Any new strategy for Ontario’s long-term affordable housing should include a proper funding source for municipalities to administer the units, and a streamlined process for government to address the province’s housing needs.

These were a few of the suggestions that came out of a Liberalsponsored forum held last week at the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Resurrection on Upper Wentworth.

The Liberals have been holding a series of public meetings throughout the summer listening to suggestions as they develop a new long-term strategy for affordable housing.

“We need to find pragmatic, affordable solutions,” said Liberal MPP Mario Sergi, York West, a member of the committee that held the session. “This is fundamental to breaking the cycle of poverty.”

The province has about $1.2 billion from the federal government to fund affordable housing projects over the next five years. Hamilton this summer received $7.1 million for an 81-unit housing development on the Mountain, and $3.3 million for a 48-unit development in Stoney Creek.

The strategy is part of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s plan to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent within five years.

Bob Wood of McQuesten Legal and Community Services, one of the estimated 130 people to turn out to the nearly three-hour event, said any affordable housing strategy must contain “flexible” regulations to accommodate the varying problems people may have. In addition, government itself must eliminate the departmental “silos” that create programs that sometimes work at cross-purposes for people seeking shelter. And, he said there needs to be better affordable housing stock constructed in Hamilton.

Jeff Wingard, senior social planner at the Social Planning and Research Council, agreed government needs to streamline its resources, suggesting that a new “super ministry of housing” is required within the provincial government.

“They are not talking to each other,” he said.

The government must also provide the proper resources to the people who need housing the most.

“We are building rental housing” he said. “We need affordability.”

Adi Irani of A. J. C. Clarke and Associates and the Hamilton Halton Home Builders Association, who also participated in the session, argued any strategy needs to be workable. He said it may not be necessary to build more affordable housing. Instead, with a vacancy rate of about 17 per cent in Hamilton, the goal may be to encourage people to take market rental units, while providing landlords with a portion of the funding.

Other ideas people discussed included providing incentives for people to own homes.

Hamilton East-Stoney Creek NDP MPP Paul Miller said while he was sympathetic to crafting the new document to improve affordable housing, he was suspicious of the motives of the Liberals.

He pointed out the majority of the locations for the 14 meetings are being held in Liberal ridings that barely won NDP challenges. Some of the locations included North Bay, Hamilton Mountain, Windsor, Sudbury, Ottawa, London, and York Region.

“There are no NDP or Conservative ridings,” he said. “The venues they chose are familiar territory.”

Mr. Miller pointed the meetings are tightly-controlled — two Hamilton Police Service officers attended the event — and the questions people debate are provided for them by Liberal officials.

Mr. Miller wonders what type of response the politicians would get if they held one of the meetings in the Riverdale area in his riding which has the second highest poverty rate behind Toronto in the province, or downtown Hamilton. The Liberals, he said, still have failed to build enough affordable housing in Ontario. There are, he said, up to 7,000 units short.

“They haven’t fulfilled their promises,” he said.

Hamilton Mountain Liberal MPP Sophia Aggelonitis, in whose riding the meeting was held, said she didn’t know anything about how the venues were selected. But she said the people who attended the Hamilton event were well-known housing advocates from across the city, including the lower city. “

This is the first time at any time the provincial government is developing a strategy for affordable housing,” she said.

A report from the public meetings is expected to be ready for the Legislature by next spring, said Mr. Sergi.