STRATFORD ATTAINABLE HOUSING ALLIANCE BLOG:
Stratford’s Community Consultation on Housing and Homelessness: SAHA’s response
Part 1 – Clarifying Terms: Attainable and Affordable are NOT the same thingI attended the City’s Public Consultation on Housing and Homelessness on Nov 23. I flagged, both at the public meeting and after it, that our Housing Department’s presentation has misrepresented the Attainable Housing Project (AHP)’s definition of “Attainable Housing”. The “Clarifying Terms” slide that Housing Manager, Jeff Wilson, presented at the consultation states that “Attainable Housing includes the entire breadth of housing options” that “Affordable Housing (is) a form of attainable housing” and that “Community Housing, (which is) synonymous with social housing (is) a form of attainable housing.”
However, by the Attainable Housing Project’s own definition, “attainable” housing can be none of those things. Their definition of attainable housing clearly states that an attainable residential unit “is not an affordable residential unit” and “is not intended for use as a rented residential premises” They also state that “the AHP does not address housing needs managed by the City of Stratford Social Services Department. The Social Services Department is mandated to coordinate and deliver programming related to homelessness, emergency shelter, supportive housing, and affordable housing.”
I followed up repeatedly with Jeff Wilson, on behalf of the Stratford Affordable Housing Alliance (SAHA), asking that the “Clarifying Terms” be corrected, before being disseminated, in order to accurately reflect how our City and the AHP (regulated by our province) define these terms. I expressed concerns about the public being misinformed. We did not receive a reply. On December 21st we received a follow up on the public consultation, from Kehlar Hilliyer, which included a slide deck reiterating the same misinformation.
We are again asking that the City take care not to mislead the public on the scope and mandate of the Attainable Housing Project and that you please send consultation participants a corrected version of the “Clarifying Terms” slide.
The term ‘ attainable’ is too broad. The correct term of housing stock required for at the level of income I believe you are referring to is: HGI: housing geared to income level.
The city of Stratford needs to build Rent Geared to Income units (RGI housing ) immediately .…
Housing stock for low income levels has been sold off over the last 20 years. The city needs to correct this action.
Does anyone know where all levels of supportive/social housing stock is located?
Hi Stacey,
“Attainable” as defined by Stratford’s Attainable Housing Project (and the province) is actually quite specific.It is narrowly defined as more than 80% of average market value and less than 100%. The AHP is proposing a ceiling of %90 of average market. As mentioned above, an attainable residential unit “is not an affordable residential unit” and “is not intended for use as a rented residential premises”
“Affordable” as currently defined in Stratford’s Official Plan (currently up for review btw) is up to 30% of a households income. The federal government also uses this definition. The Proportionally Mixed Income (PMI) Affordable Housing, which SAHA is advocating for, would include non-market housing geared to households across the income scale.
Our petition also advocates for a publicly accessible inventory of all city-owned land and property. This would include the supportive/social housing stock you’ve mentioned
The attainable/affordable debate keeps going on. The provincial government uses “attainable,” but has no definition for what it means. Preposterous.
I agree that the public should be able to know the locations, but how can you do that without a definition? Maybe just stick with “affordable,” that term is still on the books.