Victor Pietrangelo admits he was taken aback when he saw jarring numbers on just how much income a family in Niagara Falls would need to be able to afford an average home.
With home prices in the city skyrocketing by 53 per cent in the last year and a half since the pandemic hit, and monthly rent also heading upward, the City of Niagara Falls has embarked on a plan to look at ways to increase the supply of affordable housing in the city.
City council recently received a housing needs and supply report with an accompanying staff report. A second study is on its way soon with a housing strategy that will have short-, medium- and long-term policy directions on how the city can reach a target of 40 per cent of new housing being affordable.
Calling that ambitious is an understatement: the plan will no doubt require numerous incentives to nudge developers toward building more affordable units.
OUT OF REACH: Niagara’s housing crisis
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Consultants presented statistics showing the average household income before tax in the city is $75,678 and almost half of all households in the city report a before-tax income of less than $60,000 a year. Brian Dick, planner with the city’s planning department, said no less than 40 per cent of the city’s jobs are in the accommodation, food services and retail sectors that typically are lower paying.
The consultants said in order to afford a new home, a household in the city would need an income of about $87,800.
Pietrangelo, a city councillor elected as chair of a new affordable housing committee set up by city council, finds that sobering.
“I was very shocked at the dollar value, in how much you had to make,” he said in an interview. “That was quite an eye-opener.”
The consultants are recommending the city look at more flexible planning rules to reduce the barriers to creating housing, that it explore opportunities for partnerships for creating more affordable housing, and provide incentives for more such housing.
Consultant Ryan Taylor said a survey conducted of residents showed how worried many people are about housing.
Comments received ranged from “we both work full-time and can’t afford to live here,” to “at this rate, I will never be able to afford a home” and “it’s impossible to find anywhere reasonable.”
Taylor said “it became clear that a lot of our responses reflected fear, frustration and hopelessness in terms of the housing situation of many people living in the city.”
Brandi Johnson of Niagara Falls can attest to that, after her landlord opted to sell the home she lives in at a time when many rental homeowners are cashing in on the huge price increases of homes.
She was in a race to try to find a new home in the two months she was given, but was having trouble finding anything affordable. The stress left her unable to sleep and suffering panic attacks, she said.
“It’s been super hard on me,” she said. “I feel something needs to be done about it.”
Dick said in his recent report that the city’s population of just shy of 97,000 is expected to grow substantially, to as much as 141,650 people, in the next 30 years, according to the region’s growth projections — which would require 20,220 new units of housing to be built.
That gives city council a fairly narrow window of opportunity to dramatically ramp up how much affordable housing there is in a city where the dramatic rise in homes has put affordable housing beyond the reach of much of the city’s huge service and hospitality sector workforce.
Pietrangelo said turning the tide will require overcoming stubborn stigma attached to affordable housing.
“It will also require all levels of government working together,” he said.
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With home prices soaring, This Week looked at what that means in terms of affordability in Niagara Falls.
