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Barrie council to hear recommendations to address housing crisis

City of Barrie, Ont., housing (Siobhan Morris/CTV News) City of Barrie, Ont., housing (Siobhan Morris/CTV News)
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Housing affordability will be at the top of the list Monday when Barrie city council meets for the first time in 2022.

The city’s Housing and Affordability Task Force is set to deliver its final report to council with two key areas of focus – land availability and funding for supportive and subsidized housing.

The task force has come up with a list of recommendations to address rising housing costs that include changing zoning bylaws and increasing density on existing projects.

“In our community, through forces beyond their control, there are regular working people who are losing their homes and being pushed into homelessness as a result,” it read in the Housing and Affordability Task Force’s final report.

“Housing is a fundamental need and should be reasonably accessible to all citizens. A foundational place to call home and feel safe is at the core of our mental and physical health, our ability to support each other, and to participate in society and the economy.”

In the report, the task force puts some blame on the coronavirus pandemic and outlines how it’s impacted other areas of rising costs.

“The last half of 2021 has seen substantial escalations of both the cost of real estate (36 per cent year over year in 2021, according to CREA data), increases in the cost of construction materials (20-40 per cent) as well as supply chain delays, worsened further by a crisis in skilled trades’ availability,” it read.

Barrie Ward 3 councillor Ann-Marie Kungl sits on the task force and said the report focuses on housing affordability for all walks of life and not just those on low-income support.

"This is really about different types of options and build designs that can actually move quickly around being implemented and be a more affordable option,” Kungl said.

Kungl said she's optimistic concrete actions will be taken this year, and emphasizes that it is a priority across all levels of government.

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