By Vivian Collings

Housing, housing, housing

How many times is that word in today’s paper?

Short-term rentals, transitional housing, affordable housing, a lack thereof.

Council’s approval to allow additional dwelling units on some developed lots in Dysart will help a bit.

It’s put a couple of bricks down in the foundation.

But there’s still not enough to go around.

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation says the whole country needs 35 million housing units built before 2030 to restore real estate affordability.

If current immigration levels are sustained, that’s four million. 

Three million more would be needed if the economy tanks.

The population keeps growing, and there isn’t enough supply to keep up, making it more expensive to build and buy.

Haliburton isn’t an exception.

Our population grew by 14 per cent between 2016 and 2021 and continues to climb.

Of course we know the wealth gap in the county is huge. 

Million dollar mansions are going up next to people who have aluminium car roofs as their only shelter in Haliburton’s four seasons.

So I shouldn’t say there isn’t enough to go around in general, there isn’t enough to go around for those needing “affordable” options.

But guess what?

We can’t label “affordable” as low-income anymore.

Twenty five per cent of Haliburton County households are spending 30 per cent or more of their income on shelter.

From the last housing assessment for the county, 562 households were on the waiting list for social housing.

Thirty people or families identified as being homeless. Eighty per cent of those households marked their situation as acute.

At the end of this week, Places for People’s Sleeping in Cars initiative will show 40+ people what it’s like to be in that situation for just one night.

Nataly Mylan, the fundraiser’s organizer, said the area’s homeless situation isn’t improving.

Places for People is doing everything they can to maintain their own housing units, “but it’s so hard to acquire more.”

Sleeping in Cars is a fundraiser to help with some of the costs of their already-existing units, but Mylan said, more importantly, it’s to raise awareness about who is homeless and why and to seek solutions.

With minimum wage at $16.55 an hour in Ontario, Haliburton County’s living wage is at $20.60 an hour.

This means an individual must make $20.60 cover the cost of housing and still have enough to put gas in the car and food in the fridge.

It’s no wonder minimum wage jobs aren’t being filled.

The $16.55 might be okay for a high school student living at home, but adults can’t make a living off of it.

And even then, those students have to afford to live on their own in a couple of years.

I recently read about one Canadian student who lives at home but flies to school every week and stays in a hotel for a few days. They calculated it to be cheaper than paying for rent at their university.

We have to make sure this is an ongoing conversation.

Visit Head Lake Park on Friday night to join in.

Awareness is the first step to change, after all.