1. Capital Ideas: How to Extend the Health and Safety of Social Housing

IDÉES CAPITALES : COMMENT ACCROÎTRE LA SANTÉ ET LA SÉCURITÉ DU LOGEMENT SOCIAl

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONs

That Council endorse the Capital Ideas paper prepared by the Social Housing Services Corporation and that Council forward the paper to the Social Housing Policy Committee of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario through our representative Councillor Peter Hume for their implementation.

Recommandations modifiÉEs du comité

Que le Conseil appuie le document intitulé Idées capitales, rédigé par la Social Housing Services Corporation, et qu’il le transmette au Comité des politiques sur le logement social de l’Association des municipalités de l’Ontario par le biais de notre représentant, le conseiller Peter Hume, en vue de leur réalisation.

DOCUMENTATION

1. Coordinator, Community and Protective Services Committee report dated 25 September 2007 (ACS2007-CCS-CPS-0020).

2. Extract of Draft Minute, 20 September 2007.

Report to / Rapport au:

Community and Protective Services Committee

Comité des services de protection et d’urgence

25 September 2007 / le 25 septembre 2007

Submitted by/Soumis par : Rosemary Nelson, Coordinator,

Community and Protective Services Committee/

Coordonnatrice des services de protection et d’urgence

Contact Person/Personne ressource : As above/tel que sus-indiqué

(613) 580-2424 ext/poste 21624 – Rosemary.Nelson@ottawa.ca

City Wide / À l'échelle de la Ville

Ref N°: ACS2007-CCS-CPS-0020

SUBJECT: Capital Ideas: How to Extend the Health and Safety of Social Housing

OBJET: IDÉES CAPITALES : COMMENT ACCROÎTRE LA SANTÉ ET LA SÉCURITÉ DU LOGEMENT SOCIAl

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

That Council endorse the Capital Ideas paper prepared by the Social Housing Services Corporation and that Council forward the paper to the Social Housing Policy Committee of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario through our representative Councillor Peter Hume for their implementation.

RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT

Que le Conseil appuie le document intitulé Idées capitales, rédigé par la Social Housing Services Corporation, et qu’il le transmette au Comité des politiques sur le logement social de l’Association des municipalités de l’Ontario par le biais de notre représentant, le conseiller Peter Hume, en vue de leur réalisation.

BACKGROUND

At the Community and Protective Services Committee meeting on 20 September 2007, the Committee received a verbal presentation by representatives of the Social Housing Services Corporation. The aforementioned Motion was subsequently put forward and approved.

CONSULTATION

N/A

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

N/A

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Document 1 Capital Ideas: How to Extend the Health and Safety of Social Housing, Executive Summary (previously distributed) A copy is held on file with the City Clerk.

Document 2 Capital Ideas: How to Extend the Health and Safety of Social Housing, full report (previously distributed) A copy is held on file with the City Clerk.

DISPOSITION

The City Clerk to prepare the appropriate letter to the Social Housing Policy Committee of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Capital Ideas: How to Extend the Health and Safety of Social Housing

IDÉES CAPITALES : COMMENT ACCROÎTRE LA SANTÉ ET LA SÉCURITÉ DU LOGEMENT SOCIAl

G01-06-07 MEM

Roger Maloney, Chair and David Priebe, Housing Consultant, Social Housing Services Corporation gave a PowerPoint presentation. The more salient comments noted were as follows:

- the SHSC is a non profit corporation, set up by provincial legislation with the downloading in 2002, to work with social housing landlords and municipalities to manage the housing programs;

- there is a need to get funding back from the senior levels of government (which have abandoned the program) because it is a major problem for service providers;

- this paper provides a host of ideas that could be implemented and which could solve some of the dilemmas they are facing such as the capital needs problem;

- social housing is an asset, not a liability and decent social housing has important links to individual well-being - from community health and prosperity, to economic growth in the community and environmental sustainability; therefore, it is in the interest of all levels of government to ensure that problems are fixed;

- social housing is best managed at the local level, but some of the costs associated with that program should be uploaded to the province.

Suggestions to address the capital shortfall include:

· refinancing mortgages with the non-profits and allowing non-profits to go to OSIFA for funding

· allowing the SHSC to take on the mortgage renewal process

· fixing rent scales to provide a major infusion of funds to municipalities to start to deal with the capital shortfall issue

· providing a capital infusion to reserve funds – acknowledging that the province owes municipalities money

· working on a shared capital works program with the federal and provincial governments

· considering uploading the co-ops; there are 21,000 such units across the province worth an estimated $100M/year; their proposal would be to leave that funding with the municipal sector, which, for Ottawa, could be approximately $9M/year

When asked to clarify what it was they were seeking from the Committee, the delegations advised that they were looking for support for the ideas in the paper and to advance those to AMO for serious review. Russell Mawby, Director of Housing indicated that the principles the SHSC are espousing are very much the same approach the City is taking on a number of initiatives and these are the kinds of ideas the City needs to start contemplating. He agreed it would be appropriate to send the paper to AMO and Councillor Cullen therefore proposed the following:

That the Committee recommend to Council to request the AMO Task Force on Social Housing to consider the SHSC’s paper “Capital Ideas” in developing AMO’s position on social housing”.

Chair Deans advised that Councillor Leadman had already submitted a similar Motion and upon hearing it, Councillor Cullen agreed to withdraw his.

Councillor Holmes was supportive of moving forward with the recommendations in the paper as well as lobbying to upload to the province. She noted the suggestion put forward that social housing groups send in their capital reserves to the SHSC for investment and inquired what their rate of interest was on their investment in 2006. Mr. Maloney recollected that overall it was about 7% depending on the stream. He indicated they could provide additional information to the Committee members on that. The councillor believed it would be helpful to compare to what the City is making to see whether or not there is an advantage to joining the SHSC.

The councillor was surprised that the Toronto Community Housing Corporation has a $300M shortfall in their 10-year capital outlook, because Ottawa has a third of the social housing units of that city, but expects to see a shortfall of $600M. She indicated that a consulting engineering firm has been working on the City’s Building Assessment Review and hoped the results would be available later this year. Mr. Maloney suggested that when the study is done, that that firm meet with the group in Toronto to determine what the differences are and to perhaps better understand why Ottawa anticipates a greater shortfall. The councillor agreed with this suggestion.

Moved by C. Leadman

That Community and Protective Services Committee recommend that Council endorse the Capital Ideas paper prepared by the Social Housing Services Corporation and that Council forward the paper to the Social Housing Policy Committee of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario through our representative Councillor Peter Hume for their implementation.

CARRIED