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Watson Eyes Campaign Promise, Appoints Taylor As Council Housing Czar

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Council has a new housing czar.

Mayor Jim Watson has handed the voluntary role to Bay Coun. Mark Taylor, who is now the “special liaison on housing and homelessness issues.”

Taylor, who is also a deputy mayor, will work with three committee chairs – Coun. Diane Deans in community and protective services, Coun. Jan Harder in planning and Coun. Mathieu Fleury at Ottawa Community Housing – to push the city’s housing and homelessness agenda.

Watson has given Taylor his key mission: Reduce the city’s reliance on emergency shelters.

When Watson was running for re-election in 2014, he made a campaign commitment to reduce the number of people who need emergency shelter by 15 per cent over five years.

The city’s emergency shelter statistics aren’t good. Just after the current council took office, average nightly bed occupancy increased to 144.7 per cent for the first quarter. That was for Q1 2015 and it was a three-year high for Q1.

Things improved slightly over the course of 2015, if you compare the quarters with the same periods in 2014, but the Q4 2015 figures haven’t been released yet. (There was a notable increase in average shelter stays between Q4 2013 and Q4 2014).

From the city’s semi-annual performance report to council, Q2 2015 and Q3 2015.

When compared with nine other municipalities in the 2014 Ontario Benchmarking Initiative, Ottawa had the highest average nightly bed occupancy rate – by a long shot. The median rate was 92 per cent. Ottawa’s rate was 145 per cent.

Fact is, the demand still outpaces supply for nightly stays in emergency shelters and Watson made it a priority during the campaign.

A couple of interesting inside-ball points on the housing file. Former community and social services general manager Aaron Burry was let go in the recent management reorganization. The former housing manager, Janice Burelle, was promoted to the GM job. The head of planning is John Moser, but he’s an interim general manager. So, there’s a bit of movement happening in the senior ranks, and now Taylor is being handed the political ball to quarterback housing improvements and help Watson meet his campaign promises.

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Follow City Hall reporter Jon Willing on Twitter at @JonathanWilling, on Instagram at @JonathanWilling and at ottawacitizen.com and ottawasun.com.


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