WE Affordable Housing Strategy shows nearly 9000 households spend over 30% of income on housing

by Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative

The Windsor-Essex County Regional Affordable Housing Strategy has been completed, members of Essex County Council learned at the September 3 meeting.

  Essex County Council gave approval to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment and received the Regional Affordable Housing Strategy as information.

  The document highlights some startling numbers on the ability – and cost – to obtain homeownership in the Windsor-Essex region.

  Back in 2021, County Council directed members of County administration to work on a regional affordable housing strategy.

  The strategy is a document providing a foundation for understanding of housing pressures in the County and provides for a clear and coordinated plan of action to ensure all residents of the region have access to safe, affordable, accessible, and quality housing, Bahar Shadpour explained, who it the Senior Manager of Policy and Research for SHS Consulting, the firm obtained to complete this work.

  “This is a Regional Affordable Housing Strategy. It is meant to be a collaborative effort, providing recommendations and direction for both the County of Essex – [its] municipal partners – and City of Windsor, to develop housing, to come up with policies, and to engage with stakeholders and the housing ecosystem to be able to address key housing challenges in the region,” Shadpour said. 

  The strategy is grounded in evidence from the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, outlining practical steps that can be taken to respond to current and emerging needs, she added. It can be used to form housing policies and programs, investments, and residential development.    

  “Housing affordability remains one of the most urgent challenges facing households living in the County,” Jeanie Diamond-Francis, County of Essex’s Manager of Community Services, said.

  Back in June, County Council approved the County-specific Housing Needs Assessment, which provides a foundation for understanding of housing pressures in the County and will inform future directions for policy, investments, and planning.

  Diamond-Frances relayed that as of December of 2024, around 9,800 active applicants were on the centralized waitlist for an affordable unit to become available in the region. 13% of those on the waitlist were those experiencing, or were at risk of experiencing, homelessness.

  Diamond-Francis also reiterated from the County insights previously presented to County Council that nearly 9,000 households are spending more than 30% of their income on housing, and around 3,000 households are paying more than 50%.

  Through projections SHS Consulting completed through this study, it is estimated over 15,000 new housing units will be needed over the next decade in the County.

  Diamond-Francis noted that of those 15,000 needed units, 2,250 will need to be affordable rental units, 750 need to be deeply affordable units.

  She added 80% of all households do not have the incomes required to purchase a home in Essex County. Over 20% of all households lack the necessary income to be able to pay market rents.

  Shadpour noted SHS took the insights shared with County Council and used them as evidence to develop the Regional Affordable Housing Strategy.

  SHS looked at three main categories of housing indicators – housing demand, supply, and affordability – throughout the development of the Housing Strategy, Matt Pipe, Manager of Housing Policy and Research for SHS Inc, added.

  Pipe outlined emerging trends shaping housing outcomes in the region: sustained population growth and aging population; diversifying housing sizes and gradual shifts in tenure; gaps in the supply of non-market; historically homogenous housing stock; emerging growth in higher-density and rental development; affordable challenges affecting low and medium income households; and homeownership becoming out of reach as prices continue to climb.

  In terms of renting affordability, Pipe took pricing from CMHC’s rental market survey, which details market pricing for the primary rental market. The data shows some units can be considered affordable for some moderate income households. Most municipalities, however, recorded vacancy rates between 0-3% in 2024, showing access is limited. He noted the private secondary rental prices are higher than those collected by CMHC.  

  In the ownership market, “purchasing a home in Windsor-Essex is considered unaffordable for all households, outside of those considered high-income, with the exception of apartment dwellings” Pipe said.

  The Housing Needs Assessment identifies five housing needs: an increase in supply of purpose-built housing; for more housing affordable to a broad-range of income-levels; greater variety of housing options; for more community housing options; and to improve access to permanent housing and related supports for those experiencing housing instability.

  Through those insights, three strategic pillars were created: stimulate a future-focused range of housing options, focusing on future residential development trends and how the County and local municipalities can encourage the creation of housing that meets the needs of existing and future residents; to ignite a thriving housing sector, with a focus on the community housing sector; and improving housing access to those in greatest need.

  Each pillar has its own strategies. There are also 26 recommended actions, spanning from a range of tools and approaches that include land use planning and policy, financial and non-financial incentives, design and approval processes, partnerships with housing and support providers, education and capacity building, cross-sector collaboration and coordination, and advocacy to upper-levels of government.

