„Sie waren nur eine Hölle“: Bürgermeister kämpfte gegen Ottawa über „wirklich verlassenes“ Wohnmandat

Complaining about fourplexes is something else…

*A big copy/paste blurb I like to do on housing*

Something as foundational and fundamental as housing in our society should never be this fucked up. The fact we have housing and groceries in crisis is sickening. There is a reason why almost all experts talk about „Housing First!“ as a huge solution to so many of the problems our society faces right now.

Also larger post on important policy areas:

Housing is primarily an area of provincial and municipal governance. You can do some things at federal level though to support this and we have seen: GST removal for new apartment builds, CMHC standardized blue prints to speed up approvals, Loans to developers to make sure that building projects continue in high interest rate environments and other factors that usually slow down development, incentives to municipalities to get them to approve the right zoning/density projects.

What provinces and city councils need to work on:

1. Zoning/density reform – This is the most important. We need to get medium and more importantly high density housing when and how we need it without delay and without NIMBY interests holding back progress!
2. We need micro spaces. These should not be all that is built but having housing that people can fall back on and build up from is important! This provides protection and affordability/accessibility for vulnerable people like the elderly, low income workers, students, and those fleeing domestic abuse situations, amongst others. It costs a lot more when people and families fall completely through the cracks!
3. Ban on short term rentals – The supply needs to be on the long term rental/ownership market and this needs STRONG enforcement/punishments.
4. Ban on vacant investment housing – Housing is meant to be lived in not kept empty as a financial commodity. Again STRONG enforcements and punishments.
5. We need to address city planning, regulations, and unproductive bureaucracy to make sure that affordability and accessibility of housing is the #1 priority in society. We also need to focus on supply/demand dynamics as need to make sure supply is always at a certain level at all price ranges to make sure a healthy housing environment exists! Focusing on supply side dimensions is beyond important! Great video on this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX_-UcC14xw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX_-UcC14xw)
6. Focus on not-for-profit models! Co-op housing for example provides not just affordability and accessibility it helps with other costs in society. It helps with a built in support network for seniors and other vulnerable differently abled demographics. It helps with the mental health/loneliness epidemic in our urban and metro environments. It saves us money as a society and promotes housing! It is a win win!!

All in all there is so much we can do to help 🙂

We just have to get those that are profiting from the status quo/problems out from controlling the discussions and narratives in those discussions!

Also shout out to the First Nations project Sen̓áḵw which is showing a great focus on sustainable urbanism – green urbanism and high priority on affordability/accessibility! It is big ideas/projects like this that need to be our focus for the future!