'It's not pretty': Affordable housing focus of St. John's strategy

The city of St. John's is working on a new 10-year plan to create more affordable housing and a woman who has lived through the housing challenge says it's about time.

"Everyone needs to get together and start sharing like this," said Gwen Mercer, one of the participants in a panning session Tuesday.

"After living the way I had to live with my three children, I seeI have a tremendous insight into what's happening, and it's not pretty."

With roughly 800 people in St. John's dealing with homelessness at some point in a year, and the cost of renting or buying a home up dramatically from a decade ago, affordable housing is a big issue.

• 'Sobering' findings in first-ever count of homeless population in St. John's

Mercer, a nurse and community advocate,said hearing different organizationsfrom NL Housing Corporation to the John Howard Society talk about it is a welcome relief, even if it's been a long time coming.

I think the reality comes when you wake up one morning, as I did, and realize there's no breakfast for the kids.- GwenMercer

Mercer said she left an abusive relationship back in the 1980s, working hard to buy a home and raise her three children as a single parent.

But she said "affordable" is relative, when keeping a roof over your family's head can mean not having enough money to put food on the table.

"I think the reality comes when you wake up one morning, as I did, and realize there's no breakfast for the kids."

'Bottom likely behind us': analyst

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a home is "affordable" if you're not spending more than 30 per cent of your pre-tax household income on it.

"It's as simple as that," said analyst Chris Janes, who moderated the panel discussion Tuesday.

The number of households living beyond that 30 per cent threshold in St. John's is not known, but average housing costs are.

Janes said the average two-bedroom apartment rents for $950/month today, up from $650 about 10 years ago, when the city's first affordable housing plan was made.

"That's gone up quite dramatically," he said. Likewise for houses, with the average price today $300,000double what it was in 2007, at $150,000.

"So you can see that there are challenges there for people making those payments."

"There are still people a single person who is gainfully employed who probably can't afford $300,000 for a house so it's not just people who aren't active members of the labour force, it affects everybody."

Janes said housing prices have been dropping since 2014 and the oil industry slump, and prices appear stable now.

• Oil price slump tied to soft St. John's housing market: CMHC

There are also more places to rent, with a vacancy rate of almost eight per cent, compared to five per cent only a year ago.

"Rents have come off somewhat, and in particular, if you're looking at a two-apartment house, you'll see that rents are cheaper now than what they have been over the past couple years," Janes said.

'Sounds so easy'

Challenges remain though, according to Gwen Mercer.

"It sounds so easy, once you can get your funding to build .... this sounds so pretty compared to the last meeting we held, which was with the landlords."

Those landlords are still reluctant to rent to ex convicts or anyone on social assistance, she said, proof the Newfoundland and Labrador Residential Tenancies Act needs to be updated in addition to building more housing.