Response from Heather McIntyre:

The city of Regina must address the issue of access to affordable housing.  Housing is a basic and fundamental need.  It also plays a key role in determining the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities and the overall economy.

I believe that in order to address this problem, all three levels of governments – municipal provincial and federal – need to work together to develop a comprehensive housing strategy.  More importantly, this strategy must be accompanied by a long-term funding framework. 

According to a recent on housing and homelessness released by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the main impediment to addressing the issues of homelessness and affordable housing is the expiry of all federal social housing funding programs in March 2009.  Therefore, in order to make real progress on the issue, we must ensure that both the federal and provincial governments make a commitment to long-term, predictable and sustained funding levels.

While ongoing federal and provincial funding is extremely important, municipalities also play an important role.  Municipalities must work with both business and community stakeholders to develop (or update) local action plans on housing and homelessness such as the Regina Community Plan 2007: A Home for All.  Municipalities can ensure that local policies and programs are in place to address barriers to affordable housing.  The city should work with community/neighborhood associations and must consider how urban planning, building regulation, access to affordable public transit may impact access to affordable housing. City administrations should consider taking action to ensure that landlords maintain their property to meet standards, to stop rent gouging and to control condo conversions.