Breaking point

How doth the little crocodile
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

C.S. Lewis—an adaptation of the poem from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The folks who live at the Legion Manor in Wellington have had a front row seat to the pointlessness of the County’s feeble affordable housing ambitions for 16 years. Since the new arena opened, and the old Dukedome abandoned, there have been a succession of promises, plans, and sometimes drawings of new homes arising in their front yard. But nothing ever came of it.

Now they gaze upon an empty lot—ringed by rented fencing. They’ve done so for years. They understand better than anyone that the County is no closer to creating affordable housing on this lot than it was in 2010.

Yet, it is to Shire Hall that the Legion Manor will come this week, bow their heads and seek mercy.

The Legion Manor—a non-profit corporation— can’t continue paying rising property taxes and water bills while maintaining affordable rents. It is being squeezed to the breaking point. It’s a problem many County folks can relate to—a challenge many endure.

Stretched to the breaking point, the board of the Legion Manor is pleading for relief through the County’s municipal housing authority. On Thursday, it will ask a committee of council to designate Legion Manor as a Municipal Capital Facility. In doing so, the Legion Manor is asking to be exempted from paying property taxes—both municipal and educational—for the duration of the agreement.

So many red flags.

First, let me be clear: the Legion Manor is in a tough spot. And while some form of relief seems appropriate, it must summon all its strength to resist the temptation of getting into bed with the County’s Housing Authority. Resist it like the plague. These folks haven’t created a single affordable unit in seven years. They haven’t managed anything. But they have frittered away thousands of dollars—mostly on wages and benefits—and have delivered little in return. These aren’t the folks you want involved in your home.The County’s housing department is neither qualified nor competent to oversee such an arrangement.

Setting aside serious competency questions, consider the terrible predicament that brings the Legion Manor cap in hand to Shire Hall’s door.

It was Shire Hall that propelled property taxes to rise by 600 per cent over 20 years. It was Shire Hall that pushed water bills through the roof—more than 10 times as costly as in 2000. And for what? Are their services 10 times better than they were 20 years ago?

Shire Hall is the cause of the problem. It created the unaffordability these folks now endure.

Yet the Legion Manor must now bow to Shire Hall—begging relief from the taxes and bills that Shire Hall imposed upon them. They are seeking a 20-year agreement, but to be crystal clear, once beholden to Shire Hall, there will be no return to independence.

This newspaper has long cautioned about soaring tax and water bills changing this community, that they were deforming the place; this is but the latest example. Shire Hall is the affordability problem.

Then there is the precedent problem. I, too, am being squeezed by rising property taxes and water bills—can I get this designation? Will the municipality pay my taxes? It is not a trivial matter.

The County has already used its authority to waive property taxes on unbuilt affordable housing projects promised by private developers. (Again, who is administering this municipal largesse?) The Legion Manor will surely serve as a basis for other existing apartment building owners seeking similar relief. Once this door is opened, a long queue will form quickly. Start building the barriers now.

If such arrangements are to be made at all, they must be done under the auspices of the County’s finance department. It is the only department that has demonstrated over the last year that it possesses the skills, rigour and discipline to understand, manage and oversee complex arrangements such as this. It is the only group that has shown the ability to enforce compliance and accountability.

To the folks at Legion Manor, I hope you get some relief—you didn’t ask for rising taxes and unaffordable water bills.

But understand that your reprieve comes at the cost of other County residents, of your neighbours. Of other folks also on the edge of viability.

This was the looming threat of an ever-expanding Shire Hall. So caught up in notions of growth and imitating municipalities in the GTA that it lost sight of what it was doing to you and to your neighbours.

Just remember that you are making a deal with the folks who inflicted this tragedy upon us all.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca