by Shannon Lee Mannion
Some Almonte residents are not revelling in the bright sun and blue skies we anticipate with the coming of spring. Instead, they are caught up in the maelstrom that is social housing in Almonte.
One family of five is losing their long-term townhome because the landlord is selling his property. Despite being on the centralized wait list for eight years, Nour el Tarsha and her husband are very concerned about what will happen in a couple of months when they have to move. With three children in school, their family income is barely enough to make ends meet so market rent is hardly an option.
The waiting list for rent geared to income (RGI) housing where tenants pay 30% of their income for rent is managed by Lanark County Housing. It continues to grow steadily as additional residents qualify and their names are added to the roughly 500 households listed at present. There are 527 RGI units managed by Lanark County Housing of which five are designated as affordable or 80% of market rent.
With few vacancies arising and a burgeoning waitlist, this is a situation that appears doomed to fail. Even with an additional 182 RGI units across the county managed by several Non-Profit Housing Providers, there are few chances of any of these freeing up to accommodate any of the people on the waitlist, some of whom have been biding their time for up to ten years.
Sharron Liberty, 77, has been sleeping in a friend’s spare room for the past two years. She is on the list for a studio or one-bedroom unit but she says that it may come down to her and her dog ending up on a street corner before she is actually considered for housing.
Ditto another senior whose landlord is angling to oust them from their one-bedroom apartment of six years because they well-know that given the current rental crunch, substituting one tenant for another can net a hefty increase as there is nothing stopping landlords from adding hundreds of dollars to what a former tenant was paying.
Some even double the rent if they think they can get it. And in many cases, they are successful as one-bedroom apartments on the For Rent in Almonte and Area Facebook site lists one-bedrooms for as high as $2,000.
Canada has recognized that adequate housing is a fundamental human right since 1976 whenThe International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) was ratified and we agreed to take appropriate steps towards realizing the rights set out in it.
Given the examples seen in our small town, it does not appear that this has been given much consideration over the past 60 years. Otherwise, we would not be seeing people begging for housing today.
For additional information on housing and homelessness in Lanark County, please see below. An updated version will be available in June 2025.
https://www.lanarkcounty.ca/en/family-and-social-services/resources/2023-Report-Card.pdf
