Affordable housing becoming prevalent topic in Ottawa Valley elections

The Ottawa Valley Affordable Housing Alliance (OVAHA) is making affordable housing and homelessness a key issue ahead of the upcoming municipal elections.

In recent weeks, OVAHA has held community town hall meetings across Renfrew County, resulting in five local committees forming in Pembroke, Bonnechere Valley, Madawaska Valley, North Algona Wilberforce, and Killaloe, Hagarty, and Richards Townships.

"Every community is struggling, especially with the smaller communities," says Cameron Montgomery, a member of the OVAHA steering committee.

"We're all struggling with having no rentals whatsoever."

Montgomery says the lack of affordable housing in Renfrew County became prominent during the pandemic when people from larger cities were moving to the area and buying up rental properties at inflated prices.

"And so all the rental housing was sold," she tells CTV News Ottawa.

"There's a lot of people who are working from home from other communities living here, which we're happy about to have new people in the community, but then it's caused a shortage of housing."

At The Grind Pembroke, a local community kitchen, executive director Jerry Novak says they have seen a rise in homelessness within the city.

"They're in tents, they're sleeping under the bridges here, so we are seeing it," says Novak.

Novak says the issue of homelessness is no different than what is seen in big cities such as Ottawa. While the number of homeless people may be smaller, the causes are similar despite the more rural setting.

"The rise in rental costs is just not affordable," he says, "so they're on the street."

The City of Pembroke say they've been trying to attract developers to build affordable housing, but none are interested in taking on the project.

"We've had very little success," says city councillor Patricia Lafreniere. 

"So I don't know if that's going to change given that the housing market is so limited at this point."

Montgomery says that the creation of OVAHA's local committees is the first step in seeing their vision of affordable housing take shape in their communities.

"A single family home that has an additional unit or that sort of thing," Montgomery describes. "There's not very many duplexes or four-plexes or anything around here."