  An action plan should be created to advance to strategy, where priority actions are identified as a key first step, based on local needs, available funding, and staff capacity.  

  SHS recommended the County and the local municipalities begin planning for program design, costing, and phasing of its actions selected as priorities. This will ensure a phased-approach to implementation and allows for flexibility. 

  County Solicitor, David Sundin, noted it will take action over a number of years to address some of the issues.

  Sundin highlighted some of the low-cost and high-impact items the County of Essex, and its municipal partners, could undertake. That included identifying, making available, and pre-zoning surplus land and infill development opportunities; prepare and adopt housing Community Improvement Plans (CIPs) that offered targeted incentives to stimulate and support the creation of purpose-built housing; and streamlining planning and building regulatory review and approval processes to expedite and accelerate the construction of purpose-built rental housing developments and reduce the cost and time it takes for new rental housing to be built.

  Other suggestions include partnering with community housing developers and providers to utilize new technology, innovation, and federal and provincial funding sources to service sites and construct housing targeted to low and moderate-income households, and allocate financial resources to new housing reserves to be used to invest in priority action affordable housing initiatives.       

  The Regional Housing Needs Assessment is now done, Sundin added, suggesting County Council should adopt the Regional document, for which County data is identical.

  Housing has not been an issue under the jurisdiction of municipalities in the past, County of Essex Warden, and Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonad, said.

  “We are being edged into [needing to create] housing opportunities,” she commented. “It certainly is challenging, because we need to take care of our people.”

  She liked the County will sit with the local municipalities to try to hammer out plans to improve the situation.

  One thing Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy had learned from her seat at the Windsor-Essex Community Housing Corporation (CHC) is that waitlist of over 9,800 individuals is growing, “because we have a broken system”

  She would like to see more commentary and action around housing with supports.

  “Right now, all of our geared-to-income, affordable housing stock in the city and in the county is getting filled with people [who] have more needs than these housing units can accompany.”

  She said there are individuals going into geared-to-income housing in local neighbourhoods and there are no adequate supports there for mental health, and there is no staffing. That can lead to those apartments becoming chaotic.

  “If we were able to better support people [who] need that support in buildings that are housing with supports…then all of our housing stock would revert back to geared-to-income housing stock and we would return stability in that portfolio,” Bondy said.

  “Unless we get the City of Windsor [the service manager] to change [its] ratio on how [it] intakes people into our housing stock, we are not going to make any gains,” Bondy added.   

  Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong spoke of how one of the action items is to find surplus lands and make them available.

  “I can tell you that making municipal tax-owned, funded property available to a system that isn’t necessarily doing the best thing for the people [who] need that system is not something we are jumping to do,” DeYong commented. “We do not get to control the dollars we do see in this region, and we know those dollars aren’t enough, anyway.”

  She added housing is a provincial priority and federal responsibility, “and suddenly now it is on the municipal Councillors’ action plans. So, who is going to pay for it?” she asked.

  Unless there is money backing housing from the higher-levels of government, DeYong didn’t see how this could get off the ground.

  “I don’t understand how we can expect residential municipal taxpayers to fund housing for their neighbours,” she added.

  Lakeshore Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt agreed with DeYong.

  “To me, it is not our responsibility. Our local taxpayers are stretched now to the limit, at the local level, at the County level. And if we are going to start adding housing for people who can’t afford it – and I know there is a need … but it is not our responsibility.”

  He said that is something the federal government should be doing. The pressure should be on the upper-tiers to get this done.

  Amherstburg Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb called this a great first step in something the County can spearhead. He believes the County can invest in housing. If County staff present novel ideas that have a chance to work, he believes the upper-levels of government can be convinced to help fund it.

  Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara believes the municipality does have a responsibility here, but at what level. Instead of working in silos, all levels of government should be working collectively.

One thing the County really hasn’t spoken about is advocating for policies and procedures to protect the system of affordable housing.

  Tecumseh Deputy Mayor/Deputy Warden, Joe Bachetti, also sits as a County rep on CHC with Bondy. He said the big key word is affordability. He believes the future will allow for new materials and modular homes and that may become affordable. Without upper-levels of government or municipal funding into housing, it will not happen.