Non-profit sector pushes affordable housing as election issue

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/05/2023 (894 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With a looming crisis in non-profit housing, advocates are making it a provincial election issue.

“We know that there’s a massive need out there,” said Christina Maes Nino, executive director of the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association.

That need is growing as aging, affordable social housing wears out and government funding deals expire, she said.

Most Manitobans didn’t have non-profit housing or the vital role it plays on their radar until last year, when the board of Lions Place announced the 287-unit downtown Winnipeg high-rise (built for seniors 40 years ago) was being sold to a for-profit company, Maes Nino said Friday.

Another 6,400 non-profit units are at risk between now and 2030, with government operating agreements set to expire and buildings due for major maintenance and upgrades, she added.

The association that represents more than 100 non-profit housing providers in 23 towns and cities met this week with members of all three political parties in Winnipeg with three specific requests: commit to $1.5 billion in capital funding over the next 10 years to preserve 23,000 community housing units; funding for one tenant-support worker for every 100 social housing units; and build 10,000 new community housing units.

It plans to nail down local candidates’ support ahead of the Manitoba election Oct. 3, Maes Nino said.

“For non-profit housing, having the support of the local MLA, no matter what party, working along with the party in power, is really critical to success.”

Rather than signs and slogans, association members are tailoring their election messaging to suit each community.

“Housing is so local,” said Maes Nino. When members across the province meet with local candidates, they’ll be armed with resources, including fact sheets on the need in their community, she said.

“Having initiatives that are flexible enough to work in Winkler, in Thompson, in Portage la Prairie, Swan River and in Winnipeg is really critical,” Maes Nino said.

“The biggest priority for the non-profit sector is that most of their buildings were built between 1970 and 1990,” she said.

“Many Manitobans don’t know that there are about 35,000 existing non-profit and public housing units across the province. We built them and now it’s that time to maintain them and allow them to serve that next generation of Manitobans.”

Manitoba’s minister in charge of housing said her government is making a pot of money available for an estimated 162 non-profit housing providers with more than 8,000 units whose government funding agreements are at or near an end.

“We want to get ahead of it and make sure that we’re in a relationship or communication with the non-profit housing providers,” Rochelle Squires said Friday.

The province is setting aside $1.4 million this year to start offering rent supplements and funding for capital upgrades and will develop a framework and a call for proposals, she said. With the sale of Lions Place, the government provided the new for-profit owner with $1.2 million in subsidies to freeze tenants rents for two years.

NDP housing critic Nahanni Fontaine said the $1.4 million on offer is a quick fix, not a solution.

“It’s not long-term funding and it certainly puts at risk elders and seniors, like we saw at Lions Place,” Fontaine said Friday.

She couldn’t make any election promises ahead of her party unveiling its election platform, but said it has been bringing up the need for more social housing while the Progressive Conservatives have sold off Manitoba Housing since forming government in 2016.

“The crisis that we’re seeing in respect of accessible, safe and affordable social housing has just grown exponentially in the last seven years,” Fontaine said.

However, Maes Nino credited the PCs for coming up with a homelessness strategy in February. “It’s the first time that there’s a clear target on housing development instead of a bit of a piecemeal approach that’s been happening.”

Squires said the Tories are committed to building 700 new units this year, and the homelessness strategy includes “significant dollars” for wraparound housing supports provided by tenant-support workers.

The non-profit housing association, meanwhile, is seizing an opportunity.

“I think the wheels are turning, and with the election coming up, I think they’ll turn quickly for a bit and then they’ll stop,” Maes Nino said. “So we’re trying to get as much done as possible before the election.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca