Exactly what defines affordable housing?

Re: Expecting Niagara’s homeowners to pay the cost for Ford government’s housing bill is what’s bananas, Nov. 18

Affordable housing, what does that mean? You hear politicians talk about it as if it was a magic phrase. You hear about it in the news, like it is something new and magic.

Just what is affordable housing? Are they going to make housing affordable down to the levels most people can pay, or is it just a passing magical phrase that covers all types of housing.

Right now, housing is built so builders can make maximum profit. With affordable housing, are the builders going to downgrade the accommodation from single-family homes to affordable rental buildings? Show me the developer who is going to sell off serviced lots for less than what they cost. Show me builders that will build an affordable home, with labour and material costs what they are.

Everything costs money. Roads and servicing costs are not cheap. Someone has to pay.

During the Second World War, the government had a plan called “wartime housing,” meaning a home of minimal size, with basic design, nothing fancy, no basement.

Many of these were built in Canada. I was brought up in one. It had one bathroom and had minimal size bedrooms, all meeting the building code at that time. We had a wooden walkway to the street, which was tar and gravel.

Since then, past and present owners have upgraded these buildings.

Right now, “affordable housing ” would not pass municipal building codes. Maybe it’s is time for the government to sit down with research engineers and design and set standards for these new “affordable housing” units. If not, we will not have any type of “affordable housing” and will be back where we started with just the politicians and media voicing the physically impossible words “affordable housing.”

Richard O’Mara

St Catharines