When Doreen gets a home of her own, she’s going to enjoy a bath. Then she’s going to have her granddaughter over for the weekend and the two will bake, make popcorn, and stay up all night watching movies.
Doreen always made sure “Nanna’s place” was fun. But there’s been no Nanna’s place since early 2020.
When her building was sold in December 2019, Doreen started looking for a new rental, knowing it would be near impossible to find something affordable in Collingwood. But years of searching has proved fruitless. At 56, Doreen is homeless, and has been for two years.
“Up until I became homeless, I would have my grandchildren over for weekends, and my kids over for Sunday meals,” said Doreen, whose last name has been withheld for privacy. “I’m missing that family time.”
The mom of five and grandmother to 10 grandchildren has lived in the Collingwood area since 1987. Until December 2019 she had been renting from the same landlord for 10 years. The building she was renting in was sold, and the rent went from $820/month to $1,375/month. She lost her unit in April 2020 and has been staying with friends and family since.
“People have been wonderful,” said Doreen.
She is grateful for the homes that have been opened to her. She knows a futon is more than many have.
“When I’m with my sister in Barrie, if I see someone sleeping on the street, I drop a couple of toonies in the cup, and I say to my sister, ‘that could be me, I don’t want to be that,’” said Doreen. “My sister says she won’t let that happen. But where are their family and friends?”
Doreen may not be out in the cold, but she’s moved to seven different rooms since April 2020. Always to places she can stay temporarily with friends and family. She’s staying with her pastor now. And while the welcome is warm, Doreen feels like a guest imposing with a long stay.
Doreen’s disability allowance includes $497/month for shelter costs. The total cheque for the month is $1,169. She was put on long-term disability by her doctor 13 years ago when she came close to a nervous breakdown. Before that, she worked at Tim Hortons, or stayed home raising her children.
She’s trying to stay in Collingwood where she is close to some of her children and grandchildren, and where she has doctors and counsellors she sees regularly.
She has a letter from her former landlord of 10 years to attest that her unit was clean, she had no noise complaints, and she kept her rent paid on time.
She’s had families from her church offer to co-sign a lease to guarantee that if she can’t pay her rent, they will.
What she doesn’t have is a promising lead on an apartment or a room.
“They hear disability, and that’s it,” said Doreen. “You get turned down, they don’t even look at you as a person. They just look at you as an income.”
That’s only if she can even find a place advertised at a rate she can pay.
“I’ve tried motel rooms, but it’s $1,300 a month for a motel room in Wasaga Beach,” said Doreen, who looks at rental listings nearly every day. “A one-bedroom in Stayner is going for $1,500. A bachelor is $1,100 … It’s frustrating, it’s depressing. It’s sad.”
She’s determined and has explored every lead or suggestion she comes across. She has, as they say, done everything right.
She’s emailed the mayor, MP, and MPP. She’s on the waiting list for Simcoe County housing, though at 56, she doesn’t qualify for a senior’s apartment, even if there is one available.
She said she doesn’t know where she is on the waiting list, but was told it could be five to seven years before she gets to the top of the list for an apartment.
She’s reached out to 211, Out of the Cold, the women’s shelter, Community Connection, and Empower Simcoe.
She’s tried applying for housing grants, only to be told they’re “tapped out.”
In applying for apartments for rents, Doreen has received emails from landlords saying there was a bidding war for the unit.
“I can’t be in a bidding war,” said Doreen. “That’s crazy. Why would people have a bidding war for a place to live?”
A stack of printed emails contain the replies (if a reply was even sent) to her outreach, and most say the same.
“I get told the same thing over and over again, I know what they’re going to say,” said Doreen. “They don’t have a solution so they pass it on to someone else.”
She’s nearly an expert on housing support programs in the region. And for her, they have fallen short.
“It’s definitely someone’s problem,” said Doreen. “I don’t know if it’s federal, provincial, municipal or community, but when are they going to say enough is enough?”
She’s seen the housing boom make things worse for her children. She’s watched people complain about homeless shelters in Barrie, and wondered where people are supposed to go, how they’re supposed to find anything affordable.
“I’m so embarrassed I don’t have a home,” she said. “It’s not because I’m a bad tenant. There’s nothing affordable, and nobody will take a chance on me.”
She is determined. And she continues to email, call, and apply to everything she comes across in her regular searching.
Doreen’s story is no longer very uncommon in Collingwood and Simcoe County.
Laurie Straughan, the supports and services manager for Empower Simcoe said there’s been a significant increase in callers with situations similar to Doreen’s to Empower Simcoe’s housing resource centres over the past couple of years.
“The lack of available rental units and the increasing costs in private market rentals has made it almost impossible for individuals receiving ODSP and Ontario Works to secure permanent housing,” said Straughan in an email to CollingwoodToday. “Our routine search for potential housing units informs us that a single room can be as high as $800 to $900 per month and a one-bedroom is between $1,300 and $1,500 a month.”
Anyone trying to rent any kind of residential unit in the county is facing the same challenges. Straughan said there are skyrocketing rents, dwindling rental units due to landlords selling properties and housing being used for short-term rentals, and increased competition for units that do become available.
She added the shelter portions for disability support and Ontario Works payments are “unreasonably low.”
A report from the Collingwood Affordable Housing Task Force at the end of 2021 indicated more than 70 per cent of renter households earn less than $60,000 per year with 20 per cent earning less than $20,000. About 34 per cent of the households who own a home in the area bring in more than $100,000 in household income.
As of July 2021, the median price of a single-family home in Collingwood is $815,500 (up 214 per cent since 2011, 40.5 per cent since last year), for a condo townhouse is $646,723 (up 188 per cent since 2011, 57.7 per cent since last year) and for a condo apartment is $547,900 (up 163 per cent since 2011, 39.2 per cent since last year). And prices continue to rise.
Average rents have increased 134 per cent since 1990 (average annual increase of three per cent). Rents have been increasing more rapidly in recent years, averaging over five per cent since 2016.
Collingwood has added only 213 new rental units since 2008 (six per cent of all housing completions), with 147-units being associated with the Simcoe County Second Street affordable housing development.
Empower Simcoe aims to add affordable housing to the market by partnering with landlords and providing incentives if private owners bring forward affordable housing units for people accessing emergency shelters in Simcoe County. The program rolled out in November and will run until March 31.
The incentives include three months rent paid to the landlord, a housing access worker to touch base with a new tenant who came from a shelter, and one month rent for any landlord who commits to holding a vacant unit for up to 30 days for someone in the motel shelter system.
Since Doreen has a temporary place to stay and didn’t require an emergency shelter, the program won’t help her.
Doreen said rental rates need to be made more affordable, and the work to do that should be done by everyone at every level of government and those in the community.
She’s also hoping compassion will prevail over greed.
“I’m not going to give up, maybe there’s that one person out there who will say, ‘I can help you,’” she said.
