United Way of Bruce Grey Executive Director Francesca Dobbyn is applauding Ontario Premier Doug Ford for working to help seniors find affordable housing.
“I really appreciate the Golden Girls Act that the provincial government is putting through which will allow seniors to live together in ways where they can buy a house and four or five seniors all live in it together,” says Dobbyn.
The Act was introduced by Durham MPP Lindsey Park. It's named after four Port Perry senior women who were looking to share ownership of a home, but the municipality's zoning bylaws wouldn't allow it and they encountered resistance from people around them.
“They got into some Nimbyisms, (Not In My BackYard) the people in the neighbourhood didn't want them in,” says Dobbyn, explaining residents didn't want “rooming houses” in their neighbourhoods.
“Premier Ford, he was aware of this story,” says Dobbyn who explains he was quick to support it.
“Co-housing is fantastic and that's what this Golden Girls Act allows for, unrelated people to have ownership in a building. So they have shares,” says Dobbyn, adding,”We need to densify our housing because that will reduce costs.”
Meanwhile, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker also likes the Golden Girls Act idea, “There is a housing shortage. This allows people more choice, more variety, it makes it more affordable. It leverages existing assets that are there and I think at the end of the day, it's responsive, it's innovative and it's cost effective.”
He adds, “If you look at a lot of our towns and villages with the large old-style homes that don't have the large families anymore, here's an opportunity there rather than trying to build something new all the time and funding new land and new septic, you can utilize existing assets. I'm really a big supporter of that type of an approach.”
The Golden Girls Act's current status is that it has passed second reading in the legislature and has been referred to the Standing Committee on General Government. That Committee has been looking at it since early 2019. The Committee reconvenes February 18th.
“They'll do a fairly thorough review,” says Walker who notes the committee would likely be talking to stakeholders who are for and against the idea before it comes back to the legislature to be voted on.