By Meagan Kelly
Stay-at-home mother Ann Flindall enjoys living downtown with her husband and her two daughters under the age of five. But with her husband only working part-time, she’s not sure how much longer they can afford to live there. They spend half of their income on rental payments for their Centretown apartment.
They have applied for co-op housing, but two years later, they are still on the waiting list.
“It’s frustrating, but unfortunately, you get to the point where you expect that,” says Flindall.
But after going to the Imagine Ottawa social forum last week, Flindall says she’s not going to take that attitude anymore. Some of the 200 other people who came to the social discussion forum last weekend felt the same, and committed to participating in more community advocacy for affordable housing.
They are part of an increasing interest in Ottawa’s low-income housing, surrounded by several heated mayoralty debates this month on homelessness.
The issue is also fresh in the minds of citizens because last week the city committed to building more affordable housing units.
“It’s an opportunity for debate on real issues, and I think people in Ottawa are concerned about the fact that there are homeless people and people can’t afford to live here,” says Catherine Boucher, executive director of Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, a non-profit housing organization.
There were 8,853 people without a home last year. This represents a two per cent jump from 2004, according to the Alliance to End Homelessness, a non-profit organization.
Part of the problem is a shortage of social housing. There are now 10,000 people on the waiting list for rent-reduced housing run by the City of Ottawa. The average wait is five to eight years, says Boucher.
The increasing shortage is linked to the former Conservative government under Mike Harris, which made social housing the responsibility of municipal governments in the mid-’90s. “If I think about it, I think we all got meaner and stingier and got to believing that we pay too many taxes,” Boucher said to people at the Imagine Ottawa conference.
She encouraged them to break this cycle and get involved in social advocacy in their community, like she did when she began working at her organization.
However, Boucher says getting enough support can be difficult. Those who live in low-income housing face stigmatization because many people think all social housing residents are on welfare.
In fact, says Boucher, only 12 per cent of people living in public housing are on welfare.
With the average one-bedroom apartment in Ottawa costing $750 a month, people working minimum-wage jobs who are ineligible for welfare can barely afford to pay their rent.
Dick Stewart, a social worker for 33 years who is now part of mayoral candidate Alex Munter’s team, also spoke at the forum about the role people have played in getting their local government to make changes. He said without them, any positive steps made, like the city’s recent commitment to build 374 more affordable housing units, would not have happened.
Still, he says, there’s a long way to go.
“I want you to imagine the transit system in our town without the Laurier Avenue Bridge or the Mackenzie King Bridge. It’s like a big piece missing,” says Stewart. “Things like affordable housing … that’s the Laurier Avenue Bridge or Mackenzie King Bridge of social investment. I’m hoping we’re going to build those bridges.”
Flindall has exchanged e-mails with people she met in the church basement during the forum. They are planning on keeping in touch to organize a meeting where they can discuss what they can do next as a community. Boucher says this is a significant step.
“Every movement that we can think of has started in a church basement,” she says.
“Great things can happen. Maybe not the next day, maybe not the next week, but somebody will get energized who will become a leader who will make a difference in our city.”