CIH visit to Canadian Housing & Renewal Association (CHRA)
Report on Attendance of 37th Annual Canadian Housing & Renewal Association's Congress: 27-30 April 2005, Quebec, Canada
The CHRA report is also available to download as a PDF (166KB)
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Canada, Québec and Montréal
Canada facts
Canada is a vast country. The Federal (national) government pulled out of housing programmes in the 1990s and left it to the 13 provinces and municipalities to manage a social housing programme. Québec is active while many other provinces have no programme at all. The recent (and continuing) political turmoil in Canada resulting from corruption scandals around the succession referendum in 2001 led to promises that the federal government would return to fund social housing choosing to work with the provinces or directly with the municipalities. An announcement was made to this effect whilst we were attending the conference.
Québec facts
Québec is one of the 15 provinces in Canada. It is three times the size of France with a population of 8 million. It has the largest social housing programme in the country, in fact it is one of only two provinces still building public housing. The other is British Columbia which has a limited programme.
Montréal facts
The main landlord for the city is Société d'habitation Québec (SHQ). There is no equivalent in the UK but the pattern of provision might be something like an LAVY local authority after transfer. SHQ also has a development arm called Société d'habitation et de Development de Montréal.
As a landlord they manage 63,000 social housing units (7% of the stock) but they are now only able to help those in ‘deep’ need. They employ 550 staff.
Whilst most of Canada is dominated by owner occupation the Island of Montréal, by a quirk of history (not dissimilar to Boston USA), has a dominance of tenanted property. Within the city boundary there are 805,000 households and 520,000 tenants
100,000 of households spend 50% or more of their income on their rental costs. 380,000 households - that’s close to half the households in the city, live on less than CAN$36,000 p.a. That is equivalent to about £18,000 for UK income. Remember the national average household income in the UK is over £25,000.
So the city profile has lower than average income. This has resulted in the development of more affluent areas on the outskirts of the city. House price inflation has produced affordability problems for first time buyers in much the same way as it has in the UK.
Who are the key players in Montréal?
Société d'habitation Québec (SHQ) provides 68,000 units of low income and social housing in Québec. The City of Montréal is mandated to work on behalf of SHQ for the Montréal Island through the Office Municipal d'habitation de Montréal and manages 20,000 units on the island. 50% of these are used to house the elderly and the remainder are mainly for families.
What are the main initiatives?
Accesslogis - a support programme with public and private money -accessible or affordable – for low income households or those with support needs.
Lodgement Affordable Québec - a new set up to produce 5000 units at sub market rent levels for ten years.
SCPs (pronounced Skippys) - Support for Community Provision
The National Housing Framework - this is a complete housing continuum filling existing gaps in provision. With the aims of self sufficiency, a full tool box of policies and housing programmes, community plans and strategies, joined up thinking to enhance government partnerships and finally a continuity of funding.
Buzz words
Energy mortgage - the result of poor thermal insulation
Loss of autonomy among senior citizens - getting old
Frequent flyers - addicts etc who have five or more hospital admissions per year, usually via the police
Dumpster divers - rough sleepers accessing rubbish containers to support income through recycling (see the website for details from our Vancouver visit)
Architecture of modesty - lack of pride in the community developments
Architecture of opportunity - housing schemes which add value to the wider community agenda
Income mixed developments - self explanatory really.
Intersectoriality - Doh, working together?
Some key messages from the conference
The Housing Minister - Joe Fontana
The conference opened on 28 April 2005 with a sparkling address by the Housing Minister, Joe Fontana. He had eloquence and conviction and he outlined the National Housing Framework. He noted:
16% of Canadians do not enjoy adequate housing either because they are homeless or because of the condition they live in or the price they have to pay.
There is a sound economic argument to providing good housing. A good house costs CAN$5,000 p.a. to provide, and could save CAN$10,000 p.a. on health expenditure or save CAN$50,000 p.a. for prison accommodation.
The federal government promoted a homelessness initiative in 1999 and an affordable housing initiative in 2001. With resistance in some provinces some CAN$600m is still to be signed off but the prospects are good to get the last of the provinces to sign on.
