bonds for example. Often referred to as Community Bonds, these allow investors to contribute their capital for a set period, without earning interest, but with the understanding they will get their funds back at some point in the future.
Here is how they work. The toughest time to secure financing for a new housing development, of any kind, is when it is still on paper, as a concept. But if we agree on a plan that offers much more intrinsic value than a simple rate of return, we might, as individuals, consider investing in a Community Bond, knowing we will earn no interest, but that we will get our money back in 10 years. While we will forgo the income and appreciation that money might have generated elsewhere, we will get to see something important emerge and serve our community. A more enriching payback, perhaps.
Once up and running, the property is more easily refinanced. The original bondholders are paid back. Everyone wins.
One thing the PEC Housing Corp. will not be is a drain on the County’s coffers. There will be some start-up dollars allocated to the new entity, and perhaps some modest recurring need for administration funds.The objective of the Housing Corp. is not to burn taxpayer dollars, but to be free from constraints of government bureaucracy so that it can seize the array of opportunities to marry the goodwill of residents, developers and investors into solving a pressing community problem.
It is a significant achievement. And it is just getting started.
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