{"id":19216,"date":"2017-11-29T17:09:09","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19216"},"modified":"2017-11-29T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:09:09","slug":"aurora-to-look-at-ways-to-foster-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-to-look-at-ways-to-foster-affordable-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora to look at ways to foster affordable housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n

Calls for more affordable housing options in Aurora are frequent, but next month might bring some clarity to just what the Town can do to make it a reality.
\nCouncil has deferred a motion from Councillor John Abel for discussion on December 12 which calls for a report back on municipal guidelines pertaining to rental housing stock and how these guidelines can be enforced.
\nPlaced on the last Council agenda, a vote on whether or not to go through with the report was delayed pending an upcoming presentation from York on the Region\u2019s Housing initiatives.
\nCouncillor Abel said he brought forward the motion following a recent conference hosted by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) which made recommendations on how to address an \u201caffordable housing crisis.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is about our seniors aging in a community that is familiar to them, new families looking for low end rental and kids [wanting to get out on their own],\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cWe have approved secondary suites (basement apartments in most cases) but the AMO conference workshops went into much more details and options. I think it is important as we go towards intensification that we adopt and become aware of prioritizing rental units.
\n\u201cIt is recognized as a shortage, especially in Aurora. We have a lot of our younger people leaving Aurora and heading down to rental units in the city. It is part of our economic development, our sustainable outlook, as well as accommodating people of all incomes.\u201d
\nWhile Council members said they were all for affordable housing, some questioned the timing of the motion and whether a report on the subject would duplicate work that is already being prepared elsewhere.
\nAccording to Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning, the Region of York is taking the lead on a housing strategy which will be presented to Council this week. They are, he said, looking at how to develop incentive programs to encourage affordable housing and this has been in collaboration with York Region\u2019s nine municipalities.
\nRegulations are also making their way through the Ontario Legislature which gave members some pause as well.
\n\u201cI share some of the concern that perhaps it would be best to hold off a little bit and hopefully those regulations will come out soon and then it makes more sense to move forward with it,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson, adding that since there is little more than a year left in this Council term that he is reluctant to add much more to the already hefty to-do lists carried by municipal staff.
\nMayor Geoff Dawe was also in favour of holding off on the motion for a few more weeks.
\n\u201cIf you look at the Growth Plan for the Province for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, it specifically addressed housing,\u201d said Mayor Dawe. \u201cUpper and single tier municipalities, in consultation with lower tier municipalities, the Province and the appropriate stakeholders will each develop a housing strategy. It is more of a top-down approach as opposed to the bottom up. It would make sense at the very least to wait and hear what the Region comes up with and tells us in a couple of weeks. I think we\u2019re all interested in affordable housing and, at the same time, we want to be as efficient as possible.\u201d
\nFor Councillor Abel, however, and indeed Councillor Wendy Gaertner, time is of the essence.
\n\u201cI am not asking for a lot, but it is better to be a proactive Council, on top of it, so we can learn, that we\u2019re aware,\u201d he said, noting the seniors residence Hadley Grange, built over 20 years ago as affordable rentals for seniors, is now facing a waiting list almost a decade long.
\nAdded Councillor Gaertner: \u201cI would like to thank Councillor Abel; I know his concern over the years has been affordable housing for younger people and we need young adults and beyond in our community. It can\u2019t just be for middle [age] and older people. I have two younger people in my family and they could never afford to have a house in Aurora or even a condo. It needs to be looked at.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re a rich community, but we\u2019re not all rich. We have to be a complete community in that we try and take care of everybody and not just pay it lip service.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calls for more affordable housing options in Aurora are frequent, but next month might bring some clarity to just what the Town can do to make it a reality.
\nCouncil has …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4ZW","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 10:05:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}