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16 THE LIBERAL, Richmond nm, uncano, w eunesuay, may 43, Housing Mix Recommended For Balanced Community In South Richmond Hill Housing was the chief topic of concern at the annual meet- ing of Richmond Hill Social Planning Council’s annual meet- ing May 16 in Don Head Sec- ondary School; Difficulties in identifying need, allocating responsibility and achieving the essential goal were humorously described by guest speaker Steve Lurie, plan- ning associate with the Ontario Welfare Council in the reading of the satirical “Get-together" written by Stephen Leacock of Orillia 40 years ago. v. u... -- ,7. In meeting the urgent need for housing in areas such as the Region of York can one single planning body. voluntary or public do all the planning? he asked. Should it be done by a government agency or a vol- untary agency. and who should co-ordinate the program? In Mr. Laurie‘s opinion it should not be the province. A voluntary group does not have the public mandate of an elect- ed body, but it can influence decisions. There are 35 social planning councils in the prov- ince and thousands of workers. but no one model that is stand- ard. . In small communities there are “inter-agencies" with executives such as clergy. serv- ice clubs and schools with no paid staff. yet they can make constructive proposals. ince and thousands of workers. but no one model that is stand- ard. . In small communities there are “interâ€"agencies" with executives such as clergy, serv- ice clubs and schools with no paid staff. yet they can make constructive proposals. In communities such as Rich- mond Hill the volunteers lack d-“llllll“llllllllllllllllllllllll\\lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllill“llllllllllllllllllllllill“illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllilllllllllllllllilllillilli“\ilmilllllllillillllllill““llllllllllllllillllllllillllllllllll\lllllilllllllllllliillllllllllll lllllillllllllillllilll“ll“llllllllllllllllllilllllll“ll\lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllill“ill“lllllllllllllllllllilllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll“\llillllllllllmllmllillllllltlllllllllli lllllllllllllllillllllll“\llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll\llllllllllll“lllll“illllilllllllll\llllllllll\lllll“illllllllllllllllllllll\lllllMill\llllllllllllllllllllllllllllll\lllllllilllllllllll'la one tull-tlme paiu wunwi. unu in the metropolises of Toronto and Ottawa there are 12 or more. An effective paid staff or staff-worker could co-ordinate the activities of the volunteers. providing continuity of work and satisfaction for the volun- teer. In situations where there (5:53 u: vuy The Ontario Welfare Council, said Mr. Lurie, funds social de- v.4 ...... -velopment in providing consultâ€" ants to groups and governments on aging. committees of social planning councils. action com- mittees on day care. children’s services and housing commitâ€" tees. ' als vary according to the size of the family, and in Metro it is “first come. first served". The “HOME” plan introduced in Bramalea in 1965 permits families to buy houses at low prices on lots leased under the “Home Ownership Made Easy“ plan. should be grants to eliminate tax increases; major water, sew- age and other essential service studies should be undertaken; and once a municipality has agreed to negotiate‘with a de- veloper it should be guaran- teed provincial support. Viewing the housing situation Mr. Burns pointed out that there are many new opportun- ities for local governments to introduce inovative housing concepts. that there is a place for citizen organizations in de- termining the type of housing that will go into the commun- ity. need of “rent geared to in- come" in a municipality only when it is officially asked by the municipality to do a sur- vey of need. The survey is then analyzed before OHC moves into the community. Ward 6 Councillor Lou Wain- wright thanked the pannelists. AA A ‘ Another SPC Member L‘ric George observed that the prov- ince seems to be moving north. decentralizing. concentrating on public housing in communities such as Brasilia rather than in commercially. industrially and residentially booming areas such as Richmond Hill. “'- d-lllllmlllmllll\llll1llll\\\l\l\ll“\“lllllmllum“lull“\llll‘llllullllllllllllululullululuuululuumuuuuuuummuuun|mummuummuuu.uumum............ Task Forces Survey Housing, Day Care Needs For Social Planners The meeting concerned it- self with the health needs, education and cultural re- quirements that should be considered before, r a t h e r than after, housing is put in. as well as ways of meeting such needs in established areas where they are not at present available. Chaired by SPC President‘ Dave Schillel, the meeting heard reports from the South Ric h m o n d Hill (formerly BAIF) Task Force. the Emer- gency Housing Committee, an address on public housing, and a panel discussion on housing in general. THE NEW VS. THE OLD Reporting conclusion drawn by the task force, Mike Burnie said five signi- ficant areas of divergence between the old community of Richvale and the new BAIF development had come to light: year of immigration, age, education, occupation and income. By MARGARET