Seeking solutions to Hamilton’s housing crisis
Direct, even violent, experience has influenced Carolyn Whitzman's passion for finding solutions to what has been called the affordable housing crisis.
Whitzman will offer a presentation geared toward Hamilton's housing issues, via Zoom on Tuesday, June 6 at The First Unitarian Church at 170 Dundurn Street South.
Growing up in Montreal, she would listen to her single mom talk at length about the work she did as a real estate agent. Then, in her adult life in 1986, Whitzman and her husband were assaulted by their landlord in a building in a Toronto neighbourhood.
They had just successfully appealed a 42-per-cent rent hike the landlord had slapped on their unit, to the landlord and tenant board.
He literally chased us out of our home," she said. His cousin was huge, and lived in the building, and he tried to pound my husband in the stairwell ... Yes, that was a formative experience, and I got quite interested in the relationship between violence and housing."
She completed her PhD on housing policy at McMaster University, and her career includes 16 years as a professor of urban planning at the University of Melbourne.
Currently Whitzman is an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, and works on a project called Housing Assessment Research Tools (HART), funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
HART's mandate is to research data-based solutions to Canada's housing crisis."
Whitzman's talk will focus on suggesting tools to address Hamilton's affordable housing situation. She has previously presented to 13 governments across Canada on the subject.
While she was hired by the City of Ottawa to prepare recommendations separate from HART, she has not been similarly contracted by the City of Hamilton.
Instead, she said she will offer data to city staff through HART, including a map of locations where publicly-owned land can be developed to support those in need of affordable housing.
It is up to staff to prioritize the land, she said, adding that land-use policy is a critical tool.
There has been innovative work in Hamilton, for instance, with Indwell, building supportive housing. Hamilton is doing some things right, and more can be done."
A fundamental challenge to the city's housing strategy, she said, is that all three levels of government need to be singing from the same song sheet to get it done effectively."
She said Calgary has benefited from Alberta's housing first" strategy under a Conservative government for almost 20 years," whereas Ontario has lagged.
There is only so much cities can do when you have a province that isn't looking at what people can afford, in terms of housing policies," she said. And I can blame both the federal and provincial governments ... There needs to be an integrated government approach."
She said that while land was identified in Hamilton as part of the federal government's 2020 rapid housing initiative," she believes Ontario has not provided adequate social supports and subsidies.
More philosophically, she suggests there needs to be a reorientation in Canada about the primacy of owning a home, over renting.
Societies with higher per capita incomes like Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Switzerland, are majority renter (societies) ... As a country we need to start looking beyond home ownership as the only choice for a decent living."
To attend Whitzman's presentation Tuesday, register on Eventbrite at https://scalingupaffordablehousingjune6_2023.eventbrite.ca/