A round table for aboriginal people took place in April 2004 and there has been a recent agreement for Co-ops to co-ordinate their management through the ACT programme.
636,000 Canadians had received support from the recently introduced reduction in mortgage insurance premiums, for further information see the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) website.
Canada (Vancouver) will host the UN Habitat for Humanity conference in June 2006 to set the direction for tackling the problems of slum dwellers. Sadly this clashes with our own Chartered Institute of Housing conference in Harrogate but check out the CMHC website.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation website is at www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca
[Postscript: During the conference a commitment from the Federal Government to put in an additional CAN$1.6B was negotiated by the New Liberal Party.]
On 29 April, Douglas Stewart, Vice President, Policy and Planning, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) noted that there had been several turning points in Canada’s housing history. He laced his comments with good humour.
The War Measures Act, during the First World War suggested that housing was a legitimate sector for government intervention. It was, soon after, retracted.
The 1944 National Housing Act provided the potential for intervention but focussed instead on making the market work better. In 1947 the PM said no government should pass legislation for subsidised housing.
The 1949 Housing Act put the responsibility on the provincial governments.
Since then:
The Urban Renewal programme was introduced ...and withdrawn
Wide-scale Public Housing Programme was introduced ...and withdrawn
Subsidies for Owner Occupiers were introduced ...and withdrawn
New housing and Urban policies were introduced ...and withdrawn
Income mixing schemes were introduced ...and withdrawn
And finally the federal programme was pulled in 1993.
The National Housing Framework is a complete housing continuum filling existing gaps in provision. With the aims of self sufficiency, a full tool box of policies and housing programmes, community plans and strategies, joined up thinking to enhance government partnerships and finally a continuity of funding.
Douglas was followed by Duncan Maclennan, Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow and RMIT Melbourne. Although new to Canada, Professor Maclennan had a strong message for the housing conference delegates. He said the existing rent supplements reward mortgage failure and provide a framework for the short term only, this is not the provision of a modern economy. The proposed National Housing Framework, focussing on joined up initiatives, did not provide for market (financial) instruments to influence the capital markets or develop social capital. He added that the inter-sectoral agenda is irrelevant suggesting the conflict between national regional and local government was an excuse. The constitution was not the issue. There is a need to benchmark internationally the provision of housing in Canada and, if this was done, the findings might not look good.
Visit 1
Affordable and Systems housing in Canada
Our fist visit took us to the offices of Société d’habitation Québec (SHQ) where we met three key players:
Avi Friedman, Professor of Architecture, McGill University Montreal
Andre Filion, Director, SHQ
Robert Verret, Chief Officer, SHQ
The presentation was led by Avi Friedman who started by restating that The American Dream was for everyone to own their own home. But with house price inflation, affordability problems, the need for denser developments perhaps there is a need to AMEND THE DREAM!
He added a caveat that SHQ was in partnership with the Accent Group in the UK to provide affordable housing in England but he was happy to illustrate SHQ’s approach to the issues. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is in place.
SHQ provides 68,000 units of low income and social housing in Québec. They have developed a timber frame housing product and have exported it to 20 countries including China, Japan, Tahiti, USA and Europe. They are currently targeting six countries for export including the UK where one of the key barriers to their product is that the UK culture for housing is based on stone and brick. Projects are currently underway in London and Cambridge with Super ‘E’ products with high energy efficiency.
The SHQ background in affordable housing has enabled the development of a pattern book (a house design catalogue) for a range of designs. The products have been developed to include new lumber technology which maintains the strength of the product whilst reducing the amount of timber used. This increases the sustainable nature of the product as well as moving manufacture from polluting energy to clean energy. The products are now wired for future technology and sustainable for the shifting demographic patterns of occupation (lifecycle costs).
There is a choice of six interior panels and seven exterior panels which combine to create the finished home. They are no more than 3.5 metre wide (frontage) and they can be shipped anywhere in the world. The superstructure can be erected in a day. The flexibility for change comes from the load-bearing walls all being external with no internal partitions carrying any loading.
