We dreamers see ways to ensure everyone has a roof over their head. (And apologies to John Lennon).
I love how the City of Ottawa boasted, in a March 20 email, about approving the Kennedy Lane housing complex like it hadn’t tried to kill it first. All I can hear is Dolly Parton singing the John Lennon song Imagine, but with slightly different lyrics:
Imagine there’s no crisis
It’s easy if you try
No homelessness around us
Nobody needs to cry
I have all kinds of other verses in the works, featuring the absence of beg buttons, parking minimums or developer influence. I want to imagine a better Ottawa. One where people come first.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
I know many of you agree with me that the situation is beyond ridiculous. The city declared a housing and homelessness emergency more than three years ago and it keeps getting worse. We will not make improvements without changing the way we do things. If approving nothing but cookie-cutter surburban developments, castles for rich people and ginormous condo towers worked, we’d know by now.
We are missing the middle. We are desperately in need of gentle density, of buildings with six to eight units, big enough for families — not just two-bedrooms-plus-dens — including many at below-market rates. I don’t know if you had a look at rents lately, but they are terrifyingly high: nearly $2,000 a month on average for one bedroom.
The Kennedy Lane project that was finally approved this past week is a wonderful example of the kind of community we need. It includes 81 units, a combination of townhouses and walk-ups, one-third of them below market rates. Close to transit.
Hundreds of people expressed their opposition because they think this will lead to increased traffic and on-street parking; the “urbanization” of a quiet neighbourhood; and will have a negative impact on property values. Oh, and horror of horrors, it has fewer parking spaces than residences, leading many people apparently to fear a cataclysm on par with biblical curses.
Imagine there’s no NIMBYism
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to fight or argue for
And no selfishness too
This caused a delay in the approval process, but in the end Ottawa Council voted in favour of the eight-building residential complex. This means changing zoning to Residential Fourth Density, which permits low-rise, multi-residential infill, what planning enthusiasts call the “missing middle” between single family homes and massive towers.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
Who here thinks housing should be a right, not an investment? That we shouldn’t approve the theoretical building of 151,000 housing units the same day we also approve sacrificing priceless green spaces in the most wonderful location near the Ottawa River to build embassies?
Why, if we must build on that land at all, can it not be for the people who’ve been waiting for years for a home they can afford?
We worry so much about parking spots and “urbanization” that we forget how much poorer everyone is because of the housing crisis. When a sizeable portion of a city’s population is housing-insecure or spends much more than 30 per cent of pre-tax income on housing, it makes it difficult for them to participate in civic life, or even contribute to the economy because they can’t afford to go out or do much of anything, especially since the price of groceries has climbed outrageously in the past few months.
Imagine a better way. A city where people have homes they can afford. Dare to imagine a right to housing. Where people’s basic needs are addressed first. Communities like Kennedy Lane should be all over the place. They should get approved quickly and built without delay.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Brigitte Pellerin (they/them) is an Ottawa writer.
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