Prepared for:

city of charlottetownBased on Summit of December 9, 2013

a f f o r d a b l eh o u s i n g S u m m i t

S e s s i o n S u m m a r y a n d a s s e s s m e n t

IntroductIonOn December 9th, 2013, at the initiative of the City of Charlottetown, a one day confer-

ence/meeting - Affordable Housing Summit - was held at the Holman Grand Hotel in

downtown Charlottetown.

council and administration at the city of charlottetown have increasing concern regard-

ing the affordable housing situation in the city, and across the province. Shortage in

appropriate quality affordable housing, as well as the unacceptable standard of some

existing "affordable housing" stock are of concern, exacerbated by the increasing costs

of housing, both in capital costs and operational terms.

while the situation is not new, there is a sense within city council and administration that

it is worsening and is at a point where urgent attention is required. in an attempt to can-

vas opinion, receive input and ideally chart a path forward, the city hosted the one-day

housing Summit session. invitations were sent to a wide selection of interested organiza-

tions, including federal, provincial and civic officials and administrators, developers, com-

munity service organizations, and others. More than 70 individuals confirmed attendance

on the day.

purposethe purpose of the day was straightforward: to develop new ideas that hold potential for

implementation to improve the affordable housing situation in our province. as noted in

invitation communications, "The Summit is not a day of “listening to presentations”,

although there will be some brief presentation to “set the scene” for the day. What the day

is really about is "collective brainstorming” by a group of interested - and informed - peo-

ple and organizations. We want to talk ... share … and try to foster new ideas to see if we

can find new ways to address a problem that desperately needs attention."

the idea was that through collective discussion and input, new ideas and/or approaches

leading to action on the topic would be developed. the hope was that people would

leave the session with an action plan to start change.

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sessIon overvIewBackground information outlined the challenge of establishing affordable housing.

hundreds of people in Pei are on waiting lists for affordable housing, and it's considered

to be a growing problem in urban centres right across the country. it's also an issue on

the national stage, where the impact of federal funding changes are expected to add

additional stress to this already financially strapped area.

Key to the discussion of the day was establishing common understanding of the stan-

dard meaning applied to Affordable Housing. this refers to housing that is:

Adequate - essentially, that the accommodation meets acceptable minimum

standards in terms of function and safety; providing shelter from the elements,

warmth and reasonable facilities for cooking, personal cleaning and washing.

Suitable - meets the needs of the people residing in the home; ie. an appro-

priate number of bedrooms for the number of occupants, number and function

of bathrooms, etc.

Affordable - costs of the accommodation are not more than 30% (25% in

some jurisdictions) of household income.

a presentation by women's network Pei, an organization that has done considerable

work in the area of affordable housing, set the tone for the day's discussions with its pre-

sentation, Paths To Prosperity - Affordable Housing In Perspective. attendees heard - and

saw - what it can mean to be looking for affordable housing in charlottetown from the

perspective of a young single mother trying, on a modest income, to make a decent

home for her family. Pictures of her experience are shown on the following page.

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ceiling is covered in mold

in living room

open hole in floor of

laundry area

Main light fixture in

living area

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the bulk of the day was spent in group discussion. the entire group was divided into

three sub-groups, each tasked with discussion on one of three topic areas. following

discussion on one topic, each group then moved to a new topic ... this continued until all

three groups had discussed all three topics. topic sessions lasted approximately 45 min-

utes each. while discussion proved to be broad ranging through the day, the focus was

on three specific areas: 1) regulatory and enforcement issues as they relate to local

housing standards, 2) identification of financial support for affordable housing, 3) non-

traditional alternative solutions/ideas to addressing affordable housing issues.

key poInts of dIscussIonit became apparent in the course of the day just how broad a subject affordable housing

is, and the wide range between individual approaches to "dealing" with it. ideas and sug-

gestions presented covered everything from "We need a comprehensive National Housing

Strategy before we can take a proactive approach to fixing Affordable Housing" to "It's

pretty simple ... we go in and inspect the place and if it doesn't meet code, we issue an

order to have it fixed in 30 days". Between those two ends of the spectrum were a variety

of other discussion areas and ideas, including a number of recurring themes. the most

notable - and the ones prompting the greatest response and discussion amongst the

overall group - are shown below.

