Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister for the Housing Corporation spoke yesterday on the release of the 2009 Housing Needs Survey results. I’d like to draw attention to the realities of buying or renting shelter in Yellowknife, and how the City of Yellowknife is working to make housing more affordable.
Our government doesn’t collect housing market data, so we have to rely on CMHC’s 2009 housing report for Yellowknife. If you want to buy an average house in Yellowknife it will cost you $314,000. Only 12 percent of homes go for less than $200,000 and one in five sells for more than $400,000.
The news isn’t much better for renters. An average two-bedroom apartment in Yellowknife cost $1,450 a month last year, with vacancy rates of less than 1 percent. The result: nearly 20 percent of moderate income families -- the households making $40,000 to $100,000 per year -- are overspending on shelter, according to the 30 percent rule for housing costs as a proportion of income. That’s 405 households.
People with household incomes of $100,000 a year in Yellowknife can’t afford to buy a home. Two people making minimum wage would spend more than half their combined income for an average apartment, if they can find one.
The City of Yellowknife is taking ambitious steps to ease this problem through development of an Affordable Housing Strategy. Initial work on the strategy has brought forward the growing concept of non-market housing, a market segment between the public and private markets. The development of non-market housing is an innovative new approach that could break the price bottleneck holding people
back from their first homes. Improving the affordability of first homes will take pressure off the tight and expensive rental market.
The city needs all the support this government can provide. There has already been tremendous support from CMHC and the NWT Housing Corporation to develop the strategy, but we have to follow right on through to implementation. The Housing Corp could continue to help by being a part of the affordable housing committee the city will be creating soon. What we’ll need most of all is the Housing Corporation’s commitment to working with CMHC and the city for the development of non-market housing units.
The 2009 Housing Needs Survey shows we have to use every tool available to improve availability and quality of shelter. When one of our partner governments acts boldly to bring new solutions forward, this government must be there with action and commitment. Mr. Speaker, let’s show up at the table. Mahsi.
