Response from Shirley Dixon:

There is no quick fix for the housing crisis.  We need to work with the federal and provincial governments, and with advocacy groups, to develop a long-term affordable housing strategy.  Several other agencies and municipalities have already done significant work on this area (Richmond BC, Capital Region District BC, Ontario Professional Planners Institute), and our process should take that existing work into account.  Our approach should be holistic (ie, not viewing housing in isolation from other issues) and community based (ie, including the participation and input of those who will be directly affected).

Aspects of that policy could include:

• establishing clear annual and multi-year construction targets
• the use of regulatory tools and possibly tax exemptions to support affordable housing
• encouraging or requiring condominium and rental development projects to incorporate a percentage of social housing units
• the development of a Regina Affordable Housing Registry

There is significant merit in combining different classes of housing, to ensure that subsidized social housing does not become ghettoized or perceived to be ghettoized.  Projects which would include both low-end market housing and subsidized housing, for example, minimize the likelihood of residents being stigmatized.  Ensuring the availability of essential services - both public (ie, transit service) and private (ie, grocery stores) - will make such developments more sustainable.  The policy should also provide for subsidized renters and low-end market renters to be able to aspire to home ownership.

In the short term, City Council needs to be more rigorous in enforcing the condominium conversion policy.  Despite the city's current policy of prohibiting condominium conversions when the rental vacancy rate is low, it is far too easy for developers to get exempted.