Ottawa’s plan to demolish homes for LRT expansion is a huge mistake | Op-Ed
Photo Credit: (Hamilton Spectator/Google Images)
Written by: Chris Hansen and Henry Paikin
From construction delays to train malfunctions, no one can deny that the rollout of Ottawa’s LRT was a bumpy one — just as no one can deny Ottawa needed public transit improvements. But what good is a shiny train if people cannot afford to live in the city where it’s built? Council’s new plan to blast through an entire community in the neighbourhood of Nepean — 120 units of affordable housing called Manor Village and Cheryl Gardens — to finish the LRT’s Stage 3 shows a clear failure to grasp how transit expansion and affordable housing go together.
Ottawa is facing a housing crisis. Rents are spiralling upwards as wages stagnate. Ten-thousand households are on the waitlist for a starved community housing system. And the unstoppable tide of gentrification continues to sweep across the city, obliterating affordable housing stock, either by demolition, or by skirting rent-increase caps via cosmetic renovations. These two processes are now so common that they’ve been respectively dubbed “demoviction” and “renoviction.”
City council knows how serious it is: they unanimously declared a housing emergency in January. But last week, as Manor Village tenants protested in a snowstorm outside the doors of city hall, councillors were inside debating the merits of destroying these people’s homes for the LRT, while leaving room for landowners to redevelop too.
This disaster shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Canadian municipalities cannot run deficits. But their “solution” is driving the unaffordability crisis. With property taxes as their main revenue stream, cities are all too happy to see inflated land values. Meanwhile, developers — the main source of contributions to councillors’ election campaigns — will do what they do best: boost profits.
This leaves tenants in an impossible position, with both city and landlords against them. Indeed, even before Ottawa announced its LRT route running through Manor Village, the property’s owner, Smart Living Properties, was planning renoviction.
This story is a familiar one for Ottawa tenants. Timbercreek Communities — now rebranded as Hazelview Properties — illegally demovicted the Herongate community despite significant opposition. Tenants on Osgoode Street are also fighting renoviction. Horrific Landlord and Tenant Board hearings are being live-tweeted.
People losing their homes to boost someone’s bottom line is the norm. What is to be done?
Some point to Ontario’s 2018 “inclusionary zoning” regulation, allowing cities to ask developers to set aside a number of new units as affordable.
For one, this ironically acknowledges that other units are comparatively “unaffordable.” More importantly, how will affordability be defined? Will these units be large enough for families? And what net quantity will be mandated? For example, if you demolish 120 three-bedroom units and replace them with 20 studios, you’ve got a major loss.
Finally, the “unaffordable” units in the new building will, on average, continue the upward swelling of land values, only strengthening the gentrifying push. Indeed, more supply of the wrong kind of housing only makes matters worse.
Cities have historically been places that working people can call home. But urban land is increasingly becoming a speculative commodity.
There was a time when government built tens of thousands of homes a year — far greater than the modest targets set today. As with healthcare or public transit, housing is a social good — one that government must protect by law.
Communities could be put back in charge too, by empowering groups like the Ottawa Community Land Trust to put people over profits.
During a recent rally held in support of Manor Village, we heard stories from tenants. They’ve lived there for years. They have a sense of community. They rely on one another for childcare. They said they would never find another place like Manor Village. Unless we fundamentally change how we provide housing, they are right.
As board members of the city’s leading transit advocacy group, Ottawa Transit Riders, we know that citizens concerned about transit and housing issues stand together. We see a future where government steps up to deliver integrated housing and transit solutions. Denser and more energy-efficient, affordable homes, as well as flattened transit fares are essential to building back better out of this pandemic, as well as fighting climate change.
We know that this is not a municipal issue alone. Appropriate funding will be needed at the provincial and federal levels.
But all good things start somewhere — and for now, that means standing up for Manor Village.
Chris Hansen and Henry Paikin are board members of Ottawa Transit Riders, the city’s leading non-partisan, membership-based advocacy group, working to make Ottawa’s transit system more affordable, reliable, accessible, and safe for users. Learn about its work at www.ottawatransitriders.ca
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