RegulatoRy & enfoRcement

Undoubtedly the most discussed of the three topic areas, likely because it is the area

that is seen as most immediately actionable and with potential for quick results/impact.

almost everyone in attendance had opinions, sometimes strong opinions, on how to "do

better" with existing rental stock in relation to affordable housing. Suggestions included:

Development of a licensing system for rental properties to ensure a minimum con-

sistent standard is applied. the idea was to make rental properties subject to licensing,

review and inspection on a basis similar to that applied to short term stay accommoda-

tions facilities such as hotels, motels and inns. as noted by a number of participants,

there is a lot of time and money spent to ensure that visitors to Pei will receive an

acceptable standard of accommodation when they visit, but we don't do anything like

that to make certain residents who live here year round can have that same certainty.

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Establishment of an Ombudsman Office to deal with conflict between landlord and

tenant. the observation was made and echoed repeatedly throughout the day that many

people who live in substandard housing simply "put up" with the conditions because they

are afraid to complain for fear of reprisal, eviction in particular. when social workers are

involved, they are not in a position to assist with these conflicts, and other regulatory

bodies are not in a position to act on behalf of tenants in these disputes.

Establishment of a "peer pressure" approach to encourage landlords to have inspec-

tions and maintain standards. Basically, this idea revolved around using public commu-

nications tools such as online social media to broadcast landlords who had "complied"

with inspection and met the standard, thus encouraging other landlords to meet that

same standard in order to achieve the same "complied" status and remain competitive.

Third party rent intermediary. Similar in concept to an ombudsman office, this idea

created an independent mechanism for holding rents (escrow, trust or other) until such

time as tenant/landlord disputes are resolved. tenants would still be required to pay their

rent, but landlords would not receive the rent until disputes are resolved.

A key consideration in any measures implemented in the regulatory/enforcement

area is the question of alternative accommodation for displaced tenants; many

participants recommended that no measures should be taken unless there is an

associated plan in place to deal with the prospects of tenants being left without

housing of any kind following "issues" with landlords.

financial suPPoRt

while regulatory & enforcement prompted lots of discussion and ideas, there was far less

discussion and fewer ideas generated in terms of identifying ways and means to provide

new funds for affordable housing. a common theme of "government is looking to reduce

its commitment at this time", coupled with the view that the private sector would always

seek to maximize its revenue stream from rental property seemed to dampen the notion

that "new money" could be generated for affordable housing. with some prompting, a

couple of ideas did emerge.

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Tax incentives for development of affordable housing in existing downtown build-

ings. Several people noted that there are a number of downtown buildings where the

ground floor space could be attractive for retail or services, but the upper floors are

under-utilized. the suggestion was to provide tax incentives to make it economically fea-

sible for property owners to convert/renovate these spaces into downtown affordable

housing apartments. in addition to providing new affordable housing stock, this approach

would also bring more "life" (and associated economic activity) into the downtown

of charlottetown.

Low interest loans for new affordable housing construction. Similar to the tax incen-

tives idea, this approach proposed low - or even zero interest - loans to encourage con-

struction of affordable housing units owned by private sector developers. the funds

would be loaned only under the condition that rental rates would be under an agreed

structure for a defined period (say, 10 years) before the owner/landlord would be free to

move to "market rates", if so desired.

alteRnative / non-tRaditional aPPRoaches

a range of other suggestions were presented through the group discussions. Most of

these were more modest in scale or scope, typically being more in the way of "aids" to

making affordable housing better than actual programs or measures.

Create a registry/database of affordable homes. this was envisaged as an online and/

or office managed list of properties that were for rent as affordable homes. registration

with the database would be voluntary by the landlord. the theory was that would make it

easier for people looking for affordable homes to find them, and also that such a registry

would create some pressure on landlords to be registered and to maintain property to an

acceptable standard.

Find resources (volunteer or possibly a consultant) to gather and evaluate best

practices and new initiatives in other communities. assuming the resource could be

put in place, the idea is to research how other communities are dealing with the afford-

able homes issue and "cherry pick" from the most successful initiatives. results of this

work to be shared with the larger group assembled at the Summit and forward action to

be determined at that time.

