{"id":34405,"date":"2024-03-28T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T20:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34405"},"modified":"2024-03-28T16:22:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T20:22:14","slug":"you-all-have-the-power-to-put-your-foot-down-and-say-we-want-this-says-regional-chair-on-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/you-all-have-the-power-to-put-your-foot-down-and-say-we-want-this-says-regional-chair-on-affordable-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou all have the power to put your foot down and say we want this,\u201d says Regional Chair on affordable housing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Local municipalities all have the power to \u201cput their foot down\u201d and demand affordable and rental housing units from potential incoming developers, says York Regional Chair Wayne Emmerson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments from Emmerson, who said York\u2019s nine municipalities and their representatives are \u201cthe boots on the ground\u201d when it comes to addressing homelessness, came earlier this month at a Committee of the Whole meeting where Council members discussed the Region\u2019s draft 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A blueprint to guide addressing the issue beginning next year though 2035, it\u2019s expected to be brought forward for Regional Council\u2019s adoption in the second quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLocal municipalities are critical partners in advancing the priorities of Housing Solutions by enabling development of affordable housing options and responding to homelessness,\u201d said Regional staff in their update to Council. \u201cLocal municipalities will continue to be engaged through 2024 as the Affordable Private Market Housing Implementation Plan, Community Housing Development Master Plan, Homelessness Service System Plan, and the next 10-year housing and homelessness plan are being developed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussing the update, Regional reps agreed that more funding needs to come from the Federal and Provincial government to meet upcoming goals, but Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said time is of the essence to make concrete steps forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe not only have a housing affordability crisis, but\u2026just people [looking to] survive,\u201d he said. \u201cI guarantee every member around this table has more people contacting them\u2026who can\u2019t figure out how to make it until the next month. The reason I say that is because I think the data is very clear that is presented here, that is presented through some of the workshops we\u2019ve done in the past, the number of people who are experiencing homelessness is growing\u2026 \u2018exponentially\u2019 might not be the right word \u2013 is there a bigger word than \u2018exponentially\u2019? I think we need to get our heads around that. I know this plan will do some of that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot we\u2019re doing, but I am going to say it\u2026it\u2019s not even close to enough in the next three to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional Council, he said, needs to have a \u201cclear opportunity\u201d before the next budget to vote on the amount of funding York will put towards transitional housing and shelter beds in the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen those three years come and our parks have tents all over the place, we know that we had that chance to quickly do something. Is there some logic and an additional recommendation that staff bring back a short-term rapid implementation with housing options?\u201d he asked. \u201cWe have very significant reserves. I have been a proponent of making sure we have sustainable financing going into the future\u2026but the amount of money it would take for us to get\u2026ahead of the game\u2026 wouldn\u2019t drastically impact our reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to look at it straight in the eye, decide to move it forward or not, so that when three years happens from now, we don\u2019t say, \u2018We didn\u2019t see that coming. We didn\u2019t have a chance to get ahead of that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmerson agreed that Regional Council will have to \u201cstep up\u201d at budget time, but said municipalities are the \u201cboots on the ground\u201d as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know what is happening on the streets and in our parks, in our municipalities,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t let the Province and Feds off the hook. We can\u2019t. We\u2019ve got to continue to fight. When developers come to your door, when they look at 500 units to be build, you\u2019ve got to step up and say, \u2018Where can we get 30 affordable housing units or rental?\u2019 You have the ability when they come to your table\u2026 it is nothing to do with the Region. When it comes to a planning issue\u2026 you all have the power to put your foot down and say, \u2018We want this,\u2019 when you\u2019re going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local municipalities all have the power to \u201cput their foot down\u201d and demand affordable and rental housing units from potential incoming developers, says York Regional Chair Wayne Emmerson. Comments from Emmerson, who said York\u2019s nine municipalities and their representatives are \u201cthe boots on the ground\u201d when it comes to addressing homelessness, came earlier this month […]<\/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-34405","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\/p3D2k4-8WV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 06:43:39","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\/34405","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=34405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}