Bold action needed to ease housing pain

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2024 (443 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It looks bleak for the average citizen in Winnipeg where the housing pain continues, with a housing crisis accelerating towards a housing disaster.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has released the housing start numbers for May, and while housing starts are up across Canada, in the capital of Manitoba, the numbers continue to decline, with less new dwellings being constructed.

Single-detached construction is down 14 per cent since January 2024 and down 23 per cent since May 2023.

For all other housing types, construction is down 30 per cent since January 2024 and down 81 per cent since May 2023.

Yet demand for housing in Winnipeg remains strong. On June 11, 2024 the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board Market Release for May 2024 indicated an increase of 22 per cent from April and 14 per cent over last May. Supply and demand, less housing supply and high demand equal higher prices for the average Winnipegger to pay for a new place called home.

Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board reports the average price of a single-detached house is up four per cent and detached housing is up 10 per cent over May 2023.

Columnist Shannon Sampert wrote two weeks ago in the Free Press (May 30) about Manitoba losing its housing affordability as one of the main reasons for the increasing out migration from Winnipeg to greener pastures such as Edmonton, the City of Champions.

Alberta’s capital has seen an upswing in single-detached construction, up 41 per cent since January 2024 and up 36 per cent since May 2023.

People go where they can find a place called home, and increasingly the homes are elsewhere in Canada and not Winnipeg.

Winnipeggers’ housing pain, besides the economic hurt to the new home buyers’ wallet, is felt by all taxpayers. Municipal revenues are affected: on June 10, City of Winnipeg projected a shortfall of $39.3 million in the operating budget due (among other things) to “lower than expected permit fees and other revenues in Planning, Property and Development of $8.4 million.”

Less revenues from permits such as building permits to construct housing (City of Winnipeg reports building permit values are down 31 per cent at the end of April) means reducing services for the average Winnipegger (pools? libraries? Transit?); increasing taxes to punch people harder in their wallets; and/or begging other cash-strapped levels of government for money supplied by a broader pool of Canadians to support Winnipeggers’ aversion to new housing in their backyards.

Choosing low density over new infill housing will not enable low taxes, maintain stable municipal services and make housing attainable for the average citizen. More housing is needed — needed now — of all types and everywhere. And more infill housing is only made possible by local officials saying “yes” to legalizing housing — which is the right thing to do economically as well as morally — as housing is a human right.

Mayor Scott Gillingham and Premier Wab Kinew said back in February they’re prepared to remove some hurdles in the way of housing approvals in order to speed up the pace of new housing development in Winnipeg. During his annual state of the city speech at the Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Gillingham challenged all city departments to ensure 8,000 new housing units — homes, condos or apartments — get approved by Nov. 30.

The city typically approves about 5,000 to 6,000 new units a year — numbers that are looking more impossible to reach this year in the face of a steady decline in housing starts. Changes made so far by the mayor and premier have not yielded a bump in the supply of new housing — significant hurdles remain in getting new housing approved.

With two years until the next municipal election, the time for bold action is now to ease Winnipeggers’ housing pain.

John Wintrup is a lifelong Winnipegger, urbanist, globetrotting explorer of cities, Harvard student and a professional city planner with accreditation in both Canada and the United States.