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North Bay City Council gave its full backing to a motion advocating for government assistance in funding a unique local rent arrears program.
See original story: Council motion seeks funding support to 'avert major homelessness crisis'
Coun. George Maroosis, who over his 30-plus year career has vast experience with various organizations in matters pertaining to social issues, tabled the motion and presented his colleagues with a harrowing picture.
"When you are getting into a situation where you are having this unprecedented number of evictions that are sitting on the sheriff's desk, we're not just talking about 'probable' — we're talking about evictions that can be executed the minute the premier lifts that order of no eviction," Maroosis said during Tuesday's regular meeting.
"Just imagine the number of people that could end up homeless in this community," he added. "We have problems enough housing the homeless. That's another story for another day. Now, what we're talking about is preventing homelessness."
With Council's approval, the resolution will now be forwarded to representatives of the federal and provincial governments to lobby for financing for the rent arrears program proposed to DNSSAB in late March by Lana Mitchell, Executive Director of Low Income People Involvement of Nipissing (LIPI) and Tricia Marshall, President of the Near North Landlords Association (NNLA).
"I'm not here asking the City of North Bay for money," said Maroosis. "The City gets levied by the DNSSAB and we're hoping that's not going to happen to help pay for housing. You are reminded the DNSSAB is short 232 rental units that are on their books. That is somewhere north of $40 million that could be demanded at some time by the province — if they felt it was the responsibility of the DNSSAB to provide units — especially in the homelessness crisis."
Coun. Mark King — as Maroosis once did — also serves as DNSSAB Chair and sees the complex issues of housing and homelessness from the board's perspective, as well. The funding this resolution is advocating for would enable DNSSAB to become a partner in the rent arrears program, although he noted partial funding of the original ask of approximately $500,000 could be allocated to the rent arrears program through the board later this week.
"We've designated a fair bit of social services funding from the provincial government to homelessness [in this city]," said King, "as it spirals into what I consider to be a crisis."
King added, "We are short affordable housing. We've tried everything over the last number of years to leverage money that should be coming from both the province and the federal government. It's my feeling that property taxpayers here in the City of North Bay should not be subject to a levy for the homeless."
In supporting the motion, Coun. Scott Robertson differentiated between the issues of "chronic homelessness" and "rent arrears" and stressed advocacy from around the table is also needed for the bigger picture. "I see this as a short-term solution to an immediate problem. I don't see this as any type of medium- or long-term solution to this affordable housing crisis in our city and our district."
"It is very important for us to consider the problem of housing in our community," warned Maroosis, noting approximately 80 per cent of the District of Nipissing housing units are located in North Bay. He provided some updated housing data gleaned from the rent arrears program and shared with his colleagues there are approximately 11,800 rental units in the district, of which 2,275 are District of Nipissing social housing units.
"When you do the math, you can see that the private sector is the big player in housing people in rental units," he observed. "As a municipality, we need to keep the private sector engaged. Quite frankly, it would cost us millions of dollars if the private sector were to retreat even 10 or 15 or 20 per cent."
Maroosis feels strongly the private sector is doing its part by agreeing to participate in the rent arrears program in which LIPI will act as a trustee in helping tenants and landlords reach repayment agreements. He said the program has drawn interest from several municipalities, including Greater Sudbury, on how to tackle rent arrears in those communities.
"It's amazing the private sector is stepping up for one-third. They want to find a solution for this, they don't want to put people out on the street. There are many good tenants who have paid their rent in the past who are in arrears."
