WINNIPEG VOTES: Motkaluk wants to empower private landlords to provide affordable housing

Source: Winnipeg Sun

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk wants to empower the private sector to take derelict housing and make them affordable rentals.

On Thursday, Motkaluk unveiled a plan to seize vacant properties or houses and auction them off to those who commit to restoring them and making them available for rent within six months of purchase.

Thursday’s announcement follows up on one Motkaluk made earlier in the week detailing her plans to seize derelict properties under the bylaw provisions of the Taking Title Without Compensation process.

Motklaluk says that the majority of affordable housing in Winnipeg is provided by the private sector.

“We need to stop demonizing landlords who provide affordable rentals to our most vulnerable citizens. We will break down barriers to develop and sustain affordable housing in the private market,” she said.

“The city will develop an affordable housing registry where private landlords can be matched with social service agencies, making it easier and faster to find housing for the vulnerable populations served by those agencies.”

Motkaluk says her plan reflects recommendations made by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in their alternative municipal budget for 2022 that Winnipeg should prevent the loss of private market units renting at rates affordable to people living on low incomes.

“The single greatest act of reconciliation that I can think of is to restore dignity and hope to our most marginalized Indigenous neighbours, by providing them with safe and secure housing of their own, where individuals will be free to live their own lives without being judged by others,” Motkaluk said.

Motkaluk is one of 11 mayoral candidates running ahead of the Oct. 26 election.

Motkaluk says her plan reflects recommendations made by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in their alternative municipal budget for 2022 that Winnipeg should prevent the loss of private market units renting at rates affordable to people living on low incomes.
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“The single greatest act of reconciliation that I can think of is to restore dignity and hope to our most marginalized Indigenous neighbours, by providing them with safe and secure housing of their