Newsletter: September-October 2023
ALL HANDS ON DECK FOR HOUSING
At some recent events we’ve had the privilege of attending, including the Bracebridge Rotary Club lunch and the RTO12/Explorer’s Edge Regional Tourism Summit, we were struck by how many different people and organizations across Muskoka are working on affordable housing. The work these organizations are putting into local solutions and innovative partnerships is a testament to the level of collaboration that’s possible, and we’re excited to participate.
CMHC estimates that Canada needs 5.8 million total homes built by 2030 to restore affordability, and as Mike Moffat, Founding Director of the PLACE Centre and co-author of the National Housing Accord writes,
We are in a crisis, and a war-time-like effort is needed. The federal government must prioritize speed and act now.
-Mike Moffatt, The HUB Viewpoint, August 2023
In Muskoka, there is an estimated 2,755 homes needed to fix the 2021 housing deficit, and with the population expected to grow by 27% by 2046, we need to build homes more rapidly than our current rate of approximately 366 permanent homes per year.
MCLT NEWS
MCLT Receives Seed Funding from the District of Muskoka
We are pleased to receive seed funding to the MCLT to develop the operational capacity necessary to become self-funding within the next two years.
From the MCLT Blog: Housing as a Commodity by Christopher Jordan-Stevens
If we don't start thinking about housing as a social good first and foremost...we are prudent to prepare to live in an increasingly unaffordable and exclusionary Canada.
MCLT Presents to the Bracebridge Rotary Club
We were pleased to join the Rotary Club’s weekly lunch and present the MCLT’s vision for affordable housing in Bracebridge. When housing is affordable, appropriate, and adequate, people have the capacity to give back to their community.
Canada's First Community Land Trust Census
In 2023, the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts partnered with Dr. Jason Spicer at the University of Toronto to carry out the first census of all active community land trusts in Canada.
MCLT + G.R.E.A.T. Webinars are Happening Monthly
Since July, we’ve presented the overview of our work to 62 people, with many more to come. If you haven’t had a chance to attend yet, our next one will be on October 30th.
GET INVOLVED
Calling all volunteers!
If you have the capacity to spend your time on community building, we’re in need of people for our Huntsville and Bracebridge committees, who are working hard planning and developing the Florence Street Micro-Community and the Arena Lands Initiatives, the Education and Outreach committee, our Board of Directors, and anywhere else you have the talent, time, and expertise to get involved.
Applications are open and we’re looking forward to serving with you.
REGISTER YOUR RENT
Vivre en Ville has launched the Rental Registry, an open data platform that aims to preserve affordability in the residential market by providing access to important rent information. While the registry is built with the goal that governments will publish the information they already have, right now it’s a crowd-sourced data platform, which means that the quality of the data depends on you.
If you look up Muskoka in the registry, you can see that there’s pretty thin information about rents in our region…and if you currently rent you can change that! Head to The Rental Registry to:
Register a rent and other information about a unit being rented (like monthly electricity charges, permission to have pets and other unit characteristics)
View all listed rents, which are derived from surveys and user listings
Learn about your rights as a tenant in Ontario.