Windsor, mayor name-dropped for housing criticism

The City of Windsor and its mayor have been picked out as egregious examples of municipal housing missteps by a prominent expert in the field and author of a recent report identifying poor building performance in Ontario.

In his ‘Missing Middle’ podcast last week, Mike Moffatt, an economist and senior director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute, identified the city and its mayor as a case that “bothered” him in his report that ranked Windsor 88th out of 100 of Canada’s largest cities and towns for total housing starts — offering a pointed rebuttal of Mayor Drew Dilkens’ signing of a letter to the province calling for the use of the notwithstanding clause if necessary to remove encampments.

“You’ve got the guy who is supposed to be working with the Ford government to do all these great housing reforms, most of which haven’t been done,” said Moffatt, referencing Dilkens’ position as chair of Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team, meant to bring about recommendations from a housing affordability report released in February 2022.

“The City of Windsor also famously refused to sign onto the Housing Accelerator [Fund] because they didn’t want to make even modest changes to zoning. So, these cities, not just Windsor, but these cities that signed the letter, for the most part, they make housing impossible to build through a combination of red tape and taxes, and then they wonder why they have a homelessness issue,” said Moffatt.

The notwithstanding clause, Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to temporarily override certain other sections.

Moffatt further expressed his anger concerning the letter, calling on its signatories to rescind their support.

“These councils and these mayors, they got to be looking in the mirror, they got to be making reforms, rather than going to the provincial government and going, ‘Hey, can we trample on people’s constitutional rights?’” said Moffatt.

The report released on Nov. 18, dubbed ‘Ontario Communities Falling Behind on Homebuilding’, noted most communities in Ontario are building homes well below the G7 average of 47 homes per 100-person population growth. Windsor is achieving just 15.2 homes per 100-persons over the six-year period the report tracks.

Exceeded target

CTV News requested an interview with the mayor, which his office declined.

Instead, Chris Menard, the mayor’s chief of staff, responded in an email that the City of Windsor “vastly exceeded” its provincial housing target of 1,083 housing starts for 2024 and “looks forward to doing the same” for 2025.

The city has seen 1,412 housing starts as of Nov. 20, achieving 130 per cent of its target.

The success follows a disappointing 2023, where the city missed its housing target of 953 starts, all counting toward its 10-year goal of 13,000 housing starts as part of the Ford government’s promise to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Menard goes on to rebuff Moffatt’s criticism of the city’s decision concerning Ottawa’s Housing Accelerator Fund, aimed at rolling back restrictive zoning policies and supporting more housing construction, as it relates to the key issue of four-unit by right zoning.

“Four-units as of right was discussed by city council twice and council democratically agreed that such a change was not in the best interest of the community at this time,” said Menard.

Previously, Dilkens has pointed to efforts by the city’s building department to streamline its approval process, noting building permits have been issued for 1,410 new residential units and planning approvals have been granted for an additional 2,024 residential units.

Despite the increased supply, the approach doesn’t appear to be improving affordability in the city according to the latest monthly report from the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors (WECAR).

It’s November statistics show a 10.37 per cent increase in the average sale price of homes year-over-year, rising to $584,452 even as the number of listings and properties sold climb.