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Town asked to provide land for non-profit housing The Town of Whitby has been urged to set aside public lands for the development of non- profit housing by the Social Planning Council of Oshawa-Whitby. Brian Evans, chair- man of the social coun- cil's housing afford- ability committee, made the suggestion at Monday night's meeting of Whitby Town Coun- cil's administrative committee. "What we're asking is that the Town of Whitby set aside non-profit and co-operative housing," he said. Evans added that if necessary, the town should take an active role in non-profit housing by becoming a developer. However, he told the committee that he realized that most "municipalities don't have the money to develop affordable non- profit housing." But Evans informed the committee that the federal government will provide funding to the municipalities to build non-profit housing. "The only available funds available are federal funds," Evans said adding that the allocation for co- oeprative housing pro- jects is "extremel.' limited." Therefore, if the municipality wants to see such housing developed, it has to do it itself. "Durham Region isn't getting its share of co- operative housing and hasn't for several years," Evans said add- ing that funding for these types of projects has gone to larger cities such as Vancouver, St. Johns (Newfoundland) and Toronto. Evans, a partner in the Whitby law firm of Schilling and Evans, proposed that the town do three things. Firstly, it should lob- by the federal govern- ment to take some ac- tion to solve the local housing affordability "crisis" and to provide funds for the develop- ment of non-profit housing. Secondly, the town should set aside land for such projects and thir- dly, the town should become involved by building such accommo- dation. Evans pointed out that there are no provin- cial government funds for such projects and said that the non-profit Ontario Housing Cor- poration was a "dismal failure." "As I understand it, there are funds avail- able (from the federal government) for muni- cipal non-profit (housing)," he said ad- ding this warning: "Unless the munici- pality avails itself of that, the units won't be built." Mayor Bob Attersley told Evans that the town has not been approach- ed by either an indivi- dual or a group in the last year that wants to develop a co-operative housing project. However, that does not mean he will-not support such a proposal. "I'm prepared to sup- port to the hilt any non- profit group that comes in," he said adding that he has reservations about having the town become the developer or landlord. "Maybe we could pro- mote co-op housing," Attersley' said if the funds were available. Attersley's sentimen- ts were shared by North Ward Councillor Ross Batten who said that he did not want the town to become a developer. "I'm not sure that's the business we should be in," he said. However, East Ward Councillor Joe Drumm said he had no difficulty with setting aside town owned land for the development of non- profit co-operative hous- ing. If the town did that, "people would come kicking the door down," he said.. Evans said that the town has done every- thing it could in the past to support such pro- jects. "This municipality has done everything a municipality can do to support non-profit housing." He continued to stress that federal government funds are available to the town to start such projects. "There are monies available for the muni- cipality to get into non- profit housing." "But it has to be a builder to do so." Evans added that he would prefer to see the develonent of private co-operative housing over muncipal housing. "Co-operative hous- ing is a better form of housing," he said point- ing out that it offers private ownership and incentive. After the meeting, Evans said that in the Oshawa-Whitby area there simply is "not enough low cost housing." He was also slightly critical of the munici- palities concerned. "Right now, the muni- cipalities are doing ab- solutely nothing,"' Evans said. "Municipal hon-profit (housing) is better than nothing." If the municipalities got involved in such projects, -Evans main- tained that it could be viewed as .an invest- ment rather than a bur- den on the taxpayers. But if co-operative housing cannot be developed, "the only alternative is to build " However, he said ne understands why smaller municipalities such as Whitby would be hesitant to get involved in this area because they don't have the available funds. But nevertheless, Evans stressed "they either build or there is a problem." The administrative committee referred the social planning coun- cil's report to planning director Bob Short for study. Vol. 12, No. 7 Wednesday, February 17, 1982 20 Pages