LADE Housing was the topic for discussion at the annual meeting of Richmond‘Hill §qcial Planning flea-(i Secondary School May 16, but the interest of audience and participants ex- tended far beyond the‘nierennattei‘ of .s‘helter._ vaAu - ...u- N- Speaker and panelists delved into the social implications, economics, recreational, commercial and industrial factors affected by and affecting location, desirability and density of housing. THE LIBERAL, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Wednesday, May 29, 1974 TOGETHER IT IS A PLEASURE FOR ME TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY, TO EXPRESS MY THANKS TO ALL WHO ATTENDED AND SUPPORTED ME AT THE NOMINATION MEETING TO ELECT THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE IN YORK NORTH. ALTHOUG‘H I AM YOUR CANDIDATE IN THE FORTHCOMING ELECTION, AND THUS A STANDARD BEARER FOR THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE PARTY, IN SUBSTANCE, I FEEL THAT I AM ONLY AN EXTENSION OF EACH ONE OF YOU INDIVIDUALLY AND ALL OF YOU COLLECTIVELY. TOGETHER . . . . LET’S MAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY AND INTEGRITY FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA OUR MAIN PURPOSE IN THIS ELECTION. With respect to place of birth, religion and home ownership, the two com- munities are basically simi- lar. Although foreign-born per- sons make up roughly one- quarter of the sample popu- lation in both community, 80 'percent of Richvale resi- dents born outside Canada entered the country prior to 1960, while 65 percent of the BAIF immigrants came to Canada after 1965. Even more significant was the age differential. In the Richvale sample only 15 per- cent of the heads of house- holds were Iess than 35, while in the BAIF sample, 17 percent were less than 25 and 61 percent under 35. Data on the number and ages of children was not col- lected, but the report assum- ed that the child population in Richvale would be older and more numerous than that found in BAIF. funds and the power to plan. Paid staff would broaden cit- izen participation and result in more effective potential for ac- tion. A United Fund could help in bringing this about, it would result in social agencies coming together to share in- formation, but could also lead to competition for funds. Mon- ies raised for volunteer agen- cies are allocated through the United Fund. He urged the volunteer not to be downgraded â€"â€"- to feel less competent than the elected or appointed official, for no matter how many volunteers there are, they do come to- gether, and they do know more about the needs of their respec- tive agencies than the govern- ment persons because of their personal involvement. In Ontario, said Mr. Lurie, there are 12 municipalities with social planning councils with full-time staff. and $1 mil- lion a year goes to funding social planning councils in On- tario. Six communities have one fullâ€"time paid worker. and in Vthé metropolises of Toronto and Ottawa there are 12 or more. STEPHEN B. ROMAN PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE YORK NORTH Information gathered in- dicated that Richvale resi> dents are less likely to move than are their BAIF neigh- bors, indicating the age com- position may tend to diverge even more until ’BAIF resi- dents settle in and the com- munity stabilizes. In education there was less desparity â€" 27 percent with university education in BAIF, 21 percent in Richvale. The difference in occupatio- nal class and income was far more dramatic. Forty-four percent of the BAIF sample were‘ in the professional] managerial/tehnical occupa- tions, but only 30 percent of the Richvale sample fell in- to this category. Economical- ly, 47 percent of BAIF res- pondents made more than $15,000 a year, and 25 perâ€" cent of Richvale residents were in this economic brac- ket. Only 5.7 percent of BAIF residents reported in- comes of less than $10,000, while 27 percent of Richvale residents made $10,000 or less. STABILIZE COMMUNITY “The age difference is the factor that will probably have the most bearing on the manner in which the two po- pulations will interact,” said the report. r V‘V‘Peo-ple in different stages of life cycle have fewer op- portunities to meet one a}: is no such coâ€"operation, said Mr. Lurie, “It is hard to keep on beating your head against a wall.” The province, he said, is prepared to put up $440,000 to assist such groups, quoting Pro- vincial Secretary Robert Welch as saying, “Maybe there is nothing wrong in funding a loyal opposition. In the matter of permanent- paid staffing, Mr. Lurie sug- gested that the regional gov- ernment experiment in staff- ing. the Richmond Hill SPC; that alternatively the Ministry of Community and Social Ser- vices hire a social worker to work with the community group on a part-time basis as an inter- im measure. He also pointed out that many residents of Richmond Hill work in Metro and con- tribute to the Metro United Fund through payroll deduc- tions. It would be quite leg- itimate, he said. to approach the Metro group to request money to pay staff, but. he ad- vised, “Don't throw all your eggs in one basket." other through school-related activities ,and are less likely to have common interests and concerns." IDENTITY ISSUE An awareness