Too many people are paying more than they can manage for housing, living somewhere that no longer meets their needs or wondering whether they will be able to remain in Peterborough. The shortage includes deeply affordable and supportive homes as well as rental apartments, co-operative housing, accessible units and smaller homes for people who want to downsize.
There is no single municipal fix. Progress depends on using planning rules, public land, incentives, housing programs and partnerships together—and being clear about which results those tools are producing.
Housing and affordability have appeared repeatedly in local community conversations, including Hope City. People are concerned not only about the price of a home, but about insecure rentals, long waits for community housing, homelessness and the lack of options between a detached house and a high-rise apartment.
This section should continue to be updated with verified Listening Log themes rather than presenting illustrative comments as resident quotations.
The City controls land-use planning, zoning, local development approvals, building permits, some development incentives and the use of municipally owned land. It is also the local service manager for housing and homelessness programs and can build partnerships with nonprofit, co-operative, Indigenous and private housing providers.
Ontario controls the Planning Act, Building Code, landlord-and-tenant law, social-assistance rules and much of the funding framework for supportive housing, health and homelessness services. The federal government influences housing through financing, tax policy, infrastructure programs and direct housing funds. Meaningful progress will require sustained provincial and federal investment alongside municipal action.
Maintain a public inventory of suitable City-owned and City-controlled sites, evaluate housing opportunities before disposal and use transparent partnership criteria when public land can support affordable, supportive, co-operative or mixed-income housing.
Publish understandable approval steps, expected timelines and project status information. Identify avoidable delays and prioritize complete applications that deliver verified affordable, community or supportive housing within municipal authority.
Implement the Official Plan in a way that supports missing-middle housing, accessible homes, rentals and gentle infill where infrastructure and services can support them. Pair growth with parks, transportation, schools and other neighbourhood needs.
Support coordinated homelessness prevention, transitional and supportive housing, community housing renewal and partnerships that help people move from shelter into stable housing. Advocate jointly for the provincial and federal funding required to sustain those services.
My work with Basic Income Peterborough Network has kept me involved in conversations about income security, housing stability and the way different public systems affect one another. Through community organizations and Countdown Creative, I have also managed projects involving budgets, timelines, accessibility requirements and partners with different responsibilities.
I would bring those project-management and public-communication skills to housing decisions while relying on housing providers, people with lived experience, City staff and other subject-matter experts for the expertise the work requires.