Marit Stiles discussed the Homes Ontario plan
Ontario's NDP leader was in St. Catharines this morning talking about affordable housing needs and solutions for the city.
Marit Stiles met with local MPP Jennie Stevens, and other experts.
She says they touched on the NDP plan to create an organization called Homes Ontario, designed to get government back into building homes. "In the Niagara region, we know there's a need for about 17,000 new housing units every 5 years. I heard that a 2 bedroom in St. Catharines, as of March, was 14% higher rent than the year before."
She says 30 years ago the federal government and province used to fund home building.
That Homes Ontario plan is to build 250,000 affordable homes province wide on public land over the next 10 years.
Stiles added many people are forced onto the streets due to high rent, so rent control is needed. "Absolutely essential... I mean, when you bring back rent controls, we need to clamp down on those wealthy land speculators that the Ford government is so close to, who are buying up land and selling it again."
She says St. Catharines rental rates are so high they could be Toronto prices.
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