London, Ontario.Tenant advocates rally against Ontario housing bill – London

Tenant advocates in London, Ontario, gathered at the main entrance of City Hall on Friday with local politicians to voice their concerns about the new housing law from the state government.

Introduced last month, the bill will reduce development costs, allow more units on a single residential lot, pursue a leasing program, and make many other measures and changes to encourage new housing construction. aims to promote

Bill 23, or the More Homes Built Faster Act, takes aim at the state’s housing crisis, with the Doug Ford government pledging to build 1.5 million homes over 10 years.

Friday’s rally was organized by London ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the local chapter of the national tenant advocacy group.

Claire Wittnebel, ACORN leader in London, said: “Despite the name given to the bill by the Ford government, it will not create affordable housing and will not help the housing situation facing Ontario.” said.

That’s because the bill “dramatically limits the authority and resources of local governments to build and protect affordable housing,” Wittnebel says.

Wittnebel points to new restrictions on blanket zoning ordinances that cities can implement to require developers to make a certain percentage of new units affordable. Bill 23 sets this percentage at no more than 5%, and affordable housing is defined as units where the rent “does not exceed 80% of the average market rent.”

“The timeline for keeping that unit affordable is only 25 years, so not even within the lifetime of one tenant,” says Wittnebel.

Wittnebel said the bill would also threaten rental replacement ordinances in place in Toronto and Mississauga. These bylaws provide protections for tenants whose homes have been redeveloped, such as allowing them to rent units at the same price after redevelopment.

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Ward 11 count. Skylar Franke said if the bill passes, “he’ll be one of the greatest tax burden redistributions since the state’s downloads in the ’90s.”

Franke is concerned about reducing development costs, the fees local governments charge developers of new buildings to help pay for urban infrastructure such as roads, transportation and sewage systems.

“Of course, if it moves forward, it means the city will have to increase property taxes to cover these costs.”

Mr Franke said city officials are grappling with financial impact assessments unique to London, but preliminary analysis by the Ontario Municipalities Association (AMO) shows that the legislation will reduce the pressure on municipalities across the province over the next nine years. We found funding to be cut by $5.1 billion.

Regarding transfers to taxpayers, the AMO said in its preliminary analysis that the bill would “replace up to $1 billion in annual costs from private sector developers to real estate taxpayers without the potential for improved housing affordability.” It shows a move,” he said.

In response to AMO’s analysis, a spokesman for Municipality and Housing Minister Steve Clark told Canadian news outlets that Ontario will work with the federal government to secure support for local governments to pay for critical infrastructure. Said he was doing

“The province estimates that across Ontario, municipalities have $9 billion in unspent development reserves,” Victoria Podbielski wrote in a statement to the Canadian Press.

Franke, former executive director of the London Environment Network, has a number of concerns about the environmental impact of the bill, including a significant reduction in parkland requirements for developers.

“During the campaign, a lot of people wanted to see more parks and recreation in District 11, so this would be the opposite,” Franke said.

“In addition to the changes in conservation authorities, we asked them to make a list of the lands they manage to see if they could be developed, removed lands from protection in greenbelt areas, removed wetlands protection, and endangered species. as part of the view process.These are just four of a long list of environmental impacts.”

Franke was one of several city council members who attended Friday’s rally. Hadley McAllister, 6th Ward. Sam Torossou, Ward 7 Count. Corrine Rahman and Ward 13 Coun. David Ferreira. London West NDP MPP Peggy Sattler was also present.

— Using Allison Jones files from The Canadian Press.

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