Spring Housing Numbers ‘Shameful’: THE VOTER
At a 14-cent drop in housing starts, people will not be able to buy homes they badly need.
If this is the spring report on housing, what will the fall and winter reports look like?
Seems Ottawa will be a long way from getting any share of the federal or provincial funding pie which is largely based on success in actually building housing. That will, of course, lead to lower numbers in the future and a downward spiral in our ability to house our community.
Many people think having two of those sprung structures in Ottawa to shelter people is a bad thing. If the city get some housing built, those two will be the precursor of more as we become increasingly unable to meet the need not just for new arrivals but for people who’ve been here a while.
These numbers are shameful.
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
For You:
Ottawa Housing Starts Decline 14 Per Cent
Ottawa’s More Than Just Montreal: THE VOTER
Curry Questions Speed-Camera ‘Money Grab’
Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
This is a complicated issue. A first point is that housing starts historically fluctuate, so looking at short term changes is not always very meaningful. Another point is that the 151,000 unit by 2031 pledge by the city is significantly greater than the forecast population growth in the Official Plan for the same time period. The 151,000 is probably at least double the housing units required in that time period (and our actual population growth is tracking below OP forecast). There are a lot of issues here, but having the industry missing a target to build empty units shouldn’t be a big surprise.
As John L points out there are many factors at play where new housing is concerned. When it comes to building houses and realizing a profit developers tend not to be philanthropists so affordable housing, the type We need, is not on their Ottawa radar.
A relevant example is Minto now building in Almonte and selling out of town homes priced less than $400k. That price can’t be met in Ottawa and they can afford to sit on the lands that they have.