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Create a "Business Case" for why dedication of new funds to affordable housing

would be a good public policy initiative. this idea was predicated on the notion that

the overall economic benefit of a successful affordable housing initiative would result in a

net positive economic impact (more economic value than the cost of the housing)

through new job creation, greater economic activity in the city and other economic

impacts. as with the Best Practices concept, this work was to be completed by a volun-

teer group and/or a hired consultant.

As noted earlier, the range of expressed "ideas" over the course of the day was

extremely broad. The ideas presented here are those that were the most frequently

articulated/supported or seen as being closest to potentially actionable.

movIng forwardthe hope for the day was to leave with a planned course of forward action. in this regard,

the Summit did not reach its goal. while there appeared to be general support for the

idea of forming a working group which would in turn report back to the larger group, this

did not materialize. this was due in large part to an issue in determining exactly what this

working group's mandate and focus would be, further complicated by how and to whom

it should report. three volunteers did step forward to be part of a working group if one

was formed; richard Brown, ted Kitson and David Dunphy.

at this juncture, Mayor clifford lee volunteered that the city of charlottetown would be

prepared to take the lead in forming a "next Steps" proposal on the topic, with a particu-

lar focus on how to deal with/manage the issue of substandard - and unacceptable -

housing stock being used in the marketplace for affordable housing.

observatIons, conclusIons, recommendatIonsoverall, the housing Summit should be considered a worthwhile initiative. the size and

nature of the crowd was impressive - twice as large as originally anticipated and a broad

cross section of people and organizations with a keen interest in affordable housing. The

day generated interest, attention and expressed commitment from the very people

that need to be significantly involved if there is to be a concentrated effort to move

the issue forward. The Summit could prove to be the critical first step to success.

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additional observations:

• Whilethereweremanyinterestedpeople,representingawideselectionofgroupsthat

are interested and impacted by affordable housing, there was no single person or

organization that was in a position to effect meaningful change on their own. this

clearly illustrates why significant change on the subject is so frequently "stalled" ...

because it impacts so many different organizations, and across so many different

jurisdictions, it is difficult to get a "single" solution even conceived, much less

implemented. this suggests any significant change will be achieved only if there

is wide organizational representation within a single, topic-specific interest group.

• TheassembledgroupattheSummitdidgenerateanumberof"ideas",butitwas

unable to generate "forward actions". the larger than expected number of attendees

made it impossible to refine the ideas gathered into more defined concepts that might

have been set into action.

• Theverydifferentperspectivesofindividualpeopleandgroupsinattendancecaused

the discussion to be very broad in scope ... too broad to allow for development of

focused suggestions that could be moved forward. this highlights the need to

prioritize those areas/issues that are most pressing and/or most resolvable and

develop plans to address them as priorities.

• Evenamongsttheinformedgrouppresentontheday,therewasclearlysomelackof

understanding of jurisdictional responsibilities and authorities among different bodies.

when developing ideas into plans or requests, it is important that there is a clear

understanding of which jurisdictions will be impacted by these ideas in order to

develop plans in a way that will be attractive and workable for affected jurisdictions.

suggestions for moving forward

as demonstrated by the city of charlottetown's initiative in organizing the affordable housing

Summit, the city is keen to see change in the area of affordable housing, change that will

improve the situation for residents both in the city and across the province. with the city's

hope for immediate steps forward, and the larger group's clear interest in continuing dis-

course and development, we offer the following suggestions based on the information and

directions from the day.

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1). Mayor's Affordable Housing Task Force

the Summit identified a number of potential measures that were seen as holding potential

to improve the affordable housing situation and were within the city's jurisdiction to take

action. to move these ideas to action, we suggest that a Mayor's Affordable Housing Task

Force be formed to complete the work needed to move to that point.

Purpose: a short-term, focused group charged with "flushing out" a series of specific

ideas from the Summit that were identified as holding potential to positively impact on

the housing situation within the city. the final deliverable of the task force will be a

recommended action Plan on affordable housing for the city.

composition: a maximum of 10 members or less, ideally composed by representa-

tion from the city administration, public organizations working directly in the housing

sector, charitable organizations impacted by housing, private sector property develop-

ers, general public.

mandate: the group would be charged with detailed evaluation and recommenda-

tions on three specific areas for potential action by the city.

1) Provision of Tax Incentives to encourage private developers to use redevelop

existing unused downtown space into affordable housing units.