Further flexibility comes from starter packages where the kitchens have shelves rather than cupboards and the doors can come later when affordable to the customers.
Avi claimed that additional benefits of thermal insulation and solar gain reduce running costs for heating by 50%. In discussion with the group it was recognised that labour costs in Poland were 20% of UK costs.
Afterthought
In the search for affordable housing in the UK the Deputy Prime Minister is attempting to produce the £60,000 home. In France it is the €100,000 home (the same amount) and Canada CAN$150,000 (again approximately the same figure).
Similarly in the UK we complain that average house prices are six times the average income and in Quebec the average house price is CAN$330,000 whilst the average income is 55,000 that’sŠer six times the average income.
Visit 2
Société d’habitation Québec
Our second visit took us to the headquarters of SHQ. We were given an outline of the political and social framework for Montréal. There was a panel of presenters including:
Fabien Cournoyer, Exectutive Director, Office Municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM)
Claude Roy, Urbaniste, SHQ
Mario Roy, Director of Development, Société d’habitation et de Development de Montréal
Susanne Le Ferrier, Policy Advisor to City of Montréal
Robert Mackrous, Director, OMHM
Claude Roy introduced the background to Montréal housing, some of the detail is in the front section of this report. He introduced us to SKIPPYs. No, that should be SCPs (pronounced Skippys). It stands for Support for Community Provision and is the Québec equivalent of Supporting People in the UK. They link social services and housing bodies to tackle homelessness.
Susanne Le Ferrier took the discussion forward to note that there were two recent initiatives - SCP for tackling homelessness and affordable housing provision.
The City of Montréal is mandated to work on behalf of SHQ for the Montréal Island with a population of 1.8m. The City of Montréal has a concentration of poverty and a responsibility to co-ordinate interventions to tackle this. It has an enabling and strategic role akin to the local authority role in the UK.
The Masterplan for the city is to upgrade or adapt the existing public housing (50% is pre WWII) and to attempt to regenerate the local housing markets and to stabilise marginalized communities.
The city is competing with the private sector but hopes plans to see that 30% of new housing is affordable. This is currently out for consultation.
Two main programmes are being rolled out both targeting those below the poverty line. They are Accesslogis (accessible low cost home ownership) and Lodgement Affordable Québec (sub market rent levels for ten years).
Where the city is able to help community groups it sells land at 75% of market value to hold rent at below market levels.
Robert Mackrous introduced us to the landlord function of the Office Municipal d’habitation de Montréal managing 20,000 of the 48,000 social housing units on the island. 50% of these are used to house the elderly and the remainder are mainly for families, a high proportion of this latter group are single parents but there are also homeless hostels. The rent level is set at 25% of income and is fixed by the state of Québec.
The housing for the elderly is similar to the pattern found in the UK, blocks of about 80 units located close to amenities. The family housing is in larger blocks up to 300 units (75% single parent families and many immigrant families) and with high levels of benefit dependency. These blocks are home to many with mental health problems, drug addiction, and with learning disabilities. There is a community outreach schemes to support these tenants.
The Office Municipal d’habitation de Montréal allocates 1,700 units a year but has a waiting list of 21,000.
Mario Roy introduced the city’s low cost home ownership initiative which had so far produced 1200 new units and this year expects to produce a further 800. See the attached plans. This is based on a 600 sq ft unit and will sell for about CAN$180,000. The UK equivalent would be £90,000. Note in the plan that there are external staircases and there is no wasted circulation space within the dwelling. The CIH International group had previously met with Michelle Labbé who holds the franchise for the low cost home ownership product.
Danielle Juteau, one of the co-ordinators of the conference planning committee completed the presentations with an insight into the inner city regeneration projects. The post war housing schemes are now 50 years old and the larger schemes (800 units) with single tenure estates have a poor reputation. Consultation is now underway for major renovation.
Housing in the USA
On the Friday morning James Inglis, President of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, USA ran through the pattern of housing need in the United States.
