Seized properties could become affordable housing

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This article was published 27/08/2021 (1646 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AFFORDABLE housing could be offered at the sites of two St. Boniface properties, where homes were seized by the city over unpaid tax bills.

Coun. Matt Allard wants these sites to be exclusively marketed to affordable housing providers for at least 90 days to provide those organizations first dibs on buying them.

“Affordable housing is one of those priorities that I think we need to elevate in Winnipeg and this is one of the ways of doing it in a concrete way that can get some results quickly,” said Allard (St. Boniface).

In this case, the city would seek affordable housing options to make use of one property on Weatherstone Place and another on Elizabeth Road.

Allard hopes those will become the first of many “tax sale” properties the city helps convert into affordable homes. In April, he raised a successful motion to have the public service study how best to attract affordable housing development at seized homes and commercial properties, instead of just selling them off. That could include selling the structures for $1, another reduced price or an amount equal to its outstanding taxes, though the city would set a cap on the value of homes eligible for those discounts.

That report has not yet been released.

Through the tax sale process, the city can take a home’s title when payments and penalties are overdue by three years. Following that point, it takes at least another year before the city would acquire a property and sell it.

Allard said this occurs on an unpredictable basis, so the city’s budget doesn’t rely on income from those sales.

“I’d like to see more affordable housing in Winnipeg and I think this is a way we can do it without affecting the city’s bottom line,” said Allard.

For the St. Boniface properties, he believes the city could break even by selling them for an amount equal to each site’s unpaid taxes. At the same time, the municipality could begin to chip away at a desperate need for low-cost housing, Allard said.

“We see homelessness in Winnipeg everywhere… Housing is really fundamental to people’s ability to get out of those situations (and) help (get) connected to the right social programs,” he said.

A member of one not-for-profit affordable housing organization said the latest proposal would help create spaces in more neighbourhoods, noting lower cost units are typically concentrated in and around the inner city.

“I think it’s a good idea… that you are promoting affordable housing everywhere,” said Frank Zappia, a real estate agent for Housing Opportunity Partnership. “If you could get some housing stock in there and make it affordable for low-income families… that just makes a lot of sense.”

In late 2020, Coun. Sherri Rollins, chairperson of council’s protection committee, estimated about 9,000 affordable housing units were needed in Winnipeg.

An anti-poverty advocate said the level of local need amounts to a “crisis” and welcomed this “creative” option to add more units.

“Housing is a really key pathway out of poverty and it’s a real cornerstone of healthy communities,” said Michael Barkman, the chairperson of Make Poverty History Manitoba.

Allard’s motion will be considered by the Riel community committee on Sept. 1.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga