London city council held a special meeting to decide an action plan for affordable housing in London on Monday night. Council looked at different ways to approach the affordable housing plan for the city of London.council heard multiple presentations at the meeting including London middlesex community housing who maintain most of the affordable housing in the city of London are confident that they can have as low as a two percent vacancy in their units by the end of 2019. Middlesex London Housing are also asking for a 17 percent increase in funding a number that ward 6 councilor Phil Squire Says is too high ” for us to be at out budget of 2.6 percent they’re going to have to come down to about one point five percent increase in funding.”
Squire also stressed that this is a long term fix and people need to have patience. “People need to realize that it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to get a result and it may take up to 10 to 15 years and people need to realize that.” Squire was also asked about if there is a quick and easy fix to the housing crisis in London. “no it’s going to take a lot of time, a lot of money to get this right.”
Phil squire was also concerned about the plan that council eventually approved stating ” I feel we’re not really solving anything we’re just moving chairs around on the dance floor.” The plan that the city eventually approved includes scrapping two housing agency’s in the city and replacing them with a one person board of directors. The vote was eventually calculated at 7-6 in favour of scrapping the housing agency’s.
