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A place to live
The challenges of housing in Prince Edward County are plain. They are widely understood by anyone who has tried to rent an apartment or buy a house recently. Our community is rapidly becoming unaffordable to all but a very small segment of the population. This emerging crisis poses a threat to the viability of our schools, hospital and healthcare services upon which our community depends. It is worse for the County’s service and hospitality economy, driven by who folks who can’t afford to live here. Worse still for those for whom life has become untenable in Prince Edward County.
We are watching a housing crisis spiral out of control in our community. Without a correction or significant intervention soon, the County risks devolving into an exclusive enclave of wealthy seniors. Or of streets lined with empty homes awaiting weekend visitors.
It is certainly a problem made worse by the displacement of settled families by transient Airbnb customers. But it is a mistake, however, to see this as the sole, or even the most important cause. The challenge is much more complex than this.
Simply put, demand far outstrips supply, and has done so for a decade. Too many buyers, not enough sellers. And precious few new homes are being constructed. The local housing market is broken. It demands a robust response. Yet, there are no easy solutions. No quick fixes.
Nor can we rely on one sector or group to alter our current course.
Private sector developers, unshackled and properly motivated, can play a part. Community organizations, like those that have come together to develop affordable housing on the former Pinecrest school lands in Bloomfield and the old Dukedome in Wellington, are already putting their shoulder to the wheel. Meanwhile, the federal and provincial governments have made money available, but their prescriptions don’t necessarily fit the unique needs of this community.
These are positive and hopeful signs. But more is needed. Much more.
On Thursday, council will consider a bold new approach. New for this community, anyway.
The County’s Community and Economic Development chief, Neil Carbone, will unveil plans to establish a municipal corporation dedicated to initiating, developing and building affordable housing in this community.
Local government is uniquely positioned to understand the challenges of housing in our community. It is also at the nexus of resources, capital and organizations (private and public) that are required to change our trajectory.
Yet local government, by structure and disposition, is careful, slow moving and riskaverse to the point of near-paralysis to be an effective actor in this context.
A municipal corporation, however, can be a much more agile agent—ready and able to respond quickly to opportunities, to form partnerships, to extract resources from senior levels of government, to borrow, and to lever the County’s land stock to create opportunities— to make deals happen.
An arms-length corporation is best equipped to navigate the regulatory labyrinth with more ease and fluidity than can even a well-practiced developer. The municipal corporation comes with more clarity and insight into processes and the credibility to sidestep more perfunctory obstacles.
A municipal corporation will also be at the centre of the local deal flow—armed with the knowledge of which projects need more development, which projects are ready to roll, and which need just need a supportive nudge to move from one to the other.
It comes to the table with land, resources and the sole motivation to create housing affordable in this community. It can serve as a catalyst and a champion at a moment when both are badly needed.
Carbone comes to the table with critical insight, a strong plan and direct experience with the power and effectiveness of a municipal housing corporation.
For at least a decade, successive councils have mouthed their intention to do something to make living in the County more affordable.
On Thursday they will have a chance to turn those words into action.
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