In search of relief from the ongoing housing crisis, Mayor Cam Guthrie is open to considering just about anything within the city’s control to ease the financial pressure being felt by current and prospective residents.
It’s with this in mind that he’s calling for a special gathering of city council to hear from municipal staff about what’s been done and what work is underway to spur local housing development, followed by a brainstorming session aimed at increasing those efforts.
“I really believe that we can do more at the city level,” said Guthrie, listing off examples such as hiring more staff to work with housing development applicants, reviewing city lands for potential sale for housing and providing a financial incentive for the creation of affordable housing units.
“Those are all things that are in our lane,” Guthrie said, referring to things that are within the city’s realm of responsibility.
A special council workshop is tentatively scheduled for the evening of June 22.
According to rental website Zumper, the average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Guelph listed on its platform grew 62 per cent between mid-2019 and mid-2023.
We’re in a #HousingCrisis & no longer can we hope for the best. Hoping won’t create change, nor make us accountable. That’s why I’m calling an emergency meeting to discuss ideas to help the citizens of #Guelph. I’d like to thank @MikePMoffatt for providing me with many stats: pic.twitter.com/g87nu8g7iu
— Mayor Cam Guthrie (@CamGuthrie) June 12, 2023
“Any ideas from anyone to help us with the housing crisis, to help us consider ways to help with this crisis, we’re not closed-minded to it. Certainly I’m not,” said Guthrie, adding he doesn’t see it as productive to focus on what the development community and/or upper-tier governments could do.
“Even though those statements are correct and truthful, I want us to be focused on ‘what can we control, what municipal levers can we pull to be able to help with the housing crisis that we are in.’
“I want to be laser focused on what we, as a city, can do more than we’re already doing.”
Earlier this week, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce publicly released a letter addressed to city officials calling for the appointment of a housing commissioner to “collaboratively build out the plan” for housing; ensure emergency housing infrastructure is in place for at-risk individuals by this fall; and work with the University of Guelph and Habitat for Humanity to accelerate new and affordable housing projects.
The letter, signed by people representing a variety of businesses and organizations within the community, also calls for the city to work with developers to “change the focus of approvals from ‘who’s to blame’ to ‘what’s the next step’ in order to accelerate the pipeline of projects.”
The housing crisis is top-of-mind for everybody these days, said Guthrie.
“It doesn’t surprise me to see different stakeholders in the community, not just the chamber, trying to wade into the situation,” he said, pointing out many of the chamber's members are in the development industry. “They, too, can play a part in the housing crisis.”
The mayor said he’s seeing various groups positioning themselves around the issue that’s “not helpful” in finding solutions.
“I’m trying, as the mayor, to bring us together and to lead through collaboration and trying to focus everybody on solutions,” he added.
Ideas that flow from the workshop are to be investigated by city staff, with a report and recommendations to council for consideration in July.
