Advocates call on Manitoba government to boost rent-geared-to-income housing units ahead of budget day
Right to Housing Coalition says at least 1,000 additional units needed in 2024/25
Paula Keirstead lives on a low income and worries about whether or not she could afford to stay in her home if her landlord ever decides to raise her rent.
She currently pays $922 per month for a one-bedroom suite at the Residences at Portage Commons, a former non-profit apartment complex run by Lions Housing Centres that was purchased last year by Alberta-based Mainstreet Equity Corporation.
"I live on a low income. I could maybe squeeze out another hundred," Keirstead said at the Manitoba Legislature on Tuesday. "I'm nervous. I'm very nervous."
While provincial subsidies of $1.2 million over two years to Mainstreet will keep Keirstead's rent from rising, future rent increases are possible when the funding ends.
Keirstead's concern is partly why housing advocates are calling on the Manitoba government to fund an additional 1,000 rent-geared-to-income housing units next year, ahead of the April 2 budget.
Those units are where tenants pay no more than 30 per cent of their household income on monthly rent.
Shauna MacKinnon, a member of the Right to Housing Coalition, and a professor and chair of the University of Winnipeg's urban and inner city studies department, said there's a severe shortage of rental units and people who have the most dire needs are from lower income households.
"We've fallen so far behind and we've done these calculations with other groups and determined that this would be sort of a bare bones of what we need just to start to catch up," MacKinnon said.
MacKinnon said the additional 1,000 units could be comprised of public, non-profit and co-op housing through a mix of new builds and retrofits of existing spaces.
"It's difficult, for sure," MacKinnon said. "We have no illusion about that but again that is why we're suggesting that it doesn't all need to be done through new builds. Some of it could be done through acquisition of existing supply as well.
"It could also be done by supporting non-profits to expand the number of units that they have that are rent-geared-to-income."
In the bigger picture, MacKinnon said Manitoba needs 1,000 more of these units every year for the next 10 years.
Coalition members and supporters delivered the last of 2,000 signed postcards from Manitobans to the legislative building on Tuesday — one week ahead of the provincial budget's unveiling. In addition to more units, the campaign calls on the province to create a capital maintenance fund and operating subsidy to protect existing social housing so no units are lost to disrepair or a lack of subsidies.
"We're not going to solve the homelessness and housing crisis without government intervening for social housing," said Erika Wiebe, a member of the Right to Housing Coalition, as she dropped off the postcards.
The campaign also calls for funding to ensure social housing tenants have access to support workers with a minimum ratio of one worker per 100 units.
Earlier in the day, the provincial and federal governments announced a total of $27.5 million over five years to help people fleeing gender-based violence find housing faster.
The benefit ranges from $350 a month for a studio or one-bedroom residence to $805 a month for a residence with three or more bedrooms. It has the potential to support 2,600 households.
MacKinnon said while the coalition supports subsidies for people experiencing gender-based violence all levels of government also need to work together to increase public housing supply.
"It's really about the supply and developing the supply in a sustainable way so that it remains in the non-profit sector which is going to be more committed to having supply for low-income households," she said. "These sorts of initiatives don't get at that problem because essentially it's incentivizing the private sector and that's not a long-term solution."
Manitoba Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said the government is working to support non-profits but declined to share any specific details before the budget is delivered.
"We know that there's a housing crisis in our province and our budget April 2 is coming out and that's something that we will be working towards building, supporting and maintaining, so I say stay tuned to our budget," Smith told reporters.
Dan Vandal, the federal northern affairs minister, said after Tuesday's announcement Ottawa is focused on creating more affordable housing.
"We need all sorts of housing but we just need more builds in the City of Winnipeg and all across Canada," Vandal said. "I have a strong feeling that it will be a priority in our federal budget in April."
Asked specifically about rent-geared-to-income housing, Vandal said he'd like to see more co-op and non-profit housing, too.
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