2) More rigourous Enforcement of housing regulations to ensure rental properties

meet minimum safety and performance standards.

3) Develop methods to provide Support for tenants impacted by more rigourous

enforcement. essentially, how can people be assisted if their home suddenly becomes

unavailable to them because of regulatory enforcement?

in reviewing and preparing recommendations on these areas the task force is expected to

identify best practices in other jurisdictions, discuss with current administration and regulato-

ry people to identify potential barriers/issues, engage developers for feedback on the ideas,

and discuss with additional government, industry or public organizations/people identified in

the course of the group's review as having valuable information or ideas to contribute.

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if successful, the task force will provide the detailed direction needed for the city to act on

its own. however, any directions recommended by the task force are unlikely to touch with

the larger issue of affordable housing across the province. Given the strong response from

participants at the Summit, we also suggest that the city take on the task of ...

2) Creation of an umbrella organization to act/speak on an ongoing basis on behalf

of Affordable Housing within Prince Edward Island.

PEI Affordable Housing Committee ... or some similar name. the name is not the issue, but

the creation of the organization is, because the passion and ideas the people at the Summit

have brought to the table need somewhere to reside or they will remain as discussion points

and go nowhere.

the initial effort to organize and create the new organization should be orchestrated by city

of charlottetown to ensure it is seen as being credible and gets the impetus needed to gain

momentum.

an initial organizing meeting should be convened, with all Summit attendees contacted and

asked if they and/or the organization they represent are willing to join this new group. the

purpose of the initial meeting would be to agree the basic purpose and objectives of the

group, as well as identifying priority issues on which the group should focus.

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w. lorne clow, housing, Seniors and corporate SupportMs. olive crane, MlaMr. James aylward, office of the official oppositionMr. richard Brown, MlaMr. Bush Dumville, MlaMs. Kathleen casey, MlaMr. robert Mitchell, MlaMr. Buck watts, Mlafrancine Dimamdro - cMhcMr. Doug allen - Manager of charlottetown area housing corporationMr. Bill fleming, Pei housing coordinatorchris reeves - Pei housinglori Johnston - Pei housingKip holloway - charlottetown area christian councilanne wootton -charlottetown area christian council councillor eddie ricecouncillor Danny redmondcouncillor rob lantzcouncillor Mitchell tweelDeputy Mayor Stu Macfadyencouncillor David MacDonaldcouncillor Melissa hiltonPhilip Matusiewicz - anderson house ShelterJohn Dewey - federation of Pei Municipalitiesrichelle Greathouse - womens network PeiSheri Bernard - Mi'kmaq confederacy of PeiJamie locke - Salvation armyrobert arsenault - Deputy fire Marshallwinston Bryan - fire inspector alex forbes - Planning Manager Donna waddell, DcSMel cheverie, Building inspectorcheryl Millman - open Door Ministriescindy Macleod - open Door Ministrieswendy hawbolt - open Door MinistriesSarah waddell - open Door MinistriesPeter Mutch - catholic family ServicesDenise lockhart - executive Director - family Services Peicathy flanagan - irac - rental Division Mayor richard collins, town of MontagueMayor David MacDonald, town of Souris

Mayor Gordon coffin, town of KensingtonMayor David Dunphy, town of StratfordMayor Glen (Barney) fullerton, town of cornwallMayor Dean Sexton, town of Borden carletonalso, Mayor Sexton's Deputy Mayor - charlie MacKenzieDean lewis - Planning and Development, town of cornwallMarla affleck, atlantic Peoples housinglynn Dunphy - atlantic Peoples housingMs. Dawn alan, Downtown charlottetownSusan Zambonin, executive Director - habitat for humanityBenson carragher - habitat for humanityMr. ron waite, Staff, caDcDavid Mcinnis, chair, caDcMartha ellis, Director, caDcalbert fogarty, Director, caDcwade arsenault, assistant GM, Manager Properties, caDcreid Burke - canadian Mental health associationconnie corriganJohn w. G. clarke - archdeacon of Pei - St. Pauls churchrob thomson - St. Pauls churchJ. heath MacDonald/executive Directorted Kitson - cei, chief electrical inspector Mike redmond - leader nDP Partycarl lafford - charlottetown area housingDavid McQuaidMarcia carroll - council of the DisabledJudy henesseyelaine Bryenton

appendIx - attendees list