John van Leeuwen speaking with Daniel Blaikie - March 13, 2017 at the
Elmwood Affordable Housing Town Hall. Photo, Metro News, Dyan Martin.
The Elmwood community has seen a number of its
important community symbols under stress. The closure of the Kelvin Community
C.C. and the proposed redevelopment of it into a commercial building was
defeated by the combined effort of the community and its elected officials at
all three levels of government. The historic fire hall on Talbot and the
community programming it offered was also in jeopardy after its main tenant
Youth for Christ relocated to its new building on Main Street. Providentially
Riverwood Church took over the building and redeveloped it so that it includes
more accessible social spaces and programming for the diverse needs of the
community.
While the community responded in positive ways to these threats the response has been piecemeal in
comparison to the fundamental transformation, both economically and
socially, taking place in the neighbourhood. The thriving housing
market in Winnipeg has resulted is many young families looking to Elmwood as an area to find adequate housing they can
afford since they are being priced out of other
areas. At the
same time ‘millennials’ are looking at Elmwood as an attractive area to purchase housing since
they want to be within walking distance of downtown jobs and amenities. These forces have driven up the price of
housing in the area.
While this may seem like a good thing for many
homeowners in the area the advance in price is only advantageous if they are
looking to sell their homes in the near future. For many residents in the
community the cost of owning a home has risen drastically as houses become more
expensive. This increase in property values has meant sizeable increases in
property and school taxes. At the same time the higher prices for commodities
and transportation has created a significant rise in the costs of
building materials for home renovations while contractor and home renovation
services have increased due to high demand
and shortage of skilled trades. These costs have to be borne by many residents on fixed
incomes or employed in employment that has not seen increases in wages relative
to the increases in cost of living. As a result many homeowners have not kept up with required
repairs, which means the value of their properties have
not risen as much as other properties in
the area who have been able to maintain their homes.
This is why the Member of Parliament, Daniel Blaikie's, recent hosting of a forum on affordable housing was
very much welcomed. The proactive approach to these issues will help in
determining the needs and future potential of housing development in the
community, and provide a framework by which an action plan can be developed. A
panel of community and business leaders was assembled with Mr. Blaikie moderating the discussion. A question period followed.
While there was general agreement that neighbourhood renewal was vital to the
survival and flourishing of a city many concerns were raised about what it
would do to a working class neighbourhood like Elmwood. A key discussion
point was the impact of ‘gentrification’ and the
displacement of existing residents if Elmwood is deemed an up and coming
community. A great deal of concern was raised about the impact of what it would
mean to residents if they were forced to move. The disruption in social
networks which allowed them to survive, such as community connections, access
to health services, food banks, these would all have to be reestablished after
years of forming, sometimes decades. While no definitive steps were taken,
residents were encouraged to connect with Elmwood Community Resource Centre to support affordable housing initiatives in the area.
Next Blog Article: How To Inoculate Against The Gentrification Virus.
