Lack of housing options — including for students — needs to be addressed, Waterloo mayoral candidates say

Voters in Waterloo will be choosing a new mayor later this month after current Mayor Dave Jaworsky opted not to seek re-election this year and four people are in the running for the city's top spot. 

The candidates are: Rob Evans, Dorothy McCabe, Kypp Saunders and Shannon Weber. They took part in a panel discussion with Craig Norris, host of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition, to talk about top issues in the city.

Housing was ranked the top concern of voters who took part in a survey on the CBC K-W website.

McCabe says housing's an issue she's hearing on nearly every doorstep.

"I do believe that the city needs to build some more affordable housing, no question," she said.

"I have committed in my platform that within the first 100 days, I want to keep a chunk of land that the city still owns and keep that public land in public hands and work with a local non-profit organization to build either affordable or supportive housing or co-operative [housing.]"

She said the housing would need to have proper amenities around it as well, such as access to transit and green space.

Saunders called housing a crisis and said "there's no time to wait anymore."

"We also need to make sure that the affordable housing is accessible to people who are in wheelchairs, so we're talking about an accessible, affordable housing crisis," he said.

"My plan is to work with local developers to incentivize them to build more affordable housing by removing some of the cumbersome zoning restrictions that are making it more difficult for them to build higher and forcing them to build parking lots that are not actually needed in the community."

Weber said there is a need to modernize the city's zoning bylaw and "that process will happen and be kickstarted because, of course, the new council will be going through an official plan process."

"That modernization should include looking at a diverse mix of or range of housing while protecting green space and activating the tools to build more affordable housing units," Weber said.

She said the city has already offered public land for housing and wants to see where that stands currently.

As well, she said she'd draw on local expertise for both affordable housing and sustainability of infrastructure "both in our built form and retrofitted and that's the kind of guidance that I want to activate at the front end so that we are most effective in our work around planning and housing."

Evans said he didn't think solutions that are "typical of an administration heavy old-fashioned approach" will work.

Instead, he calls for a "very specific" plan, his "Eh plan," for equity and housing in the city.

"This is a growth management issue," he said.

He said homelessness is also a concern in the region as a whole and he's against the idea of using the courts to force people off public property "to get them out of the only places that they have."

Students have trouble finding housing

Students have said it's becoming more difficult to find housing that is affordable and safe in the city.

Evans said the student housing crisis has "reached a peak."

"Students are paying 25 per cent more for the same quality of space as other humans. This is a human issue. We need to stop ignoring and taking our students for granted," Evans said.

"Aligning standards and innovation is needed to change the old-fashioned models and bring innovation," he said.

Saunders said his concern with some student housing is that it doesn't conform to the building code.

"We need more inspectors out there to make sure that the codes are being met," he said. 

"If we can't find the money in the budget to hire more people, which would be ideal, then we need to be cross training people at city hall so that people can do multiple jobs at the city level and we will have more people available to perform the inspections that are needed."

McCabe said students "bring a great deal to our community" and they need to have safe and proper accommodations. She said there needs to be more bylaw enforcement when it comes to student housing.

"We of course need to look in our neighbourhoods as well, because I've certainly heard of some challenges of some small landlords who own properties within neighbourhoods that are absentee landlords and causing a real challenge within neighbourhoods," she said.

Weber says she's met with student leaders and it's clear to her there needs to be a conversation about the city's rental housing bylaw.

"We're seeing sometimes hundreds of students responding in 24 hours to a rental housing post," she said. 

"We really need to address that for our community and ensure that our students are able to find the housing that they need so that they're also not commuting from many hours away, which is also just another contributing factor to climate change."

The municipal election is on Monday, October 24.

How to vote in Waterloo

People can vote in-person at advance polls and on election day in Waterloo.

There are seven advance voting days:

• Saturday, Oct. 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex.
• Tuesday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Waterloo City Centre.
• Wednesday, Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Waterloo City Centre.
• Thursday, Oct. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Waterloo City Centre.
• Friday, Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Waterloo City Centre and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Albert McCormick Community Centre.
• Saturday, Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex.
• Sunday, Oct. 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at RIM Park.

People will receive a voter information card with ward specific information on where they should go to vote. The city also has six locations where anyone in Waterloo can go to vote:

• Waterloo City Centre.
• Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex.
• John M. Harper Library.
• RIM Park.
• University of Waterloo — Student Life Centre.
• Wilfrid Laurier University — Concourse.

The city also offers specific tips to students about voting and notes anyone who is a Canadian citizen, 18 years of age and older or the resident, land owner or tenant in the city can vote in the election.

"Students are allowed to vote in two municipalities if you live in Waterloo for educational purposes and your home is in another Ontario municipality," the city's website says.

"Your home is the residence you regularly return to when not attending school. This could be a place you live independently or your family home. If you do not plan to return to the municipality where your home is when you finish your education, you can only vote in Waterloo."

• City of Waterloo election page