August 24, 2020

Item 7.3

Additional Information

Address to City Council by Kael Sharman, a resident and owner of a single-family home in Ward 2 for the last 5 years.

Speaking to the issue 7.3. Response to CQ10-2019 Regarding Housing Development and Regulation in NearCampus Neighbourhoods - City Wide (C 137/2020) on August 24, 2020

Windsor is being exploited by outside real estate investment that turns single family houses into room rentals and bleeds money from the local economy. It is the duty of council to address this issue on behalf of all Windsorites.

The issue of ROOMING HOUSES in Ward 2 (and increasingly in other wards) reflects a housing market that poses barriers to affordable housing. I know this because I have friends who can’t afford to rent an apartment alone (THEY ARE NOT STUDENTS); because I have friends who purchased a home jointly out of sheer necessity (THEY ARE NOT STUDENTS); and because of my own experience trying to purchase a home to live in in Ward 2 (I AM NOT A STUDENT). But the private student housing market has had a direct impact on all our lives.

Community Challenges

In our neighborhood, you can feel everywhere the contempt for absentee landlords and for the power structures that enable them. This contempt reflects absentee landlords’ own contempt for the needs of their tenants and neighbours. All this contempt breeds disrespect for the neighborhood itself. It erodes a sense of community and pride in the place where people live. In Ward 2, crime, vandalism, and addiction issues demonstrate the strain on mental health and well-being. These are Windsor residents of ALL types – NOT JUST STUDENTS !!!!

The rent that is paid to out-of-town landlords flows to other cities. Does council know how much income from Windsor residents is paid to outside real estate investors each month? Sure, you might collect property taxes from these owners, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to the dollars that flow out of our city each month, in rent, to investors who live in larger cities. That money would otherwise stay in our city, where it could be spent on locally-owned affordable housing and on local businesses and services. And outside investors are driving up housing prices, and rent, well beyond what working people can pay. Outside real estate investment is exploiting Windsorites, and it’s got to stop.

My personal experience

I chose to purchase a home in Ward 2 because I want to be part of the solution. I hoped that I could buy one of the many homes that rental speculators have run-down, and rehabilitate it for my family. But in fact, if a home had a history of room rentals, vandalism, or security issues due to short term renting, no mortgage insurance company would agree to insure a mortgage for that property. The only way I could purchase a home with that sort of history was to come up with at least a 20% down payment on a house whose price was already inflated due to its investment potential—and like most working Windsorites, I couldn’t afford that.

Here’s the bind: outside real estate speculators can afford to buy single-family homes from working Windsorites, but working Windsorites can’t afford to buy those houses back—not even after these properties have been damaged. Mortgage insurance policies mean that the flow of property