Finding solutions to the housing crisis facing the most vulnerable in our community will take more than the simplistic \u2013 and often polarizing \u2013 approaches we are currently presented with.<\/p>\n
We need a rethink.<\/p>\n
When considering how best to provide much needed supportive\/affordable housing, we need to ask a more fundamental question.<\/p>\n
Why are we continuously presented with \u00a0only one option – \u00a0costly development of greenfield sites?<\/p>\n
Rather than spend millions of dollars siting, building and servicing a new site, a site often not zoned institutional and without even the basic infrastructure needed to support it, \u00a0would it not be more cost effective, efficient, and frankly plain common sense to first consider repurposing existing under and unused governmental buildings?<\/p>\n
2 years post pandemic, hybrid work environments for many office-based industries and particularly those related to all levels of government, are now the norm.\u00a0 This reality has led to office vacancy rates approaching 25-30% in many cities.<\/p>\n
Right here in York Region, due to the adoption of a true hybrid work policy, 60% of Regional staff work 50% of their work week off site and 50% in the office.\u00a0 As a consequence, the $200 million 422,000 square foot edifice on Yonge street built just a few years ago to house all the various regional staffing divisions now sits half empty on any given day of the week.<\/p>\n
While we continue to pay to heat and keep the lights on in this cavernous building, shouldn\u2019t we at least consider repurposing even a fraction of that unused tax-payer owned office space for much needed housing, before we spend even more money to build something from scratch?<\/p>\n
London, Montreal, Ottawa – just some of cities across the country that are finding ways to repurpose office space for housing space.<\/p>\n
Why aren\u2019t we all doing the same?<\/p>\n
Consider Calgary, Alberta. Through a public-private initiative of all levels of government as well as substantial investment from private sector donors, two non-profits – \u00a0HomeSpace and Inn from the Cold – \u00a0were able to repurpose once empty office space into affordable, transitional and emergency housing.<\/p>\n
Again, why is this the exception rather than the norm?<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t continue to use a 20th century approach to solve a complex 21st\u00a0century problem.<\/p>\n
It makes more sense to site supportive and affordable housing in locations not only already zoned institutional, but already built and often home to many of the services that the residents of the facility will need. \u00a0The York Region Head Office for example was specifically designed to provide residents with \u201c\u2026better access to community, health and court services from one central location\u201d.\u00a0 Would it not make sense then to repurpose empty office space within that existing building to include emergency housing as well?<\/p>\n
Before we spend more taxpayer money on the search for and development of another, one-off greenfield site,\u00a0I believe we should conduct a comprehensive scan of all existing taxpayer owned buildings at all levels of government \u2013 Federal, Provincial, Regional, Municipal \u2013 and including those \u201cowned\u201d by Boards of education – \u00a0and identify those that are under or unused and which can be repurposed for emergency, transitional and\/or affordable housing.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time we consider innovative approaches to solve the housing crisis.\u00a0\u00a0 Reimagining and repurposing existing taxpayer-owned buildings may be a critical part of that solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finding solutions to the housing crisis facing the most vulnerable in our community will take more than the simplistic \u2013 and often polarizing \u2013 approaches we are currently presented with. We need a rethink. When considering how best to provide much needed supportive\/affordable housing, we need to ask a more fundamental question. Why are we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrakas.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}