Housing, housing, housing.
Not surprisingly, many of the questions by Barrie councillors to Simcoe County officials when they were presenting their 2022 budget Monday night were about housing.
“There’s a great deal of pressure — you’re hearing it from members of council — in terms of the housing crisis in Barrie, which is at an all-time high,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman.
“Barrie is in a housing crisis, among the most expensive places to rent,” said Coun. Jim Harris.
The County of Simcoe provides a number of services to Barrie in addition to social housing, such as paramedics, health and emergency services, Ontario Works, children’s services, and long-term care homes.
Barrie’s share of these operating and capital services is projected to be more than $29.2 million in 2022. Comparing its 2022 budget to its 2021 budget, that is an 8.9 per cent or $2.4-million increase.
Yet, there were few questions from councillors about costs last night.
Instead, there was talk about the former Barrie OPP detachment at 20 Rose St., becoming social housing. It will be demolished by year’s end, with construction beginning in 2024. It’s to include two wings of 10 and eight storeys of 150 affordable and social housing units, Ontario Works, and children services, along with other social and community supportive uses.
Coun. Gary Harvey wondered aloud why it couldn’t be larger, given that Barrie has five times Orillia’s population and that city is getting 130 units of housing.
“I would say we probably have five times the problem here and the need for this type of housing,” he said. “I just wanted to highlight the tremendous need that we seem to have here and even though we do have 24 per cent (of the Simcoe County Housing Corporation’s units)… it just doesn’t seem to be coming close to the need.”
Greg Bishop, the county’s general manager of social and community services, said there are a number of factors in play, including the size of the Rose Street property, at 4.7 acres.
“There’s definitely a need in every region and particularly in the larger urban centres (for affordable housing),” Bishop said. “This one build will not be a solution to all situations, or all demand, but it certainly will be a step in the right direction.”
“We are watching the built-form in Barrie change,” Lehman said, mentioning the four towers planned for the nearby former YMCA site. “It might be worth a look to see if we can provide more units on site, notwithstanding the office uses and service provision there.”
Barrie’s mayor also asked about the county’s four long-term care homes, which have 544 beds and 34 more coming, but a wait time of one-and-a-half to two years, said Jane Sinclair, the county’s general manager of health and emergency services.
There are 19 Barrie residents in these long-term care (LTC) homes, which are located in Orillia, Collingwood, Beeton, and Penetanguishene.
“Is there a reason why there’s such low utilization of the county’s system by Barrie residents?” Lehman asked. “We’re about a third of the population of the county.”
“I would suggest that location of the long-term care homes may be a factor,” Sinclair said. “All long-term care homes are required to admit applicants from anywhere in the province. That may be a factor in the number of Barrie residents that locate in our LTC homes.”
“Just because they are too far away from family and their support networks, I suppose, and it’s not their home community,” Lehman said.
Harris did ask a question about Barrie getting its money’s worth for county services.
“How does the county ensure municipalities who are paying in get value? How would you equate or show residents of Barrie that the value they get for their portion of the contribution to the county services (is worthwhile)?" he asked.
“We have an annual report that we provide,” said Trevor Wilcox, the county’s general manager of corporate performance. “One that does outline the impact of each service and, of course, we compare to budget, we compare to other services and we compare to ourselves.
“So we’re really looking at a year-over-year comparison in terms of metrics within those services," he added.
Barrie councillors are scheduled to discuss the 2022 operating and capital budget at the Nov. 29 general committee meeting, and approve it at the Dec. 6 city council meeting — although there could be more meetings between those dates.
Approval of the County of Simcoe’s 2022 budget is part of this process.
