Human Resources Committee on June 6th, 2024

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

From our own experience, many of our buildings are 50 years old or 30 years old. When purchased, they can be up to 70 years old.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

In the financial model of Victoria Park Community Homes, how do you maintain those buildings or even improve those buildings to, say, reduce the carbon footprint of those buildings, since they were often built in the 1970s?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

It's a multipronged approach. We, at Victoria Park, are very fortunate to have that mixed-income community and to have scale, so we have a lot of properties with a lot of value. We do leverage them. We take out mortgages to help catch up on capital repairs.

I must also say that the federal government has made a significant contribution to Victoria Park. At the end of last year, we received $20 million, provided we match it with $30 million, so that will be a $50-million investment to repair and restore 2,000 units. That preserves them for decades to come.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Does Victoria Park build new units, or are you simply maintaining the stock that you have and not building new?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

Oh, no, we are building new as much as we can. In fact—cross your fingers—within two weeks, we expect to be pressing the go button on a 260-unit affordable housing development in Hamilton.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Can I ask how long the approvals process has taken to get that project hopefully started in the next short while?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

I hope shovels are in the ground by the end of this year, but it has been an incredibly long process. I will say that we are going on six years now.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? It's been six years for how many units?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

We started this project six years ago, at the end of 2018. If my math is correct, that's six years. Yes. There was a two-year delay because of a withdrawal of CMHC funding.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

What are the costs of that six-year delay?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

They are pretty substantial. We, as a non-profit, have already invested $7.5 million in this development. That includes the site plan applications, the rezoning and the demolition of a school that was on the site. We have $7.5 million invested in this project, and we still don't quite have the green light. Within two weeks....

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I'm sorry. You hope it starts by the end of the year because you still don't quite have the final approval to start—after six years.

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

That is correct.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

That's staggering. That's at least $7 million to the bottom line of the project. What does that mean in terms of the rents and the units? Will there be market rentals in this building as well?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

We are hoping for affordable market units, trying to get all of the rents at 125% average market rent, with a large portion, 40%, at below 70% of the average market rent.

Victoria Park is not in the market housing business, and our board is very committed to ensuring that all of the rents are affordable, but it does mean our non-profit has to invest $22 million. As I said, we've already done $7 million and we have another $15 million to go to be able to achieve that affordability level.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

How many more affordable to deeply affordable units are needed in Ontario in the area that you work in?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

I don't know all across Ontario, tens of thousands, but I can say that in Hamilton the waiting list is almost 7,000 households.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Clearly, local government delays are making it more expensive to deliver those.

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

I don't know about local government delays, but absolutely there are delays. It's a long process. It's a very long process.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

What are the delays? If it's not the local approvals process, which is local government, what are the delays? You did mention the CMHC, I guess, offering funding and then changing its mind. What are the delays?

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

That was the largest delay—the fact that they were at the table for $75,000 a door and literally over a week, it was clawed back and we were told the fund was out of money and it's now $25,000 a door, which made it not feasible.

A couple of years of political advocacy and work on the project and CMHC is back to the table for $75,000 a door, so we are proceeding again.

There are certainly delays in the process, and I appreciate some initiatives that have been taken to speed it up. I understand CMHC is now aiming for a 60-day underwriting time frame as opposed to what was previously six months. That's a very positive movement.

We do a lot of work directly with the City of Hamilton trying to expedite and make more efficient the municipal approval processes.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Next is Mr. Collins for six minutes.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses for their attendance today. I appreciate everyone's attendance this morning. I'll start with Ms. Gagne.

Ms. Gagne, this study is focusing, as you well know, on the history of affordable housing investments or housing investments in general. Much of the discussion to date has focused on the supply issue. I want to get to the whole issue of renovation and repairs.

As the former president of CityHousing Hamilton, I often talked to our tenants and my council members and the community about the deplorable conditions of our affordable housing stock, not just in Hamilton but across the country, and that's as a result of the lack of investments that we have witnessed over a period of decades. I often said that most of the 7,000 units that we managed couldn't pass a property standards inspection.

I remember just prior to the pandemic a situation during a deep freeze in the winter months involving 95 Hess, a building downtown that I think you know. It's an 18-storey building that we managed. The power went out, and the pipes froze. When the power was restored, the pipes burst. We had one working elevator. I think it was the poster child for what a lack of investment has done to the affordable housing stock over a period of decades. I received a frantic call from staff saying, “The media are calling. They'd like to come in and take a look.” I said, “Open the doors. The more media, the better.”

I think it highlights the situation that municipalities and non-profits are in. We've been kind of left to our own devices, and this is the result of what happens when that occurs.

I'm hoping that you can focus on renovation and repairs and the age of your stock, which you referenced in your opening, and talk about maybe some of the current programs that are helping you and your organization turn that narrative around.

[Lori-Anne Gagne]

Thank you, MP Collins.

We have been very fortunate, and the recent investments have helped more than I can say. I did mention that, at the end of last year, we received $20 million as part of the federal government's coinvestment repair and renewal stream that will assist 2,000 units.

We are also in negotiations for CGAH funding, Canada greener affordable housing funding, to the tune of another $20 million to $25 million, provided we put in our portion. That will assist the remaining 1,500 units of Victoria Park's portfolio.

What does that do? It regenerates our stock, makes it more energy efficient and makes it more comfortable for our residents. Most importantly, you are preserving this stock for decades to come with an affordable housing provider that will keep the rents affordable in perpetuity.