of this should be useful to planning officials, citizens' groups and all concerned about the unity and identity issues in south- ern Richmond Hill, said Mr. Burnie. Richvale residents showed most concern, worrying about evercrowdmg of physical facilities, general congestion and loss of the rural atmos- phere of-t'heir present envi- ronment. They are, however, said the report, aware of benefits the new development could bring in terms of new facilities and improved services. They want more recreational facilities, better public transportation services and sewers. Richvale residents, on the whole, ‘have difficulty identi- fying with Richmond Hill, feeling they are “second- class" citizens in relation to the rest of the town. They want greater involvement in the planning in their area and would like more informa- tion on the (BAIF develop- ment. more onnortunities to make their concerns known to the planning authorities. In the first phases of its operation, the task force had found BAIF representatives Following a coffee break there was a panel discussion on housing. Participants were Warren Harding of the Ontario Housing Corporation, Robin Whitelaw of the Provisional Housing Action Program. Kathy Founder of the Richmond Hill Planning Department and Dan Burns, principal housing invest- igator for the Ontario Welfare Council. Moderator was SPC President David Schiller. The OHC has operated for 10 years as a crown corpora- tion, said Mr. Harding. as an arm of the provincial govern- ment. There is the rental hous- ing division and the home own- ership division. OHC, he said. is not "low rental" but is geared to gross family income and provides family units of from five bed- room houses or suites to ’senior citizen accommodation. Applications are point-rated and aceommodated according to need. Homes are visited by OHC representatives and famil- ies or individuals listed accord- ing to priority of need. Rent- als vary according to the size of the family, and in Metro it is “first come. first served". The "HOME" plan introduced in Bramalea in 1965 permits families to buy houses at low prices on lots leased under the “Home Ownership Made Easy“ plan. reluctant to express opinions, but as the year went on they became more involved, more concerned, more willing to participate in discussion and offer opinions, the commit- Lee found. EMERGENCY HOUSING The SPC's emergency hous- ing implementation commit- tee report was presented by Bob Kennedy. The commit- tee. he said, felt that at least one housing unit should be available for short-term use for legitimate reasofls, for families that were stranded â€" burned out â€"â€" flooded out â€" evicted. Mr. Schiller thanked the task force and the housing committee, acknowledg- ing the valued contribution of Helpmate-Information in conducting the survey on emergency housing needs that formed the statistical basis for implementing the committee. The meeting agreed to continue to explore ways and means of obtaining such a unit. There is also provision for mortgage financing in condom- iniums, providing money for first and second mortgages with builders a n d developers. Twenty-five percent of such units in the province are gov- ernment subsidized, said Mr. Harding. Also subsidized by the prov- ince is student housing at uni- versities and colleges. both on- campus housing managed by the university and offâ€"campus housing for under-graduate and post-graduate students. Mr. Whitelaw attributed the increased cost of housing part- ly to higher land costs. and to the lack of serviced land for building. Costs, he said. have risen up to 340 percent in 10 years. At the local level, he said, regional and municipal goals should be set, that “housing ac- tion areas" should be designat- ed. and deadlines for develop- ment set. At the provincial level, Mr. Whitelaw said, local disincent- ives should be removed. There should be grants to eliminate tax increases; major water, sew- age and other essential service studies should be undertaken; and once a municipality has agreed to negotiate'with a de- veloper it should be guaran- teed provincial support. Viewing the housing situation DAY CARE NEED He referred also to the ap- pointment in the early months of 1973-74 board year of a task force on day care to assess the current lccal need for such services and evaluate various forms of both private and public means of filling this role. The task force, Mrs. Ellen Smith, Mrs. Barbara Mann, Mrs. Pauline Barrett and Mrs. Winona MacDonald, reâ€" ported to the board in Oc- tober. They described the need for expanding local service as “very substantial”. “Surveys recently conduc- ted by York Regionol Depart- ment of Social Services indi- cate that day care service needs on a regional basis are truly massive," said Mr. Schiller. “The report of the task force, along with cor- respondence urging imme- diate action to expand the service in this community and volunteering €he coun- cil's assistance in setting up a regional day care advisory committee were forwarded to from the municipal level, Miss Founder said there have been no direct statements regarding (low rental) housing in the Richmond Hill plan. “It is a process that takes time." And times costs money. said Miss Pounder. The time