He noted that it was back in 1937 that the Housing Act aimed for a decent living environment for every family.
Housing Management followed three phases in the past 80 years summarised as:
1930s to 1940s – Public Investment and Public Management
1950s to 1960s – Public Investment and Private Management
1970s to 1980s – Private Investment and Private Management
Today in the USA there are 40m people below the poverty level and a lack of political will to tackle the issues. USA spends ten times the amount allocated to housing on the Iraq war.
James explained the USA continuum of Housing
At the front line there are Emergency Shelters which house 800,000 people every night. The state has to fund these people to the tune of $30,000 each every year. 36% of them are war veterans and every year in the USA 3.5 million people experience a homeless night.
Next in line is the Permanent Supported Housing for users of Drugs and those affected by alcohol addiction and victims of abuse. This costs $17,000 per person place p.a.
Then comes Public Housing. There has been no development programme since 1993, there is no current development. There exists a voucher system called S8 Housing Subsidy with 2.1 million families on the programme. The key problem is that without new build the existing stock is put under increased pressure. 100,000 old units have had to be demolished.
The last three stages of the continuum are the Reynolds system. Developed in the 1980s this is market rented housing (Cf Private sector leasing in the UK). At the end of the term the Landlords are opting out and the low income families are moved out. The scheme might lose 1.5 m units over the next few years.
Market rate rental housing
The same as in any other county, private renting and lastly home ownership - the American dream!
The highs and lows
The highs of the trip would certainly include an early morning walk to the top of Mount Royal (from where Montréal takes its name) in glorious spring sunshine it is possible to spot eagles and the American red-breasted blackbird in the city park and at the summit there is a panoramic view of the city and the St Lawrence seaway. The noise of the city drifts up to the summit but it is a calm and almost empty space.
For the housing conference the high must have been the political turmoil on the federal government. The Prime Minister, Paul Martin was facing calls for his resignation (no change there then) and the continuation of the Government was dependent on a pact with the New Liberal Party. They in turn wanted to amend the budget and sought and secured an additional CAN$1.6billionn for housing. A good week for a housing conference.
The lows include trying, after midnight, to get a table of 9 to agree how much to pay for their individual ‘tabs’ when all the wine that has been consumed has ended up on one person’s bill. You must also recognise that the faculties of the assembled diners are reduced by the amount of wine consumed. Under such circumstances it is advisable not to form a committee but the said ensemble were able to revisit the arithmetic over a late breakfastŠŠ
Another low was the conference style of presentation followed by questions. Nothing wrong with the presentations but there were few questions to engage the wit or intellect of the speakers. Rather, there was a series of monologues on single topic issues which meant little or nothing to the rest of the audience. It was especially tedious when the ‘questioner’ was repeating the same tactic they had used in the previous session. Out of order!
The highs must include a great session by the travellers from the UK and the session from Tony Cotter, Terry Fuller and Neil Hadden. Click here to see their full presentations.
The Travellers
Paul Butler - Adams Integra
Tony Cotter - Chief Executive, Gallions Housing Association
Rachel Evans - Marketing Officer, Guinness Housing Trust
Terry Fuller - Taylor Woodrow
Chris Garlick - Board Member, Gallions Housing Association
Neil Hadden - Deputy Chief Executive, Housing Corporation
Bob Keats - Senior Lecturer in Housing & Secretary of CIH SE Branch
Ann Moquet - Downland Housing Association
Chris Moquet - Chair of the CIH SE Branch International Group and Calford Seaden
Linda Peacock - Acting Director, Norwich City Council
Alistair Queen - Chief Executive, Southern Horizon HA & Treasurer CIH SE Branch
Brian Queen - Housing Consultant
Roger Sannen - Brussels Housing Corporation
Val Waddington - Housing Manager, Swaythling Housing Society & National Council Member of CIH
Tracy Walker - Taylor Woodrow
Report written by Bob Keats, Branch Secretary, Chartered Institute of Housing South East
t: 02380 319024
e: robert.keats@solent.ac.uk
Chris Moquet