An exhaustive, two-year study of recently arrived refugees in Winnipeg shows they face significant housing challenges.
My experience as a volunteer in an affordable housing organization indicates there's at least one reason for this: Provincial policies make it easier to rent to drug dealers than to refugees.
The refugee study was done by Dr. Tom Carter, a Canada research chair in urban change and adaptation and his colleagues at the University of Winnipeg.
Housing is important to refugees, says the study, because "unaffordable, crowded, unsafe housing can cause disruptions in the entire settlement process."
The study interviewed 75 households which had been in Winnipeg a year or less; a year later 55 of these households were re-interviewed. Its findings could easily be duplicated in many Canadian provinces.
In year one, the households had to contend with high levels of poverty. Their average annual income was $22,344, less than half the $53,176 average household income in the city. Eighty-six per cent of the households fell below Statistics Canada's low-income cutoff. With an average rent of $566 per month, the average household spent 33 per cent of its gross income (before tax) on shelter.
Many paid rents higher than the average: 51 per cent spent 30 per cent or more; 12 per cent spent 50 per cent or more.
Spending 30 per cent or more of before tax income on shelter is considered excessive because it leaves too little money for other basic necessities.
Many of the refugees didn't get much for the money they were spending: 47 per cent lived in crowded households.
Conditions improved in year two: The average income of the households increased 31 per cent; the number of households below the cut-off line dropped 21 per cent; the number paying 30 per cent or more of their gross income on rent dropped 29 per cent and the proportion of crowded households dropped 11 per cent.
The improvement is encouraging. But the fact many refugees have to spend a year or more to become integrated in our society is a loss to them -- and to Canadian society as a whole.
The big problem facing refugees -- and our lawmakers -- is that refugee households are much larger than Winnipeg households in general -- 3.6 compared to 2.4 persons per household.
Refugees require larger units, says the report, "but the Winnipeg rental market provides few three- and four-bedroom units, particularly at prices refugees can afford."
I can second that observation. As the past chair of one of Winnipeg's largest providers of affordable housing, I know government regulations make it difficult for us to rent to refugees with large families. There are limits to what we can charge and to what they can pay. The result is that refugees need a lot of room, but can't pay much. Renting to refugee families would put us in the hole even more than we are now.
It's different with drug dealers. They are difficult to screen out because they are wealthy and adept at covering their tracks. Some even hire families with good records to rent apartments for them.
Once they've infested a development, they're as difficult to get rid of as bedbugs. They're experts at using the province's anti-discrimination legislation to their advantage. An example: A tenant of ours was involved in a stabbing. We handed her an eviction notice. Even though she's in jail, she appealed and we must now take her case to the province's residential tenancy branch.
We have to put up with her, while many refugees who want to get ahead and make a contribution are held back.
The Canada Research Chair study shows refugees have a lot of housing-related challenges. In their first year, 93 per cent had lived in more than one place - a situation not conducive to integration. A quarter did not feel their neighbourhood was safe. Many felt their landlords were unhelpful - and they didn't know about tenant and landlord rights and responsibilities.
A major blockage in affordable housing is the weird actions of the federal government. The other day the housing ministers of the provinces held a meeting. The federal minister didn't come. The provincial officials left him a list of urgent requirements.
Don't expect any federal response soon. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now in his summer snooze mode. There is speculation he won't announce any major new policies until the next election.
That's a shame. For many refugees it's going to be a hot, crowded, stressful summer.
Tom Ford is managing editor of The Issues Network.
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