in- volved in citizen participation delays the start of housing pro- jects, and the added cost is reâ€" flected in the rentals and mort- gages. To meet the housing need. there should be a “housing mix" of middle income and low income housing units, Standards. too. might be re- duced. She cited Kitchener where services are run at the back of properties. not underâ€" ground, on "zero" lot lines. Miss Pounder‘s recommenda- tion that the SPC ask council to concider amendments to the Official Plan. reduce minimum property frontage laws, that low rental and low-dividend housing be incorporated into lthe Lake Wilcox study. and that mobile home development be considered. was approved by the meeting. York Region and to our own town council." There had to date been no positive response to the SPC request, Mr. Schiller said, and so remains a problem of considerable urgency and frustration CITIZEN PLANNING A citizens‘ advisory group on planning and policy was formed last fall to encourage a more meaningful role for residents of the town in the Planning of the community, said Mr. Schiller. The propo- sal for such a group had come from the (then) BAIF Task Force, and the group is now operating on it own, providing a vehicle for citi- zen participation in plan- ning. Turning to finances, Mr. Schiller said the council now feels the time has come when paid staff is needed to ade- quately serve the needs of the community with its great- ly e x t e n d e d geographical boundaries and burgeoning population. “As a consequence, consi- Not only is there provincial support, there are also federal capital grants available at low interest rates for first time owners. There is also a provin- cial home renewal plan for owners or purchasers of older homes. Many factors must be consid- ered â€" physical planning, zon- ing, pace of development. the quality of homing. services, emergency housing. pay-shelter requirements , mobile homes. etc. Much information is available through workshops. research, pamphlets, reports and briefs on local planning, and that local pressure can always be brought to bear through rate- payer and tenant groups, those acting on behalf of the hand- icapped, group homes. etc. He referred also to building co-op- eratives and housing programs which could be organized under the auspices of the Ontario Welfare Council. In reply to a question from Regional Councillor Lois Han- cey, Mr. Harding said that OHC is prepared to meet the need of “rent geared to inâ€" come" in a municipality only when it is officially asked by the municipality to do a sur- vey of need. The survey is then analyzed before OHC moves into the community. derable effort has been ex- pended these past months in attempting to secure staff funding. We have been un- successful. Many social plan- ning councils receive funds from the local United Ap- peal. Unfortunately no such organization is yet in exis- tence in the Region of York. “If it were, and if the per capita donations were similar to that of Metro. a non-gov- ernment fund in excess of $1 million per annum would be available to social agen- cies throughout the region," Mr. Schiller continued. STAFF NEEDS “There are. to be sure. 'short-comings to the United Appeal approach, but at the moment this looks like the best long term solution to the problem. A short term solution remains elusive and has led some to question the continued existence of a vi- able social pianning council in Richmond Hill." Paradoxically, Mr. Schiller observed, in this age of ge- neral abundance the need for adding that he had many unan- swered questions regarding “municipally set standards" and “mortgages dried up” as well as some of the extensive changes in National Housing require- ments. upstream sewage plants, etc., but he realized specific in- formation was not at hand, re- ferring to the Handelman Re- port on Housing and questions he would like to ask Housing Minister Sidney Handleman. Mrs. Marylo Graham asked if there is a “nasty segment" in the unhoused. people who have to go without separate housing. particularly those under 30 who are forced by economics to double up in order to survive. VMrJBu‘rns replied that age 31 is the average for first-time home ownership. Mrs. Gwen Halliday was con- cerned about the amount of housing available. What kind of pressure is being brought on various levels of governâ€" ment to provide incentives, such as tax cuts for a few years. that would make it possible for more people to own their own houses? Another SPC Member Eric George observed that the prov- ince seems to be moving north. decentralizing. concentrating on public housing in communities such as Brasilia rather than in commercially. industrially and residentiaily booming areas such as Richmond Hill. social action seems to grow rather than diminish. In the next year the new board of the SPC must de- cide its priorities, hé conclu- ded. thanking the out-going board for its valued support in the past 12 months. Continuing on the board are Ann Gold and Shirley Stanley. Newly elected at the meeting were Donald Binney, Mike Bumie, Hugo Jackson, Dorothy Mcllhinney, Bruce Venn. Merle George and Dorothy Gummersall. Mr. Schiller declined nomi- nation for another year. 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