With a dire need for housing options for moderate-income earners, city council has endorsed a plan to bring more attainable housing options to Orillia.
The Housing Attainable Supply Action Plan (Housing ASAP) was put together in partnership with the City of Orillia and the County of Simcoe, and council lent its support, in principle, to the plan at a recent council meeting.
Following a housing needs assessment, public engagement, and a review of best practices, the plan puts forward 21 recommended action items over the next five years to help bring more privately built attainable housing to the city.
The county defines attainable housing as “rental or ownership housing that is adequate in condition, appropriate in size, available, and affordable to households with incomes between 80 per cent and 120 per cent of median area income,” and the housing needs assessment found a strong need for attainable options in the city.
The average household income of homeowners is $88,275 (2016), and it is $42,357 (2016) for renters in the city.
The threshold for attainable home ownership in Orillia is between $214,902 and $310,657 for moderate-income earners ($64,942 to $93,879), against an average resale price of $669,983 in the city as of May 2023 — far exceeding what a moderate-income earner can afford in the city.
Similarly, rental affordability thresholds for income earners from $44,620 to $63,175 is between $1,116 and $1,579, against the average $1,850 monthly price for a one-bedroom apartment and $2,567 monthly price for a single-detached home as of May 2023.
As a result, 8.5 per cent of Orillia homeowners and 40.8 per cent of renters are in core housing need, meaning their accommodations are not affordable, adequate, or suitable in size.
“These are really working families and individuals who have decent incomes but increasingly fewer housing options,” said Josh MacLeod, an associate with N. Barry Lyon Consultants. “These are our teachers, our nurses, our food and beverage staff, people who are really important members of all of our communities.”
Across the 21 recommended actions, four were listed as priority items to pursue in closing the gap and bringing more private-market, attainable housing options to the city:
- Creating a development navigator program to facilitate priority housing, through fast-tracking attainable housing projects with dedicated staff, and more;
- Creating a public land program and candidate sites catalogue;
- Updating the planning framework to support new housing development; and
- Simplifying the development process and fast-tracking priority projects.
The recommended actions are organized into five broad categories, ranging from financial to advocacy initiatives, with MacLeod noting all levels of government will have to come together to solve the issue.
“Municipalities can only do so much on their own,” he said. “It’s the province and the feds that really have more power from a financial perspective, from a taxation perspective, from a revenue-generating perspective, so we need more active participation from them if we’re going to be solving a lot of these really big issues.”
Following the presentation, Coun. Jay Fallis highlighted the wide gap between what’s attainable to moderate-income earners and what’s available in the city.
“Those (attainable) prices no longer really exist in Orillia, so it does show how out of reach … housing is for a lot of people,” he said. “That really does paint a picture in terms of the issues that we’re dealing with in Orillia and how much these types of initiatives and plans are needed.”
The full report may be read in the July 15 council agenda.
