Excerpt from Habitat for Humanity Grey Bruce's September 26 letter re: Official Plan amendments for the Telfer Creek development east of the hospital.
“While the broad range of new housing includes various types (singles, semis,etc.) and tenure (rental units and condominiums ) there is no provision to address the critical shortage of affordable rental housing and homeownership housing that currently exists in the city.The recent completion of Owen Sound Housing Company's Odawa Heights project of 21 rent geared to income units does help meet the need, however much more must be done.
From our experience working with low to moderate income families in Owen Sound they struggle with:
- Finding decent rental units that are healthy and safe (long wait lists) and that they can afford housing that costs no more than 30% of household income).
- Overcrowded housing as they are forced to rent smaller units.
- Saving enough money for down payment to purchase a house along with trying to raise a family.(Grey County has limited funding for down payment assistance).
One way to alleviate the challenge many families in our community are facing with acquiring decent and affordable housing is to adopt Grey County's housing policy recommendation “to enable the use of inclusionary zoning at the municipal level” (Live Grey Discussion Paper). As you are aware last spring the province enacted its final form of inclusionary zoning regulation, outlining how municipalities may implement these new powers for the provision of affordable housing in new residential developments (see https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r18232) Many municipalities across Ontario are considering implementing inclusionary zoning or have already included this tool in their Official Plans. By way of example, the Mayor and Council of the City of Barrie are demonstrating strong leadership by recognizing the shortage of affordable housing by including in their Official Plan “a goal to have at least 10% of all new residential development be affordable housing. We require developers to submit a report showing how this is addressed in their developments and continually look at ways to improve implementation of this policy".
We therefore recommend that you adopt this new tool and include in the amendments an affordable housing component so to 
ensure that at least 5% of the proposed number of estimated units (338) be deemed affordable in accordance to the guidelines set by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. This would provide 17 units for qualified low income families to access decent and affordable housing thus alleviating the stress they endure daily. Habitat for Humanity Grey Bruce would be more than willing to partner with the city and the developer to make this happen.
As noted in the City's Strategic Plan, the four values of Caring, Creativity, Integrity and Sustainability will “service the foundation of the Strategic Plans framework, will help connect the vision, mission, objectives and actions, and will guide decision-making moving forward.” If the intention of the affirmed values is to "guide decision-making" we encourage you to consider how our recommendation would certainly demonstrate the character value of Caring defined in the Strategic Plan as:
- We care about our community
- We are welcoming, inclusive, and age-friendly City
- We strive for positive change and are committed to continue working in a collaborative fashion towards the City's vision of being "Where You Want to Live”
Again, we welcome the opportunity to work with you on innovative planning policy that addresses the growing need for affordable housing in our community.”
