WELLINGTON COUNTY – Coun. Andy Lennox thinks the County of Wellington needs to put its money where its mouth is and pursue attainable housing solutions or admit defeat and move on.
Speaking passionately at a county council meeting this week, Lennox motioned for staff to complete a comprehensive assessment of the affordable housing proposals already presented to the county's Attainable Housing Taskforce Working Group, including a community scan of who might be able to deliver or partner with the County of Wellington.
"Tired of empty rhetoric," Lennox said he put forward the motion because county council needs to have a meaningful discussion about whether they're going to move forward with one of several proposals already presented to the taskforce or continue spinning its wheels.
"We've done a lot of work on this and yet we're not doing anything," said Lennox. "I really believe we need to get to a point where we make a decision on whether we're going to do something ... or not. And if we're not, then we should just end this committee and say 'look, we're not in this business.'"
A member of the taskforce since it was created in 2019, Lennox asked for the assessment to include a do nothing option and previous proposals about a community land trust, affordable home ownership, and a partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
Presented to the Administration, Finance and Human Resources Committee earlier this month, another included option proposed the County of Wellington partner with lower-tier municipalities to split the cost 50/50 when funding small, affordable home projects with a maximum of 20 units.
Lennox also spoke on the importance of filling the gap between subsidized housing and lower-end-of-the-market housing, especially for newcomers, young people and older adults.
"I don't want to spend any more time or resources on something that we're not serious about," said Lennox. "We identified in our strategic plan that housing is our number one priority. This is a segment of the housing market that I believe is not being looked after and I think there are opportunities for us to assist."
All councillors were supportive of the motion, including Coun. Shawn Watters, who spoke on the importance of having a variety of housing types and planning mechanisms to help facilitate them.
"Some of the things I've heard from our urban planners is that ... we don't have the tools to be able to do this," said Watters. "We need to look at this from a more holistic view ... the planning needs to be a part of this as well."
Lennox said while looking at a variety of built-form is a good thing to do, he believes the main hurdle is the financial structure, especially considering there isn't much of an appetite from residents to take the costs on through the tax levy.
"That's what I like about these models; they offer an opportunity for this to be self-financing," said Lennox. "Yes, we might have to take on some money to get a project off the ground to demonstrate the viability of it but the purpose of this, from my perspective, is that it not weigh on the taxpayer."
Coun. Campbell Cork suggested broadening the assessment to include an investigation of the private sector and tiny homes.
In response, Coun. Diane Ballantyne said while she is also tempted to ask for the assessment to include things like co-operative housing, she believes this analysis should focus on information that's already available to staff and more ideas can be included down the line if needed.
CAO Scott Wilson said the report could come back to council in May at the earliest since there is a planned staff absence in April. Coun. James Seeley suggested June, saying he has concerns about timing.
Lennox said while he's not "inflexible," the county has "been at this for six years," and the information exists for the most part.
"I think we have to get moving on this or we have to kill it," said Lennox.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program