Cambridge senior worries she'll have nowhere to go if council approves new housing project

It’s a paradox facing municipalities across the province – the need to build more homes while preserving affordable rental units on valuable land.

The City of Cambridge is facing this exact situation with a property on Blair Road.

A developer wants to build 32 new housing units but the problem is, there are already five families living there in affordable rentals.

Reaction from Blair Road residents

On Wednesday, CTV News spoke with one resident who said if she’s kicked out of 220 Blair Road, she’ll have nowhere else to go.

“Since the pandemic, the market has become absolutely unaffordable,” Michelle LaRiviere said. “There no affordable rentals out there. And so, facing eviction is absolutely terrifying to us.”

She’s been living there for the last five years and currently pays around $1,700 in rent per month.

“We look out for each other. We share green space. It’s a community.”

Michelle LaRiviere in Blair Road home in Cambridge on Jan. 31, 2024. (Jeff Pickel/CTV Kitchener)

The property, which consists of a detached home and a four-plex, are part of the developer’s proposal.

“We found out pretty quickly what his intentions were and that’s when our anxiety just hit the roof because we knew that our housing had become insecure,” LaRiviere said.

Proposed plan

The plan calls for the demolition of the properties at 220 Blair Road to create two 3-storey stacked townhouses with a total of 32 units.

The developer's proposed plan for 220 Blair Road in Cambridge.

“The new units will not be rentals,” LaRiviere added. “What’s proposed to be built here will not be available to us.”

She’s worried the residents, herself included, won’t find other accommodations.

“As a senior on a fixed income I’m seriously looking at possibly living in a van if I get evicted,” she explained.

The developer's proposed plan for 220 Blair Road in Cambridge.

Council’s concern

The proposed project was brought up at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

Mayor Jan Liggett expressed her concerns.

“The land is already taken up with human beings,” she said. “Children, sick people and seniors who need a place to live, and it needs to be affordable.”

According to Liggett, municipalities are in a no-win situation.

“We got caught in between the need for housing and that displacement, and that’s what was disturbing for us,” she explained. “You don’t take away to add more housing. [That] defeats the whole purpose of adding housing to our community.”

Council asked the developer to come back with a new plan that protects the existing – and affordable – housing.

“There’s a big section of it where you could add on and make a profit off of that. You don’t have to evict the people that are there currently,” Liggett said. “People will still have their homes and there’ll be new housing for people.”

Planning expert weighs in

CTV News spoke with a planning expert who agrees with the mayor’s vision.

“You could potentially build those buildings on the existing parcel without demolishing the existing housing,” Dawn Parker, a professor with the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning, explained. “I think there are some larger issues that this proposal really brings to light, which is that all over the region we’re seeing housing demolished to build parking lots. If you take a look at the proposed site plan… the majority of the new land in the proposed development will be surface parking.”

The developer's proposed plan for 220 Blair Road in Cambridge.

To make it work, she suggests getting creative.

“We really need to rethink and reimagine how we regulate and building our cities in terms of parking,” she said. “The only way to do that feasibly in this market is for some entity to subsidize underground parking. And at this point in time, I believe that makes sense.”

Parker is also in favour of converting large parking lots into housing, an idea that Cambridge council rejected in December but regional council is currently considering.

“There’s a myth that if we approve and build more high-rise housing, somehow that extra supply will increase housing affordability. That won’t happen,” Parker explained.

Could the project still move ahead?

When a proposal is rejected the developer may appeal the case directly to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

In the past, these cases would favour the developer’s project.

Liggett feels confident it won’t turn out that way.

“I think it depends on how far that council wants to go. Do you protect your community? Do you protect what is currently there, the people that are there now, or are you afraid of a quasi-judicial system – which would be the Ontario Land Tribunal. Sometimes you have to stand your ground and say: ‘This is important to us. This is important to the building of our community.’”

Parker also believes the Blair Road tenants may have the upper hand this time because the province may agree that keeping five families in affordable homes is worth it.

“The province has backed off on some poor housing decisions,” she said. “Now is the moment to open the dialogue and put forward some new solutions, and they might listen.”

“The province should take into consideration any families that would be displaced by developers [and] either completely deny applications that would displace residents in affordable housing or provide housing for the families that will be displaced,” LaRiviere added.