The latest housing report from the United Way Peterborough and District shows continued low vacancy and higher rates for the rental market in Peterborough, Ont., and surrounding area.
On Wednesday, the United Way released its 18th “Housing is Fundamental” report which offers an overview of the rental market and highlights the impacts of income inequality. The report’s author, Paul Armstrong, said the outlook remains grim as rental prices continue to rise in the city and surrounding communities but wages remain unchanged.
“To put it in a really crude way, people are just getting poorer,” he said. “That’s all there is to it.”
Among highlights in the report include:
- Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) vacancy rate is the lowest in Ontario for the second year in a row at 1.1 per cent.
- newly vacant apartment rents were 19 per cent higher than the rent of occupied units
- recovery in employment and renewed student inflows supported rental demand
- 70 units were added to the market, which is the largest increase in the last 15 years
A household must now earn over $53,000 to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city, the report notes.
According to the report, between 2021 and 2022, the price of a bachelor apartment in Peterborough increased 8.4 per cent.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in 2022 was $1,090, up 3.9 per cent compared with 2021. In 2022, rent was 1.7 per cent higher for a two-bedroom apartment ($1,339) and 8.5 per cent more ($1,523) for a three-bedroom setup.
“The rental market continues to brutalize its patrons,” Armstrong said. “More households have unaffordable rents.”
Armstrong said “affordable housing” — which is often deemed 10-20 per cent below market rents — is “all but unattainable” for most in the region.
“Never has housing commanded so much attention,” Armstrong said. “Almost daily, reports highlight shortages of purpose-built rental units and widespread affordability challenges. The current dilemma, while newsworthy, isn’t new. Its roots can be traced to federal government decisions made in the 1990s. Three decades later social or rent-geared-to-income housing has never been so needed.”
He said governments relying on the private market to meet all housing needs is “imaginary and unfounded,” and he said he urges them to “get back into the game” by focusing on targeted income benefits and social housing. He said many initiatives announced are “positive” but are “piecemeal.”
“Now you hear all kinds of politicians who stand before the camera and say, ‘This is what we’re doing,’ but it’s not comprehensive,” he said.
United Way CEO Jim Russell echoed the sentiment.
“There’s this myth out there and we really need to rail against it — if we just build more of any kind of housing or rental accommodation, it will drive down the cost — it’s just not true,” he said.
Russell said the income data in the Housing is Fundamental report will be expanded on in the United Way’s next income report, “The Gap,” which will be released later this year and focus on minimum wage and living wage in the city.