Ward 7 candidates speak out about affordable housing

It's byelection week and the dozen candidates vying for the Ward 7 councillor seat shared their thoughts on one of many hot topics in Windsor: affordable housing. 

According to the city's Home Together: Windsor Essex Housing and Homelessness Master Plan, 6,500 people are at high risk of homelessness. Meanwhile, as of 2019, an additional 170 are chronically homeless. 

Here's what candidates said about the current state of affordable housing in Windsor and how they'd improve the issue if they were voted in to council. 

Igor Dzaic

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor?

Well, as it stands, members of my generation and the next won't be able to truly buy a home ... The best way to be able to afford a new home is to have a better paying job, which, of course, is lacking in this region ... Nobody buys a home with a part time job, and that is what's been going on for the last 10 years in Windsor. So we have to be able to attract private industry here, private industry that's going to pay at least decently well,

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

Well, first and foremost, I'd have to sit down with Mayor Dilkens and our council to see what they've been working on ... Obviously, we're going to have to work together on this because attracting private industry is a team effort. Another thing we can do is give our existing businesses a bit of a break. You know, let's find areas of red tape that don't belong and get rid of it ... We need to let them expand easier. And if that means at the cost of earning less revenue for the city, then we do it, because we want we need more people to get employed. 

Farah El-Hajj

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

 At the end of the day, housing is a human right. There's no question about that, and there's no argument about that. It helps resolve issues of mental health and addiction, child poverty ... and other important issues that impact our everyday lives. The City of Windsor has approved the Housing and Homelessness Master Plan, which has the goal of building 10,000 homes in the next 10 years, and what people like to refer to as the iconic project of the Meadowbrook project that's going on right now, that only has 146 units, which means we're already behind the one thousand mark for the first year of this master plan. There's 6,000 people on a wait list to get affordable housing.

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

I would prioritize affordable housing over other projects that we're seeing being done in the community right now, like the Celestial Beacon. So if elected, hopefully as soon as Oct. 6, I will be talking about affordable housing at every opportunity I can ... and seeing what programs are offered through the federal and provincial level to ensure that we have a stock of affordable housing in our area and we bring down the 6,000 wait list. 

Michelle Gajewski

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

Are people's income kind of keeping up with that to make it affordable for them? So our industrial segment people have been laid off, especially with COVID exacerbated the situation. So I think we need to re-look at how we define affordable housing and determine if it is actually affordable for our current situation. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

We need to work closely with other levels of government. There are some programs out there for municipalities to look at to make affordable housing. But again, we do need to re-look at the definition and make sure it is actually affordable. Building more units is great and we need it in Windsor, it  doesn't necessarily solve the issue like we've seen in Toronto, just greats more demands sometimes. So we need to look at all the options, see what other municipalities are doing ... We don't need to reinvent the wheel ... Windsor isn't a first for a city to be hit with this issue so we can look at other places and see what they're doing, how they're solving that and, you know, go from there and see what works for us. 

Jeewen Gill

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

I know that this is a big issue, not only in Windsor, all over Canada. It is a very high demand of affordability of the housing. And in that regard, whenever we talk to the client, they are getting very concerned about the affordable, what they can afford and how they can manage this one and make their life easier and better investment for their lifestyle. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

If we can put into smaller units or that like that, people can afford it ... So this way we make it mandatory for all the builders to create more supply that will give the very time in the affordability of the housing grid. [As well as] advocating for the provincial and federal funding. Without them, these projects are not feasible. 

Barbara Holland

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

Right now we're facing some huge challenges. I mean, people are struggling. They're struggling with all of the outcomes of COVID-19. They're struggling financially. It's a huge social issue. And I think it's one that ties into all the other issues that we're experiencing with opioid crisis, mental health issues, wellness and just basic shelter needs of people. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

Well, I think, first of all, I would want to reach out and study in depth what's already there. There's some good work that's being done here ... In terms of sitting at the city council seat, are there ways that we can increase within the budget some of the subsidies that are currently being managed? Is there a way from a policy perspective that when we look at development in the city, Windsor, perhaps we create an inclusionary zone within our developments that a certain percentage of a new development must include affordable housing. I think there's a variety of different ways to go on that, because it's not just one community that's struggling with affordable housing. 

Ernie Lamont

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

The average person here can't afford it ... I mean, the rents are going crazy. People from Vancouver and Toronto, they're all moving here where they used to pay enormous amount of rent in Toronto and Vancouver. So now they're coming here and they've inflated the prices so much that the ordinary person can't even afford a one bedroom even in the basement. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

WFCU arena ... behind it ...  the city could buy that property and turn that into affordable housing, if they wanted to. 

