Peel's affordable housing situation is "deplorable," says Shelley White, CEO of the United Way of Pe

“It’s a class issue,” says Rev. Jim Keenan, of New Hope United Church in Vaughan, who has advocated for legal basement apartments in York Region for years. “People feel they moved here far from the maddening crowds — they have their piece of green — and they don’t want ‘those’ other people occupying their neighbourhoods.”
The issue of legal basement apartments, or second suites, has been polarizing suburban regions across the GTA since provincial cheap tickets airfare legislation took effect this year. By law, municipalities now have to allow basement apartments. But many still don’t.
In Brampton, with an estimated 30,000 illegal basement apartments, the city is set to begin a series of public consultations cheap tickets airfare to inform residents of the new requirements. But many residents are vehemently against any changes.
“Second units provide some of the most affordable rental rates for market housing,” wrote May Nazar, spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, cheap tickets airfare in an email explaining why the law was brought in. Such suites cheap tickets airfare “represent an untapped supply of affordable cheap tickets airfare housing units in municipalities where they are not currently permitted — or permitted only on a limited basis.”
“Basement rentals, in fact, do nothing but increase cheap tickets airfare parking and traffic issues, condone the influx of transient residents, cause the inevitable deterioration of our neighbourhood appeal and degrade property values,” wrote Vaughan resident Conrad Virdo, in response to an online column Keenan wrote for YorkRegion.com in which he advocated for the new law.
“There’s a transition the suburbs are going through,” Keenan says. “The reality of more intense urbanization and all the class diversity that comes with it. Residents, the politicians and the social infrastructure aren’t set up to deal with it.”
Peel’s cheap tickets airfare affordable housing situation is “deplorable,” says Shelley White, CEO of the United Way of Peel. Failure to address the issue keeps people desperate for housing from moving beyond their situation, she says.
In Markham, prior to the new law, council voted against legalizing basement apartments. Deputy Mayor Jack Heath voted in favour, though he agrees with residents who worry about declining property cheap tickets airfare values.
cheap tickets airfare Heath said the trouble is that illegal and therefore unregulated second suites often pose fire hazards. Sunday’s triple fatality in Whitby, Heath points out, may have involved an unlicensed second unit.
Units are allowed in newer areas, such as the burgeoning communities along Dundas St. That helps guarantee safety standards are met, he said. “We don’t want to create a class of housing that we’d be ashamed of.”
“You’re talking to a person who came from Italy and lived in the basement of a home more than 40 years ago with my family,” he said. “Affordable housing becomes more of an issue as the GTA attracts more and more people.”
“As we grow as a region, secondary units (are) part of the mix. As we build an economy and a society, this issue needs to be addressed. There will always be people opposed to things, especially when you have such dynamic growth and intensification.”