We have heard a lot recently about the Housing Affordability Crisis.
There are a growing number of voices across the province saying that housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable. Locally we have seen house prices rise dramatically in the past couple of years since the beginning of the pandemic.
Many have fled the cities for the suburbs and many more fled the suburbs for the country. At the same time, the Baby Boomers, traditionally the largest cohort of property owners, are holding onto their homes for longer than previous generations.
Their children, the Millennials, are the next largest age group cohort. Millennials are moving out and would like homes of their own. An example I use is a family with four children, where all four left home over the past two years. Now this family of six requires five homes instead of just one.
Add this in a country with a pro-immigration policy to support growth, and we are all of a sudden short on houses - hence rising house prices.
The various levels of government have heard the people, and they would like to create an impression that they are taking action on this issue. The federal government is planning to make the bidding process more transparent for properties and says, with no evidence, that this will help cool bidding wars.
More transparency is usually a good thing, but this will not reduce house prices.
The province threatened to eliminate "Exclusionary Zoning" (single-family residential neighbourhoods) to allow multi-storey apartment buildings to be built in our established neighbourhoods - also known as "Densification."
They said that municipalities and NIMBYS are the problems.
But who else will protect our neighbourhoods?
For now, they have corrected course on this issue after hearing feedback from groups like WeLoveOakville. But we must remain vigilant as they promise to revive these attacks on our established neighbourhoods in the years ahead.
None of these changes will do anything to make housing cheaper.
So what can be done?
Certainly, we know that governments do need to create policies that allow for more housing to be built.
Oakville's approach has been to accept that there will be a significant provincially mandated population growth over the next 10-15 years, and we would like to see this intensification concentrated in our identified growth nodes.
These growth nodes are essentially around the transit hubs/GO Stations, in particular, Mid-town Oakville (North of Cornwall Road and south of the QEW.)
They expect, over the course of many years, to target 20,000 people living and working in Mid-town.
Most in our town are against the idea of more urban sprawl. Therefore intensification (mid and high-rise condominium and apartment buildings) seems to be the way to go.
I believe we must accept the reality of provincially mandated population growth and concentrate on accommodating it in the most effective, efficient and livable way to support the quality of life we expect in Oakville.
If we do not support this type of growth, all indications are that the province will move densification into our established neighbourhoods and heritage districts.
As residents, we must keep an eye on these developments to ensure that they are meeting the standards of good planning and living up to the promises of our Official Plan, "Livable Oakville".