Greg Lemay

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

It's obviously pretty ugly, right? We've got over 6,000 people on a waiting list, and I think that list is going to continue to grow. Obviously, we haven't felt the impact in terms of obviously people were getting CERB, right? We haven't focused on or we haven't seen the impact of what's going to happen in terms of Chrysler and obviously the spin-off jobs. I think that this is going to continue to grow. And, you know, we've got to do something about it. And obviously, it's not just a Windsor problem, right? We're seeing this all over pretty much North America. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

Well, you know, I'm one of the only Canadian volunteers that have humble design in Pontiac ... and one of the initiatives ... is obviously Tiny Home Project out of Detroit ... I'm not sure that's going to fly in Ward 7, but, you know, it's just something that's obviously on the radar. And something that I've seen some ways to tackle. It obviously is offering incentives and tax breaks. Relaxing zoning, developmental rules, revitalizing neighbourhoods, just like I said, whether it's something like allowing tiny home projects ... We've touched on our Meadowbrook project, 145 units. It's a little dent in the problem. It's that, you know, we could probably build 30 or 40 of those. But again, I think it all it comes back to involving all levels of government together ... But, you know, it's a start. You've got to start somewhere. 

Mike Malott

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

So we definitely have a lot of challenges. I mean, right now we're looking at a wait list of over 6,000 people. I think it's in and around 6,500 people. They're on a wait list for affordable housing. And with a 1.2 per cent vacancy rate in Windsor, we're definitely facing some challenges of addressing these issues and getting people into affordable housing, which ties into a lot of aspects in the community, which under mental health and the opioid crisis also. I've always felt that to help stabilize people and help them deal with the issues, we need to get them into housing first. So once we start eliminating some of the barriers that these people face or these residents face, or families face for that fact, once we start stabilizing them and getting an affordable housing, we can start dealing with our other issues that may be impacting them. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

There's been a lot of attention and articles in the paper recently in regards to what they refer to as ADUs, which is additional dwelling units is small, tiny homes that people build on their properties, that they have the space to accommodate. It's affordable housing. It's like a small apartment in someone's backyard. People are converting their garages. People are splitting their houses into duplexes. We do have a homelessness issue which is tied into affordable housing. Transitional home. Transitional housing helps homeless people transition from not being in a home at all to somewhere where they at least have some shelter and then we can transition them into affordable housing. 

Angelo Marignani

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

Well, currently, right now, we are deficient in filling the needs of our residents with affordable housing, so we have to do more to provide affordable housing for everyone. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

I mean, a few ideas that come to mind would be re-purposing. So what we could do is we could take vacant properties that the city owns or we could purchase such as motels, and we could re-purpose these properties into affordable housing for individuals. A big concern always becomes financing for affordable housing. These are great ideas. These are great services, but we need finances behind it and I think there we could partner with private sectors currently around the world. This has become a popular trend, and I think we should jump on that trend as well here in Windsor. And what I'm hearing from people on the street is they want ownership. So maybe some sort of program that would allow people to pay into a rent, but over a period of time eventually get ownership of that of that condo or that apartment or of that home ... I would I look forward to working with other agencies and all grassroots groups that advocate groups that are on the front line who see it every day. Their information is vital and we need to work together to solve this problem. 

Thérèse Papineau

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

It's not in very good shape. I visited the tent city here in Windsor last week. I wanted to see first hand how some people are living, and it reminded me very much about when I lived in Toronto for almost four decades and they have tent cities there as well. But that's not Windsor's solution. The City of Windsor has implemented a plan and that plan is called Home Together and their plan is to eliminate or reduce homelessness in 10 years... and by doing all sorts of construction is being completed or planned right now ... So planning is in place. And my view about that is that it needs to be accelerated. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

Well, I would certainly push for the that extension or the the acceleration of the new project to go ahead a little bit quicker than it is anticipated to be for 10 years. And that would probably mean putting forth some more funding or making some some sort of adjustment to the current budget. 

Albert Saba

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor?

It is very bad because ... first, the cost of acquiring a new house, especially in my area, I think that it went up probably 90 percent ... Now if you go at the price of renting, the same, it went up. But it is something that is related to microeconomics because there is a high demand and low offer. This means that to solve this this question, we have to provide or put on the market a lot of supply, and that with this the market itself will also regulate itself. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

First, it would be to propose that they implement the new zoning laws that favour the development of an apartment that is number one. And the second thing will be to review the zoning tools like cap on building heights, minimum lot size and the parking requirement ... investing in community housing ... diminished or if not, eliminate most of the red tape of the development process, including the costs associated with it. In fact, we know that in Windsor from the time that to start the process till the time that it is ending ... [Lastly], it will be maintaining a hold on property tax level. That is the proposal that I would be bringing towards that kind of issue that we have right now. 

Howard Weeks

What do you think is the current state of affordable housing in the City of Windsor? 

I think that affordable housing is a much needed thing, especially at a time when there are so many people that are homeless. Even in Toronto, we've got a tent city downtown that should not be happening ... It's like the domino effect of people can't find housing. They become homeless and then they fall into other kinds of problems, social needs ... So we need people to be able to get accommodation and then they can once they've done that and they can start, you know, getting their lives back together, starting to look for work. But it's really, really hard to do that if you don't have a home. 

How would you improve affordable housing if you were voted in? 

At a time when there's like almost more than 6,500 households in Windsor that are on the brink of ... unable to pay their rent because the rents, as we know, keep rising, incomes haven't risen, there's more and more need for affordable housing. And as far as I'm concerned, if I'm elected, that's going to be one of my priorities to jump start projects like Meadowbrook, to see if there's a way to to get them happening quicker, join other councillors to work as they all are on finding ways to increase the amount of available units. It was really good that they had made it possible for people to renovate their properties and perhaps use the rent that out to people that that need accommodation.