Affordable

Housing Corporation gets serious about options

The idea of affordable housing in Prince Edward County has been a bone of contention for a little while now. The sense of urgency never more so than has been witnessed in the past 12 months as house prices surge to ridiculous levels and rental accommodation commands ever increasing exorbitant rates, where low inventory and high demand means anything goes. Some folks are being driven out of the County, whether it’s young families, individuals or seniors, as the current problem of having adequate affordable housing options has reached a crisis point, not least because COVID-19 came along and made a bad situation even worse.

Long-time local developer David Cleave addressed council recently on the many challenges faced with meeting affordability criteria, when he declared, “It may be that not everyone gets to live in Prince Edward County that wants to live in Prince Edward County.” Cleave noted that the proposed Talbot on the Trail subdivision in Picton, “may be the last subdivision we see with affordability.” Due to increased construction costs and materials that are soaring in price, along with rising land prices, the grim yet realistic news comes as no surprise to most, but it needed to be said.

The municipality came late to the table in addressing the problem some would describe as predictable, to service the growing need of providing sufficient affordable housing for its residents and those who chose to live here to be near employment. It’s an issue some would say should have been tackled at least five years ago when Prince Edward County was promoting itself to the outside world. A few years ago, the municipality made the decision to form a housing corporation to help navigate and address the serious issue of the lack of affordable housing in Prince Edward County. The Prince Edward County Affordable Housing Corporation (PECAHC) was formed in December 2018 by the municipality in response to the need for affordable housing. A board of 11 directors, appointed in March 2019, were tasked with putting together a business plan conceptualizing the organization’s mission and how affordable housing needs would be addressed in the County.

In July 2020, Charles Dowdall was brought on board the non-profit organization in the role of Executive Director. “The vision of PECAHC is not just a one-trick pony as in building bricks and mortar, it is how to assist the community, other community agencies, in either increasing or at least maintaining housing that is affordable in the County,” says Dowdall. His role is to get the ball moving on developing and increasing the supply of affordable housing throughout Prince Edward County, and seven months into the position, he is doing just that, while juggling the challenges COVID-19 presents. While PECAHC is looking at facilitating both affordable rental and home ownership needs, Dowdall says the immediate focus, because of demand, is on the rental component.

The PECAHC has a number of projects in the works around the County, some in the very early stages of discussions, others a little more advanced in the negotiation process. Top of mind for Dowdall is the former Wellington Arena located on Niles Street, a building fondly known to many as the “Duke Dome”, a structure that has sat empty for 10 years and which PECAHC now owns and which is finally seeing some activity. It is hoped the site will be converted into 36 affordable rental housing units with redevelopment of the site to begin in December 2021 (read more about this project here).

While Dowdall acknowledges no data has ever been collected on affordable housing needs in Prince Edward County, he agrees that a data repository should to be set up so that information can be gathered and updated regularly. What Dowdall does know is the mission of the PECAHC is to have 200 to 300 affordable units to be in process of construction or completed within the next 24 months. “We have set a very aggressive agenda,” he said. One such project is a 3P partnership (known as a public-private partnership) they are working with to build 20 to 30 affordable housing units in a central location in the County. “A national private corporation who reached out to the organization would like to build on their existing property, incorporating their commercial building,” he said. “They are very committed to community investment and they have real estate in the County and with this 3P partnership, they would like to partner with ourselves to build affordable housing.”

“We are in another negotiation with a private individual who approached us and has a considerable amount of vacant land,” he said, noting it was more rural, but still on major transportation routes. “In partnership with us, they would like to see the development of a tiny homes community on their property of 40 to 50 stand-alone tiny homes, being a combination of either rental or purchase,” Dowdall said. “From a purchaser’s perspective, tiny homes allow you to get very entry level into home ownership.” He also speaks to on-going discussions with another community partner in working with a community agency on developing second and third phases of affordable housing in the Bloomfield area. “At the amount of property there, I am thinking the people who own that property concentrate on their project and the remaining 20 acres, we can in a couple of phases, we could really make this into a really vibrant community which has an affordable component to it.”

Dowdall conducted a review of over 400 individual market rent units throughout the County in Bloomfield, Wellington, Picton, and all points in between. “I spoke to approximately 40 private landlords and the information that came out was daunting.” For example, the average price of a bachelor apartment in Prince Edward County was $717, a one-bedroom was $1,288, a two-bedroom was $1,465, and a three-bedroom was $1,998. “For a small community, you are looking at rental rates that are encroaching on Toronto rates, and then the house prices are unbelievable,” says Dowdall, who adds his research showed the highest rental rates in the County are in the village of Wellington. He says the average house price now for a two-bedroom in Prince Edward County is $694,000, where he notes the year-overyear increase is currently 29 per cent. “It just cannot be sustained at that level going forward every year and there is no sign of it slowing down, at least in the current pandemic moving forward and so long as interest rates stay at record lows.”

Dowdall is a people person with a passion for affordable housing as well as a proven background in the field: a boots on the ground kind of guy who takes on a challenge by understanding needs, by reaching out into the community, by talking to ordinary folk, by listening to what people have to say, and by the exchange ideas and the gathering of information. “The first thing I was doing, I was out interacting with the individual councillors, out with the community agents, out with the public educating, this is what we’d like to do,” he says. “My rural roots are within rural Ontario, and my passion has always been in housing.”