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A primer on Affordable housing and homelessness

A primer on Affordable housing and homelessness. By: Nick Falvo Presentation to United Church Women Location : Barrhaven United Church Ottawa, Ontario February 17, 2014. Overview. Government support for housing Social assistance Social housing Homelessness “Housing First” Summary.

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A primer on Affordable housing and homelessness

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  1. A primer on Affordable housing and homelessness By: Nick Falvo Presentation to United Church Women Location: Barrhaven United Church Ottawa, Ontario February 17, 2014

  2. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Overview • Government support for housing • Social assistance • Social housing • Homelessness • “Housing First” • Summary

  3. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) A Well-Kept Secret

  4. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Ex’s of Support to Ontario Homeowners

  5. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Imputed Rent • When a landlord rents a unit to a tenant, the landlord is taxed on that rental income. • When a landlord (effectively) rents to her/himself, that (imputed) rental income “is not taxed under the income tax regime” the way “net rental income” would be taxed if they rented to another person. • It’s not actual rental income. Hence the term “imputed rent.”

  6. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Capital Gains on Principal Residences “Capital gains realized on the sale of a principal residence are non-taxable under the income tax regime in Canada. In comparison, 50% of capital gains from other investments (e.g., equities) realized in a year are taxed at income tax rates.” — Frank Clayton

  7. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) The Economics of Newly-Built Housing

  8. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) SA Shelter Allowance, Ottawa

  9. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) SA Shelter Allowance, Ottawa (cont’d)

  10. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014)

  11. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Housing • Social housing generally refers to housing for low-income households that benefits from substantial funding from senior levels of government. • Usually, social housing is owned and operated by a not-for-profit entity.

  12. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Housing (cont’d) • A crucial point about ‘social housing’ is that a significant proportion of tenants who live there pay reduced rent. This is usually referred to as Rent Geared to Income (RGI). • Though the precise rent scale varies across Canada and across programs (and years), tenants in RGI units typically pay between 25% and 30% of their before-tax monthly income. • The highest amount of rent a tenant would be charged in social housing would be ‘break even rent’—that is, the actual market rent that would be charged on the private market. This happens in private non-profit and co-op housing (with tenants who are ‘middle-income’). These would not be RGI units.

  13. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Rent Levels in Social Housing Compared

  14. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Who Has Social Housing?

  15. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Ottawa’s Waiting List

  16. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Tenants • 1/3 of social housing tenants in Ontario are seniors. Most prefer all-seniors buildings, and non-profit housing authorities find them to be very good tenants. • 10% of Ontario’s stock of social housing is “supportive housing.”

  17. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Inadequate Housing, Children in Care “Two studies have been done in Toronto looking at the role of housing with respect to children in care. Results of both studies indicate that the state of the family’s housing was a factor in one in five cases in which a child was temporarily admitted into care. Results from the Toronto research also indicate that, in one in 10 cases, housing status delayed the return home of a child from care.” — Falvo, 2012

  18. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Developing Social Housing

  19. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Housing in Toronto: Basic Math • $200K to build new unit of social housing (including cost of land). Amount gets paid over 30 years • $300/month (from tenant) to cover operating deficit. • After 30 years, major repairs necessary.

  20. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Housing in Ottawa

  21. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Housing in Ottawa (cont’d) • It might cost less than half of that to acquire an already-existing unit (from a private landlord, for example). • But such a unit likely would not last as long as a newly-built one. • And for some types of supportive housing (i.e. for persons with physical disabilities), housing must be purpose-built.

  22. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Land • Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC) provides social housing in Ottawa. CCOC often pays full market value of the land for their units. • CCOC cannot afford to buy land in downtown Ottawa at market rates and build new. But they can afford to acquire already-existing units downtown. • For example, when carrying out new construction, CCOC could not afford to pay the full cost of land in the Market, Centretown, Hintonburg or the main streets of Little Italy or Chinatown.

  23. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Land (cont’d) • Sometimes the City of Ottawa (or another level of government) donates the land. • Other times, a level of government will offer CCOC a long-term lease for one dollar (or for $30,000 or $40,000 a year).

  24. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Land (cont’d) • Government funding cycles make it challenging for non-profit housing providers to ‘jump on’ good land opportunities. • City of Ottawa might issue an RFP in July and then announce results in November. • But there might be a great deal on land in June; and owner of the land will not wait. Seller wants to close in three months.

  25. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) New Social Housing in Ottawa

  26. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Examples of AHI Projects in Ottawa

  27. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Beaver Barracks

  28. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Beaver Barracks (cont’d)

  29. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Beaver Barracks (cont’d)

  30. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Shepherds of Good Hope (“The Oaks”)

  31. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Ex’s of New AHI Coop Units in Ottawa

  32. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Blue Heron Housing Co-operative

  33. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) MacLean Co-operative Homes

  34. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Eastern Ontario Christian Seniors Co-op

  35. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) But Where Does This Leave Us?

  36. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Canada Compared

  37. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Rental Housing Production

  38. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Homelessness

  39. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Causes Traditionally, two schools of thought: • Individual risk factors • Socioeconomic factors affecting entire jurisdictions

  40. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Causes (cont’d) Ex’s of Individual Risk Factors: • Mental health diagnosis • Heavy use of drugs or alcohol • Lack of education/skills

  41. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Causes (cont’d) Examples of Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Entire Jurisdictions • High unemployment rate • Lack of affordable housing • Inadequate social assistance benefits • Reductions in psychiatric beds

  42. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Causes (cont’d) Since early 1990s: convergence of opinions 1. Structural factors matter 2. Those most at risk tend to have individual risk factors

  43. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Impact on Health “Homeless people in their forties and fifties often develop health disabilities that are more commonly seen only in people who are decades older.” —Dr. Stephen Hwang

  44. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Impact on Health (cont’d) • Homeless people more likely to have: 29X Hep C 20X Epilepsy 5X Heart Disease 4X Cancer 2X Diabetes

  45. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Mental Health • Depression 17% (8% in pop) • Anxiety 11% (1%) • Bipolar 8% (1%) • Schizophrenia 5% (1%)

  46. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Costs (cont’d) • 2000 article in JAMA reported on death rates among homeless men in Toronto: →The mean age of death was 46 years. →The mortality rate for homeless male youth 8X rate of of their non-homeless counterparts. →Homeless men 9X more likely to be murdered than their housed counterparts.

  47. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Social Costs (cont’d) • 1998 Toronto study → Over half of all female street youth become pregnant. →300 babies are born to homeless women each year in Toronto

  48. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Violence • More than 1/3 of homeless persons report being physically assaulted or beaten up in previous year • Stranger 56% • Acquaintance 38% • Police 35% • Another shelter resident 27% • Partner or spouse 21% • Shelter staff 15%

  49. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) Sexual Violence • 1 in 5 homeless women report being sexually assaulted or raped in previous year.

  50. Nick Falvo: United Church Women (Feb. 17, 2014) “Housing First”

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