By Jon Farmer
On February 28th Owen Sound City Council will consider two motions related to housing: one by Deputy Mayor O’Leary to accept and support Grey County’s housing plan and another by Councillor Merton to create a municipal housing plan for Owen Sound.If we’re lucky, council will pass both motions.
As I’ve written previously, there are many benefits to taking a careful look at complex challenges like housing in order to identify all the tools and responses at the City’s disposal as well as opportunities to collaborate with the community and our neighbours in solving them. If council supports Councillor Merton’s motion to develop a municipal housing plan, Owen Sound will be following the lead of municipalities like Kincardine and Saugeen Shores which have respectively launched a housing action plan and attainable housing task force.
As recently as December, conversations at Owen Sound council have included the suggestion that Grey County is addressing the issue of housing and that our city can simply support their work. Addressing the housing crisis will absolutely require support for and engagement with the county but Owen Sound also has a role to play and work to do. The argument that Grey County can address housing issues alone is based on the misperception that the housing crisis only impacts the poorest and most precariously housed and that it can consequently be fixed by the County run social housing projects. In reality, housing issues impact everyone and the housing crisis needs to be looked at in all of its complexity before it can be mitigated or solved.
As a community, we need to understand that the housing crisis is not just an issue for people experiencing homelessness or precarious housing. There is higher demand than supply for housing of all types. Yes, there are people on limited incomes struggling to find rentals that are both affordable and livable. There are also seniors, middle class couples, and multi-income families that are struggling to find housing to rent or buy as prices for both continue to climb. Owen Sound might be where people want to live but living here is only possible if folks can cover their basic needs of food and shelter with the work available. For example, Grey County has identified negative economic impacts resulting from insufficient housing for front line workers.
There are many contributing factors to the housing crisis and a single municipality can’t solve them all. But as Councillor Merton describes, there are absolutely steps that individual municipalities can take to alleviate the issues locally including zoning changes, targeted development charge adjustments, and regulating short term rentals to name a few. Before taking those actions though, we need a plan; uncoordinated action isn’t enough.
The first step is to look clearly at the question of housing, engage community partners for their perspectives, learn from the experiences of other communities, and develop a plan that fits for Owen Sound.
On the 28th, council will decide whether to develop a municipal housing plan. That vote will be shaped by the individual understandings and beliefs of each councillor. If we as citizens of Owen Sound believe that our city needs to take a closer look at the housing ecosystem and examine every possible action and tool at our disposal, then we need to ask council to take that step. We also need to let them know how the current housing crisis is impacting us, our families, and our friends. Fortunately, the email address for every councillor is posted on the City of Owen Sound website.
Jon Farmer lives in Owen Sound
