With Kingston’s vacancy rate ranked second lowest in the country and housing prices skyrocketing, a newly formed task force is trying to find solutions to the housing crisis.
Mayor Bryan Paterson’s housing task force will conduct consultations to bring together stakeholders and report back to council next year with recommendations to solve Kingston’s housing woes.
Although worries about housing are nothing new in the city, former councillor and realtor Adam Candon says the issue is at a breaking point.
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Global Kingston’s Shauna Cunningham hosted a discussion with Candon and Bill Hutchins, a local council expert and longtime anchor for Global Kingston.
Candon claims the city is losing track of the bigger picture by relying on its official plan, which he says is a broken model that needs to be revamped or thrown out.
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Hutchins says the “perfect storm” of Kingston’s housing problems has been brewing for about a decade
“Fewer people can afford to buy a home so we’ve seen increasing interests rates and other things. Instead of moving on from the rental market to the homeownership market, more people are biding their time; they’re staying put,” said Hutchins.
Parts of the in-depth interview with Candon and Hutchins were aired on Global Kingston’s 6 p.m. news broadcast, but the full half-hour discussion is posted above.
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