As the federal government ramps up the billions to address the housing crisis in Canada including $6 billion to construct housing infrastructure. $1.5 billion to protect existing apartment buildings and a $15 billion apartment loan program, one would expect to see progress on the affordable housing front. In the end, the issue is not really a shortage of housing to either buy or rent but affordable housing. A glance at assorted real estate site in any city shows a large number of listings either for sale or for rent. However, when one looks at the price, it is the cost of renting or buying that stands out, not a dearth of listings.
An illustration can be made for Thunder Bay which is seeing a large number of new rental building under construction. A glance at Rent Panda reveals that some recent building projects are renting for some pretty hefty prices. Take for example the two north side rentals in Thunder Bay shown below – 80 Junot which is essentially adjacent to the Picton Street area and across from an EMS station – and 312 Crossbow – which is in a prime north side neighbourhood. Location aside, both of these new build rental units are two bedrooms and two baths and rent for $2450 and $2400 a month respectively – utilities not included. Two people earning minimum wage together could expect to earn at best close to $60,000 a year. The rent alone will take up nearly half of their gross income, never mind the utilities.
Perhaps, south side rents are less? Well the accompanying slide shows that a new build two bedroom one bath on Mary Street near Neebing Avenue is going for $2,300 a month though it includes water as a utility but likely not hydro. I guess we could argue that these are all new builds and maybe we should settle for something older. Well, a three bedroom one bath house on East Christina Street on the south side is renting for $2400 a month.
The point here is that there is housing available for rent and some of it is new and quite nice but at $2300 and upwards a month and often excluding utilities, it is not affordable housing given the average incomes in Thunder Bay. Median household income in Thunder Bay is just shy of $80,000 a year which means that half of households earn less than this. At these rental prices, these below median income households will see close to half of their household income go to rent and utilities. This is not affordable housing. This is not geared to income or social housing. This is where the shortage lies not only in Thunder Bay but across the country.