Housing affordability: What does it mean for Windsor-Essex?

As the high cost of housing continues to create increased stress for families, forcing some people into homelessness, the County of Essex and City of Windsor are in the midst of a collaboration to develop an affordable housing strategy.

In June, the Ontario government released its definitions of affordable housing for every municipality in the province.

The definition is broken down by housing type and location across the entire province.

In Windsor, a detached house would need to be sold at $301,800 for it to be considered an affordable home. The province lists the affordable monthly rent of a bachelor unit at $841, a one-bedroom unit at $1,042, a two-bedroom unit at $1,227 and a three-bedroom unit at $1,273.

Keith Whittal, the city's executive director of housing, said there are "a lot of layers" to what's now called affordable housing. 

"One of them would be non-market housing … the need for housing that would require subsidy or people just need a little bit of income, or maybe it's tied to a certain amount of income you make and that's what you pay in rent," Whittal told CBC's Windsor Morning.

"But you also have what I would call 'attainable' or affordable housing in the sense of ownership. So, you see a lot [of people] in the community saying, 'Hey single-family homes are $500,000, that's not affordable.'" 

Whittal said hearing these concerns from the community serves as an impetus to look at what more can be done by the city in terms of volume and getting more homes built.

According to Whittal, the city has seen the cost of building affordable housing "increase significantly."

Using the Meadowbrook condominium complex in the city's east end — which started in 2019 — as an example, he said it had a price tag of approximately $300,000 per unit.

"Right now, if you have to acquire land and [are] potentially building, you're almost getting close to $400,000 or $500,000 a unit," he said.

Jeanie Diamond-Francis, manager of community services for the County of Essex, said the need for affordable housing in the county is "consistently" growing.

"The latest numbers of people experiencing homelessness in the region are over 900, and that is only capturing people that are experiencing homelessness," Diamond-Francis told CBC News.

"It does not capture the amount of people that are living with family, that are couch-surfing, or that are young professionals unable to purchase housing due to affordability issues."