Oshawa rental prices soaring

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

Oshawa is becoming a city that is more and more expensive to live in – and it isn’t just for homeowners.

According to a recently released study from Padmapper, the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Oshawa in September was $980 per month, a 4.2-per-cent increase from the month before. If you are looking for something a little bit larger, a two-bedroom comes in at $1,250 per month, or 2.5 per cent higher than in August.

These growing numbers peg Oshawa as the eighth most expensive place in Canada to rent, according to Padmapper’s numbers.

In Durham, the region acts as a both a landlord for some and helps provide subsidies for others in providing affordable housing.

Currently, there are approximately 1,300 units in region-owned housing, and its rent-geared-to-income (RGI) program, which provides subsidies to non-profit housing providers to make up the difference, provides housing for another 4,480 households.

However, this still falls short, with the region’s RGI program having a waitlist of 5,700 households long last year.

And the region’s housing options are not being built up quick enough, with an expected 70 to 90 new units coming into the fold in the next two years.

“That really doesn’t do a lot in terms of doing as much with the demand,” says John Connolly, the region’s director of housing services.

“We won’t be able to keep up with the demand, but we do the best through that way and the other way is working for any kind of private developers who come forward outside of those requests for proposal, and we try to encourage that as much as possible.”

While the region is working to get more affordable housing on the market, Connolly concedes that it is likely of little comfort to those that are waiting.

“If you’re on the list and you’re about the 5,700th household, you’re going to be waiting for five years or more for (housing). Clearly, there’s a demand, and some people…are saying the demand is even more significant than that 5,700 would indicate. That’s probably true,” he says.

“What we try and do is do the best we can, but there isn’t enough in the system. We try to encourage it through the programs we have and funding through the province and federal government, and also through regional dollars. We know we are meeting some of the demand, but there is definitely a gap and more that needs to be done.”

Connolly adds that the turnover for housing in both the RGI program and region-owned housing is approximately 300 units per year.

More than just housing

Connolly says that when it comes to finding more affordable housing for those in Durham Region, the discussion often turns to more than just a place to live.

“There are some pockets of Durham Region that have higher demands than others. We have our Health Neighbourhoods, which shows it’s not just housing as an issue, but also education, medical health indicators which are areas that we need to prioritize,” he says.

“We’re doing the best on a number of fronts to try and meet that demand and that need. I think what you’ll find is that it’s not enough, but we do think that a number of these things are going to meet that need.”

Dr. Toba Bryant, an associate professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s health sciences faculty, says that poor housing conditions can lead to health problems.

“Poor housing conditions such as presence of mould, insect or rodent infestations, contribute to chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma in children and adults,” Bryant tells The Oshawa Express.

“Overcrowding leads to stomach/abdominal conditions.”

Although not nearly to the extent seen in other parts of the world, the region’s Health Neighbourhoods study does appear to show some correlation between health levels and those living in more precarious housing.

According to the study, the four neighbourhoods in Oshawa that have the highest levels of what is deemed “not suitable housing” – Lakeview, Gibb West, Downtown and Beatrice North – also have numbers above the regional average for asthma in children, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease and hepatitis C.

Bryant adds that households that have to spend a disproportionate amount of their income on keeping a roof over their head also face significant troubles. Specifically, she cites that households that spend 30 per cent or more of their income on housing tend to have other problems as a result of that lack of cash flow.

“Someone who lives in decent housing and is not spending 30 per cent or more of their incomes have higher incomes. We should be more concerned about those households that are spending 30 per cent or more of their incomes on their housing,” Bryant says.

“These households have affordability issues and are at risk of losing their homes. It is possible for people to have mortgages, but go to a food bank to obtain food.”

Where to go from here

Connolly says that in order to make housing more affordable in Durham Region and for there to be proper housing for all, there needs to be more choices out there.

According to the annual report for the At Home In Durham program – the region’s 10-year affordable housing strategy launched in 2014 – vacancy rates in the region are well below optimal levels, sitting at 1.6 per cent in 2015, or about half of what it needs to be for the rental market to be deemed healthy.

And the region’s housing services director says one of the ways to solve that is higher density housing.

“We really do want to look at the idea of households and household needs – not everyone needs to have that 150-foot frontage,” he says.

“Sometimes we’ll need a mixture of singles, but what we are seeing and certainly seeing in the development of the new stuff is the shift where we had 70 per cent singles and 20 per cent in the medium density and 10 per cent in the high density, that’s shifted. We’re seeing more in the medium and high densities, and less in the singles.”

Another thing that Connolly says could help is the fact that the federal government is looking like it will get into the housing game.

“What we are encouraged by is that the federal government has given early signals that they’re going to be developing a national housing strategy,” he says.

“What that means, we don’t know, but depending on who you listen to, really the federal government has been absent from that part of it for a number of decades. So we’re encouraged that there is hopefully some money coming in.”

During the 2015 federal election, soon-to-be Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to creating a national housing strategy, which came with such initiatives as committing part of its proposed infrastructure plan towards building new housing and offering tax incentives to developers to either build new affordable housing or renovate existing projects.

The federal government recently concluded consultations on a national housing strategy, with plans to release results from those talks later this month. From there, according to the website dedicated to the consultations, the federal government will outline the next steps in creating the strategy.