Thanks for the invitation.
I want to talk about creating affordable rental housing for seniors that's accessible and that supports healthy aging. I'm basing my submission on research projects I have led on rental housing in Nova Scotia. This includes an inventory of rental housing stock in the Cape Breton regional municipality and case study research on affordable rental housing projects built specifically for seniors through the investment in affordable housing program.
The inventory of rental housing stock we did last year found that there is a limited amount of accessible rental housing in the Cape Breton regional municipality. We looked at public housing, non-profit rental housing, and market-based rentals, and found that 3% of rental units were fully accessible. There is more accessible housing in the non-profit sector compared to market rentals and public housing units.
The good news with respect to the work you're doing is that more of this accessible housing is targeted to seniors in our communities, so even though there is not a lot of it, it's intended mostly for them. But, with respect to affordability, shelter costs are higher for accessible units than non-accessible units. A one-bedroom apartment that's accessible is about $130 more per month, and a two-bedroom apartment that's accessible is almost $300 more per month. Also, accessible units are less likely to be vacant.
We also looked at rooming houses in our municipality, because rooming houses are an important source of affordable rental housing for single people, including seniors. We found that none of this housing at all was accessible.
Overall there are limited opportunities to living in accessible rental housing for seniors. They're more costly, and we know that renters will surely experience barriers to aging in place. We do know that almost half of renter households in our municipality experience activity limitations.
One recommendation that came out of this research is whether Canada Mortgage and Housing can collect data on accessible rental housing. It already collects data twice a year on the primary rental market. It asks about rental costs and vacancy rates. Can it also ask about accessibility?
The case study research we did identified what seniors value in housing and some of the constraints developers of rental housing face when they build it. We did this research in 2012. We looked at three housing projects, and they were all located in rural communities.
The seniors we spoke with very much valued shared space, so common rooms stood out. They're an extremely important feature. They facilitated formal gatherings and also informal interactions. Shared space was also used for physical activity. If there was a shared hallway, it was used as a kind of walking track, especially in the wintertime. Shared space also allowed tenants to check in on each other, but this shared space was inconsistently provided by housing developers, and when we interviewed them, of course they talked about needing a sound business case when they are building this housing, and shared space increased their costs.
Seniors talked about the importance of good housing design, but in the interviews we conducted, design-related barriers to aging in place were identified by almost everyone. Some tenants really thought all of the units being constructed should be barrier-free as a way to accommodate their changing needs.
At the same time, two of the development teams we interviewed talked about really learning as they went, and said that the affordable rental housing they were building was a one-time project. They were responding to a community need they identified for affordable rental housing, and they were really learning as they were going along. They said that if they ever did it again, they absolutely would change what they did.
I think it's also important to note that these housing developers had a different understanding of the rental housing they were building and who they were building it for. While the tenants were talking to us about quality of life dimensions of their housing, the developers were saying that this was unassisted, affordable rental housing for seniors, so they expected their tenants to be living independently.
Seniors, of course, noted that access to affordable transportation was important. The seniors not living in housing on a bus line absolutely experienced barriers to accessing amenities and services.
Again, housing developers have to think about the cost of what they were doing, and in two cases they were building on land that was contributed to them in kind.
Last, some of the seniors we interviewed spoke about the importance of having a mechanism through which they could participate in decision-making on housing that provides them input, such as the opportunity to be on the board of directors, or to participate in a tenant's committee.
As far as recommendations coming out of this research are concerned, first, can we think about affordable rental housing for seniors as more than a bricks and mortar strategy? It's not just about providing a place to live; it's also about healthy aging.
Some specific recommendations that might allow us to do may include the following. Can we be more specific with our developers about what is required in this housing with respect to how the units are designed, and how the buildings are designed? They need to be providing common rooms, and there has to be some kind of a mechanism for seniors to participate in decision-making.
Can we at the same time increase the funding that's available to build affordable, rental housing for seniors? Can we encourage or require partnerships among developers and organizations in our communities who are providing services to seniors?