GuelphToday received the following letter from Regg Struyk regarding housing issues in Guelph.
We seem to miss the real questions that need to be answered.
Why is housing so expensive? Do we think it is really supply? Should we ignore that we had decades of almost 0% financing? We had a perfect storm with COVID and mass migration into the GTA? I have never seen such a ludicrous increase in home valuation and yet we seem to think building more will reduce the cost.
Really?
City proposes "$5.5 million every year in development reduction fees to contribute to new housing supply". So yet again reduce the cost for business and transfer to whom? That would be Guelph taxpayers to fund profiting developers.
City proposes "investing billions in infrastructure that supports growth". Why are we still holding on to this old premise that we must grow at all cost? Maybe we need to re-evaluate how we fund and sustain a community. At what point will we actually get a grip and realize that uncontrolled growth may not be a positive?
I challenge the city of Guelph to actually think out of the box and really provide sustainable and realistic goals for housing. There is no way that the cost will go down and you need to be honest about that for your constituents.
As well you need to tell Guelphites that the growth you want costs everyone here period/. Just be honest so everyone can make make informed decisions for the next election.
Regg Struyk
