Shazelle Santana desperately wants to move from her one-bedroom apartment to a larger unit, but has been unable to allow more space.
The London, Ontario resident says her seven-year-old son is growing up fast and the family needs more space, but the rising cost of rent in the city has made it incredibly difficult to move.
“It’s a ridiculous situation,” says the 52-year-old photographer and artist.
“I really need a two bedroom. In normal times, years and years ago like before, I would even choose to have three bedrooms and … I would have the extra room as a studio.”
Santana moved into her building six years ago and pays just under $ 800 rent a month. A renovated one-bedroom apartment in its North London building is now being rented for nearly $ 2,000 a month, he says.
Rising real estate prices have also forced him to give up plans to buy his own home.
“I felt it was quite doable, I had my goals and plans worked out,” he says. “And then in the last few years, I’ve been sitting here thinking that no matter what I do, I feel like it’s going to be impossible now because of the prices.”
The cost of housing, both for rent and for buying property, is one of the main problems facing residents of this city in southwestern Ontario as the provincial elections approach.
Major political parties are making promises about housing accessibility, with conservative progressives, new Democrats and Liberals promising to build 1.5 million new homes if elected.
The Conservative government passed a new law shortly before the election campaign to speed up approvals and other construction processes, but critics said it lacked bolder measures, such as changing municipal zoning rules to allow more housing to be built. part of the single-family.
New Democrats pledge to build 250,000 affordable rental homes managed by public, nonprofit and co-op housing providers. They also pledge to regain control of rent and allow early buyers with family incomes below $ 200,000 to access home value loans of up to 10 percent of the purchase price.
The Liberals promise to work with municipalities to expand zoning options, regain control of rents, and establish the Ontario Home Building Corporation to finance and build affordable housing.
The Greens say they would build 182,000 affordable housing units for affordable community housing over the next decade, including 60,000 support homes.
For Kathleen Brunner, finding affordable housing in London has become a real problem.
He says he has been trying to find a two-bedroom apartment to rent after getting a new job in the city, but five recent trips to find a new home have been unsuccessful.
The 53-year-old, who currently lives with her partner in a rental home in Barrie, Ontario, says she is now considering moving to a motel or moving in with her 26-year-old daughter. she loses her new job as a caregiver at a London hospital.
“I have a job waiting, a well-paid job waiting … And I don’t have a place to move,” he says.
“Suddenly, they said it cost $ 1,095 (a month) … And then I went to look at it, the guy called me to give me the address to pick me up and he said ‘oh, that’s $ 1,500. “
Brunner says landlords and their agents have been telling him that rent has risen recently due to high demand from people moving to the city.
He says he hopes to save enough money to buy a mobile home someday, before retiring, because buying a property is no longer a viable option.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get a real house,” he says. “Mobile homes, you can get them for less than $ 200,000.”
Michael Haan, an associate professor of sociology at Western University, says housing in London was relatively undervalued compared to other jurisdictions because the city’s economy depended on manufacturing that was not doing well until recently.
That situation has changed, he says.
“People come to London with money from Toronto and Montreal, and we’re also starting to increase the number of newcomers we receive,” he says.
Haan says the population in London increased by more than 10% between 2016 and 2021, while the housing stock only increased by 6.8%.
“This is creating some perfect storm,” he says.
Jared Zaifman, executive director of the London Builders Association, says supply in the city’s real estate market can’t keep up with population growth.
“Over the last five years … population growth has more than doubled the supply of housing every year,” he says. “We are now reaching a point of fever where there is a lot of demand and a lack of supply.”
He says there are multiple issues that hinder the ability of developers to increase the supply of new housing, including delays and delays in the development, zoning and subdivision approval processes.
“This is an area where we know that the province has the capacity and a strong capacity to make possible legislative changes … to streamline some of these processes that can take a very, very long time,” he says.
Supply chain problems during the COVID-19 pandemic have also had an impact on the ability of home builders to deliver new housing, he says, while the war in Ukraine is also affecting the arrival of some building materials from Europe.
The industry is also concerned about the lack of skilled workers, Zaifman says.
“We experience it every day as an industry, trying to find enough specialized trades to be able to be in places. Sometimes you wait weeks to get the right crew,” he says.
“Many retirements will come in the coming years. So while we now have challenges, I think we also need to recognize how we can plan and make the transition quickly for that future.”
Ontario’s election is scheduled for June 2.
This Canadian Press report was last updated on May 29, 2022.