Columnists
A house that is home
Affordable housing, in Prince Edward County, appears to be a very hot topic these days. It seems to me there are a lot of people who, deep down, feel as if they are to blame for the inflated market. If you’ve moved here to retire from the hustle and bustle of the city, you are not to blame for the price of residential houses. I should have mentioned my father’s other famous line regarding real estate, and that was “everything is for sale”. Even if there isn’t a sign on the front lawn, every building has a price. The price becomes especially dear if the current owner finds out someone else is interested in their piece of the pie. Whatever. This doesn’t really help people who are underhoused and need a decent place to live without the fear their “home” could be sold for a profit and they could become homeless. That’s a reality for a lot of local people.
If you know me, and a few of you do, you know how I feel about making money in real estate. I’m not interested. We did sell two smallish houses to get a single house big enough for our family, but it wasn’t about making money. It was all about making room. And as long as we can manage in our home, we don’t have any intention of selling. Actually, LOML is fond of telling folks the only thing that will leave this house in a box will be him. True, we could have been living a very different life had we decided to be house-flippers. Who knows, we might now be sitting in a monster home, on the water, in the middle of who-knows-where wondering why we didn’t stay in town. But LOML and I decided what we really wanted to be was owners of a home. We only ever wanted a place to be home for us and for our children, and now our grandchildren. We’ve got what we wanted. It’s not the kind of place that would grace the pages of a magazine, unless it was featured as a place with potential for a huge makeover. Like I’ve said before, many of the people we know just want to call their residence “home”. I’m not here to point a finger at people who make their living buying, fixing and re-selling. Perhaps the County needs more of that kind of initiative for people who need decent housing. Perhaps we need an organization in the business of buying fixer-uppers for people who need a home. A fixer-upper that can be fixed up with the help of a potential new home owner. Habitat for Humanity is an organization with a similar focus except their primary goal is new builds plus the “affordable homeownership”. But why not buy and fix homes in an already established neighbourhood?
The problem I have is whenever I hear “affordable housing” I automatically think of a ghettolike strip of low-rise, condo-type places on the outskirts of a community. We don’t need that in this community, nor do people who need affordable housing need to be ostracized and ghettoized. If our community, and politicians, are focused on the provision of housing for people who need a hand-up, perhaps the discussion should be about how to make sure those places don’t stand out as different. We don’t need to have a place name that conjures up hardship, difficult times or disadvantages. We don’t need anymore “council flats”, Regent Parks, Moss Parks or Downtown East Sides. Even in this area we have several pockets of “named” social and affordable housing projects. We don’t need to isolate people into projects and certainly shouldn’t use the words “social housing”.
Let’s all vow to get away from the stereotypes created by building pockets of “social/public housing”. Let’s start by talking about home and community building. As Nelson Mandela said, “[O]vercoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”
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