CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a previous article about an affordable housing survey by the Town of Collingwood that is currently still accepting submissions.
Multiple levels of government describe affordable housing as shelter that costs 30 per cent of income more or less.
In Collingwood, rents run about $2,000 per month not counting heat or electricity.
Take a person earning $40,000 per year before taxes, after taxes it’s about $32,000 net.
Rent is $24,000 heat and hydro, on the low side, about $2,400, the total is $26,400.00.
That leaves $5,600 per year for food, clothing, and etc.
Now if both partners make the same amount with two children, where can they realistically live? Not Collingwood.
The only place they can live in Collingwood is in subsidized housing or with supplemental income. Affordable housing is a red herring, call it what it is.
Gene Melnyk
Collingwood, Ont.
