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CHRA Reports Cited With Reference to the End of Operating Agreements During HUMA Committee Meeting

October 24, 2011

During the October 4th meeting of the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA), NDP MP, Jean Crowder, cited two CHRA reports during an exchange with CMHC President, Karen Kinsley, on the end of social housing operating agreements. 

During the discussion, Ms. Crowder asked Ms. Kinsley if there were any plans to reinvest funds saved through the expiration of social housing operating agreements back into affordable housing. Ms. Kinsley responded that the government has struck a federal-provincial working committee to look at the viability of these projects post-expiry; however, recommendations from that committee are not yet available. 


You can access the two reports, the results of which were cited during the HUMA Committee discussion, in the CHRA Resource Library:

Courage UnderFire: Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities of a Post-Operating Agreement World in Social Housing (2011)

Was Chicken Little Right? Case Studies on the Impact of Expiring Social Housing Operating Agreements (2006)


Below is an excerpt from the discussion:

 

Ms. Jean Crowder:
Are you involved in the social housing operating agreements?

Ms. Karen Kinsley:
    Yes, we are.

Ms. Jean Crowder:    
So you're aware, of course, that many of those agreements are starting to expire. According to the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, in 2009 more than $200 million was reduced from the federal and provincial governments as a result of the expiration of these agreements.
 
They also did a study in 2006, and they found that at least one-third of the total social housing stock, roughly 220,000 units, either needed serious repairs or generated insufficient revenues to be viable once the subsidies expired. They gave an example of the Métis Urban Housing Corporation, which actually had to sell units because they couldn't continue to operate them.


Is there any plan to reinvest the money being saved off the social housing operating agreements back into social housing?

Ms. Karen Kinsley:
Thank you for the question.

We're very aware, obviously, of when the specific terms of the agreements expire. We have struck a federal-provincial working committee, which has actually been under way for about a year now, to look at the viability of these projects when the agreements expire.

The whole notion, when the programs were designed, was that when the mortgage was fully paid off--i.e., at the end of the operating agreements--the projects, with the low rent they were collecting and not having to pay the mortgage any longer, would be able to be self-sufficient going forward. That was the theory of the program design.

What we're looking at, and this is the point that I think CHRA is making, is that some projects and some programs work better in that regard than others. They prepared a report called “Was Chicken Little Right? Is the Sky Falling?”, and they concluded that in fact non-profit housing and co-op housing are in pretty good shape at the end of their agreements, whereas public housing is less so with its 100% concentration in low-income housing.

The working group that's been put together, and that includes all jurisdictions, is looking jurisdictionally at the portfolio of housing that's out there. They're looking at the portion of the portfolio that will in fact be financially viable, as was hoped at the outset of the program design, and that can continue on post the agreement expiry, and looking at which projects may need some reinvestment, followed by how that reinvestment might occur.

Ms. Jean Crowder:    
When do you expect that working group to come out with its recommendations?

Ms. Karen Kinsley:
There has been no time set at this point. It's still a piece of work that's under way.

 

 

Click here to access the full transcript of the committee meeting.