From: Caroline Taylor
To: Fabio Costante < fcostante@citywindsor.ca>; Rino Bortolin < rbortolin@citywindsor.ca>; Chris Holt < cholt@citywindsor.ca>; Fred Francis < ffrancis@citywindsor.ca>; jmorrison@citywindsor.ca < jmorrison@citywindsor.ca>; Gignac Jo-Anne (Councillor) < joagignac@citywindsor.ca>; esleiman@citywindsor.ca < esleiman@citywindsor.ca>; Kieran Mckenzie < kmckenzie@citywindsor.ca>; Gary Kaschak < gkaschak@citywindsor.ca>; mayor@citywindsor.ca < mayor@citywindsor.ca>
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2020, 10:00:46 PM EDT
Subject: Air B&B Regulation and Licensing
Dear Mayor and members of council,
In regards to October 19/20 agenda item 11.2 I am writing to comment on the status of our unregulated rental housing.
Windsor remains one of the only cities with the cheapest real estate in the country but this is changing. In the past decade our housing prices have doubled. Windsor has seen an increase in the value of our real estate by 30% in the last year alone. Some believe this is a wonderful thing to happen in our city. I do not agree. Our homes, our households are being turned into a commodity. Our housing market is being bought and sold by outside investment only looking to make profit with no care to our neighbourhoods, our community, our city.
When homes come up for sale outside investors are at the door looking to overbid our local first time home buyers forcing these young families into a rental when they’d sooner be owning their own home. This perpetual overbidding on every home is causing a sellers market which increases the value of our homes. This is causing unaffordability for our local residents as Windsor’s housing market being is priced out. This in turn causes Windsor’s rents to go through the roof and could very well be leading to a portion of our city’s homeless population. And there are no regulations. There is nothing to dissuade these industrious overzealous outside investors from using our real estate as their own personal commodity to be bought and sold for investment purposes only. Do you live beside a rental? Are there rentals on your block? It’s been estimated more than 30% of Windsor’s housing stock is for rent.
Whose more important.? Our young local families looking to buy their first home, homeowners who have invested in their own neighbourhoods or out of town investors trying to make a buck off of our cheap real estate?
Right now the city’s unregulated rentals are decimating neighbourhoods with dirty yards, and unmaintained properties. These are not appealing. It’s widely believed tourists are attracted to cities made up of vibrant neighbourhoods. Windsor can be such a city. One which a traveler would flock to.