Politicians Need to Engage The Housing Crisis

Jeff Green | Oct 27, 2021

One of the unexpected impacts of COVID has been a leap in property values, even in more remote, non-waterfront locations.

This has created opportunities for many and wealth for some, but it has also had a dark side, creating a whole class of people who are either homeless, or living in very precarious housing, due to a shortage of rental units, and increased rental fees, for the few units that are still available.

Our local municipalities are not equipped to deal with poverty, or with a housing crisis.  

Until 1998, social services, including what were then called welfare payments and are now called Ontario Works payments, were a service provided by local Frontenac municipalities.

Under the amalgamation order that created the new Frontenac municipalities (South, Central, and North Frontenac and Frontenac Islands) the City of Kingston became the Consolidated Service Manager (CSM) for social services in Frontenac County.

Since then, apart from hearing once a year from a manager from the City of Kingston about how much money will be levied to the Frontenac County budget in the following year for housing supports, Ontario Works, and Daycare subsidies, Frontenac County politicians have little to do with social services for their residents.

In many ways this has been a reasonable arrangement because much of what happens with social service supports is a strictly bureaucratic process under provincial rules. Since Kingston is already doing the work for their own residents it makes sense for them to cover Frontenac County. It saved setting up a social services department for only 27,000 residents, most of whom are not in need of assistance.

Ruth Noordegraf, the Manager of Social Services and Housing for Kingston, reported to Frontenac County last week that the average monthly caseload for Ontario Works in Frontenac County in 2021 was 193, a decrease from the year before, as people have been accessing CERB this year.

As to the social housing portfolio, there are currently 55 units in Frontenac County, after McMullen Manor burned down in January. Two Frontenac County based organisations, Loughborough Housing and North Frontenac Housing, manage most of the units, and the Kingston-Frontenac Housing Corporation, which owned and operated McMullen Manor, is committed to rebuilding it, but the timeframe is unknown.

All of the money that flows into social housing in Frontenac County is administered by the City of Kingston.

Homelessness services are also managed by the City of Kingston for Frontenac County. Until two years ago, Southern Frontenac Community Services had the contract to deliver a basket of supports to Frontenac County residents to help them stay in their homes and help people find housing, but it backed out of the program, which is now run by the Salvation Army, who opened an office in Verona a year ago.

When he was a member of Frontenac County Council, John McDougall spent a lot of time and energy trying to provide a rural perspective to the Kingston-Frontenac Housing Corporation, but he found it frustrating because the needs in Kingston, which are severe, were the focus for the corporation.

Now that Frontenac County is facing a much more widespread housing crisis than before, as are many municipalities throughout the province, Frontenac County politicians need to step forward to find new ways to support their constituents who are in need.

But they are at a deficit because they have no background to draw upon.

Whether at the township or at the county level, taking on the housing crisis is something that Frontenac County politicians need to do, because there is no one else.

Municipal politicians in other jurisdictions, including the City of Kingston, are not going to do it for us. They have their own residents to look after.