Accelerating London's billion-dollar plan to end housing crisis brings risk and reward

London, Ont. -

“Three-thousand affordable housing units in just five years,” challenged Mayor Ed Holder during his 2021 State of the City address.

Ten months later, city staff have prepared a 24-page ‘Roadmap to 3,000 Affordable Units for the City of London’ that explores the cost to achieve the goal by the end of 2026.

The report reveals that the cost to address London’s housing crisis has climbed to $1 billion.

“The city is not doing this alone,” explains City Treasurer Anna Lisa Barbon. “This is a multi-pronged approach from other levels of government (and) the community.”

The plan includes gradually subsidizing the rent of 500 households by 2026, eventually adding $3.6 million each year to the property tax-supported budget.

In addition, $78 million ($15.6 million each year for five years) would be contributed towards the construction and renovation of new units.

“The plan was 10 years, we asked ‘What would it look like in five years?’ This is staff’s report about what it would take,” says Budget Chair Councillor Elizabeth Peloza.

Between 2015 and 2020, the average market rent in London climbed from $898/month to $1147/month.

In 2020, families had to earn $160,000 to afford the average house in London.

And 5,592 households were on the waiting list for affordable housing in July.

The acceleration plan would require council to accept some financial risks, including possible impacts to metrics that support City Hall’s triple-A credit rating.

As well, deeply depleting several reserve funds of $52 million to support a New Affordable Housing Reserve Fund will limit opportunities during the next term of council.

“If another opportunity that council is interested in comes up, those reserve funds are already depleted and the money won’t be there,” explains Peloza. “So, it’s a matter of balancing the opportunity we have with this project against future ones.”

Barbon says prudent financial decisions by council in the past have created the financial ability to accelerate the housing plan starting in 2022.

“We are not deviating from our key financial strategies,” she adds. “We are not compromising anything.”

Peloza says accelerating the affordable housing plan from 10 to five years will help solve other council priorities tied to employment, poverty and families.

“If you don’t have housing, how do you get a job? How do your kids go to school? How do you put bread on the table without a table?"

The affordable housing acceleration plan will be discussed by council’s Community and Protective Services Committee on November 23.