{"id":68786,"date":"2020-10-22T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=68786"},"modified":"2020-10-23T11:08:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T15:08:19","slug":"exploring-the-affordable-housing-crunch-in-niagara-and-why-people-spend-years-on-a-waiting-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/10\/exploring-the-affordable-housing-crunch-in-niagara-and-why-people-spend-years-on-a-waiting-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the affordable housing crunch in Niagara, and why people spend years on a waiting list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone hoping to rent an affordable one-bedroom apartment from Niagara Regional Housing can be facing wait times of a decade or more, anywhere from nine years in Lincoln to 17 years in Niagara Falls.<\/p>\n

And as the gap between supply and demand keeps growing, so does the number of people on the waiting list \u2014 by 20 per cent between 2017 and 2019 alone \u2014 making the search for affordable housing a frustrating experience, especially for Niagara\u2019s poor and vulnerable.<\/p>\n

The latest policy brief from Brock University\u2019s Niagara Community Observatory \u2014 \u201cLooking Ahead and Looking Up: Affordable Housing in Niagara\u201d<\/a> \u2014 explores factors that cause this imbalance in affordable housing supply and demand, steps being taken to increase affordable housing and whether these measures will be enough to meet future need.<\/p>\n

\"Joanne

Assistant Professor of Political Science Joanne Heritz.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis research brief starts the conversation,\u201d says Assistant Professor of Political Science Joanne Heritz, the brief\u2019s author.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling the community that we don\u2019t have enough housing, especially affordable housing, our demand is going to go up, and we need to build more apartment-type housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heritz says she is particularly concerned about the \u201cinvisible\u201d housing seekers who earn minimum wage or are juggling several jobs just to make ends meet<\/p>\n

A sizable portion of Niagara\u2019s workforce consists of low-paying or seasonal employment in the tourism and service sectors. Other vulnerable populations challenged by finding affordable housing include Indigenous peoples, single mothers with children, seniors and veterans, says the brief.<\/p>\n

Households in \u201ccore housing need\u201d in the region range from 18 per cent in Port Colborne to four per cent in Lincoln and West Lincoln.<\/p>\n

The overall supply of rental units in Niagara and all across the province doesn\u2019t keep up with demand, says the brief. In Ontario:<\/p>\n