Adam: Ottawa Council must avoid NIMBYism on supportive housing

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At first glance, Ottawa Council’s recent vote requiring the chief housing officer to consider “the cumulative effect and community impact” of supportive housing in neighborhoods before funding such projects seems fairly benign. Just a call to ensure there are adequate support services for people moving from shelters into supportive housing in established neighborhoods.

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But if we dig a little deeper, we find a whiff of NYMBYism: a “not in my backyard” feeling that can’t be ignored. This is not what we need at a time when shelters are bursting at the seams and federal money is flowing to build affordable, supportive housing for those who need it.

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River Ward County motion. Riley Brockington was prompted by a proposal from Pastors of Good Hope for a six-storey building on Merivale Road in Carlington, intended to give 70 people a place to call home.

The project is one of 26 that the city has identified as priorities for funding from the $176 million federal Housing Accelerator Fund. Ninety per cent of the money will go towards non-profit housing, but the problem apparently is that Shepherds already has three other supportive homes in Merivale, which neighbors say are fueling crime. Adding a room, they complain, could make things worse.

“Some of my residents are responding,” Brockington says, adding that this is not a case of NYMBYism. She says there has been an increase in calls to police since Shepherds opened a third building in the neighborhood, and there needs to be a pause to consider the broader impact. “These are people who come directly from the shelter system to community residences. You need to have resources in place to help them,” she says.

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Which makes sense, but behind the request is an uncomfortable truth: many people would prefer not to have social or supportive housing among them. The reflex action of some residents who suddenly see people from shelters moving into their neighborhoods is that they are bringing crime and other social problems.

If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that many of us do not want social housing near us. We fear what an influx of people from shelters and others with all kinds of social problems will do to our lives and our property values, often with some justification. Downtown people who live near the shelters have complained for years. Not surprisingly, Carlington residents also complain about rising crime, real or imagined.

But these disadvantaged people need a place to help them get their lives back and they need support, not rejection.

Stephen Bartolo, executive director of Pastors of Good Hope, he told CBC that what the charity is trying to do, as well as help people get back on their feet, is “bust myths”. People working to return to normality do not necessarily bring crime with them, and they should be embraced and supported, not feared. “We’ve been able to look at the crime data over the last three months and it clearly shows that there is no direct correlation between Shepherds of Good Hope and crime in the area in terms of an increase when we moved in,” Bartolo says.

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Brockington stresses that he is not calling for the project to be stopped. “You don’t see me advocating for closing them,” he says, and that’s good to hear. But there may be others who don’t want such projects in their area, and the council’s directive to consider the impact on the community before funding any supportive housing could open the door to misuse. People who don’t want this type of housing in their neighborhoods now have a weapon to wield that could cause unnecessary delays, or worse, for projects.

The city’s director of social and community services, Clara Freire, calls the city council’s directive an “initial step, but not an obstacle.” Let’s hope Freire is right. Ottawa declared a housing emergency in 2020, and now that we have money to build more affordable housing, we can’t afford to let municipal politics become an impediment.

Mohamed Adam is a journalist and commentator from Ottawa. Contact him at [email protected]

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