Housing & Affordable Homeownership: One Plan, Every Path
Four paths. One plan. Wherever you are, there's a next step.
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Path 0, Stay Housed. Prevention that catches people before crisis.
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Path 1, A Place to Start Over. Restructured shelter with a real plan back to housing.
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Path 2, A Place to Rent. Making it safe for landlords to say yes, and expanding mixed-income buildings.
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Path 3, A Path to Owning. Turning rent into a down payment, and Little Homes that stay affordable.
Every path uses federal and provincial housing dollars already set aside, kept off your property taxes.
The Problem
Whether someone is one month from losing their home, waiting years for a rental they can afford, or trying to buy their first, the need underneath is the same. A roof. Safety. A place to call home. Right now in London, that need is not being met. There is a crisis at one end and homes that feel out of reach at the other. In between, almost no path for modest-wage earners, young professionals, or middle-class families looking to get ahead.
The Solution
One connected plan with four paths. Wherever you stand on this spectrum, there is a next step forward. Every path meets people where they are. Every path uses federal and provincial dollars already set aside for housing, layered with local tools that keep this off your property taxes.
Path 0. Stay Housed
The cheapest crisis is the one that never happens.
- •Rent Bank and food banks funded like infrastructure, not charity, and scaled to economic pressures.
- •Add an optional London Hydro agreement that puts financial support information on bills that are falling behind, catching households before they lose everything.
Path 1. A Place to Start Over
Keep London's micro shelter program running, more cost-effectively, restructured into two communities.
- •One for people who have lost their homes in the last two years and are seeking help to start over: living wage job training where applicable, financial literacy supports, an individualized plan for success, a support worker, and part of their shelter allowance saved for first and last month's rent.
- •A second community for people in crisis: on-site triage, mental health support, and medical care, with clinical staff funded through the provincial health streams while the individual prepares for a supportive housing placement.
Path 2. A Place to Rent
Two plans to expand affordable rental in London.
- •The Rent Continuity Guarantee: the City covers any disruptions in monthly rent payments.
- •The Property Guarantee: a $10,000 fund covering unexpected damage or tenant unpaid rent.
- •Legal and casework backing: a dedicated fund for LTB mediation costs and one year of on-call caseworker support.
- •Plus continuing and expanding non-profit mixed-income buildings, providing deeply affordable, affordable, and market rents under one roof.
Path 3. A Path to Owning
Creating real chances at affordable homeownership.
- •Rent Plus Equity, administered by non-profit residential operators in mixed-income buildings. You pay market rent. Your apartment is your apartment. A portion of your market rent is held in trust as your down payment, portable to any home you buy. This is not rent-to-own.
- •The down payment forgivable loan program, protected and maintained.
- •Little Homes on trust land: energy-efficient small-home communities managed under a Community Land Trust by a non-profit operator, so the purchase price stays within reach for the next buyer too. While still providing little homeowners the opportunity to build equity and enjoy a better quality of life.
What This Means For You
For established homeowners:
- •Your kids and grandkids can afford to stay in London, and it will not touch your property taxes.
- •Neighbourhoods stay stable. Gentle additions, no sprawl, no new infrastructure costs.
For young professionals, graduates, and working families:
- •A real way into the housing market in the city where you want to build your future.
- •Rent Plus Equity turns a portion of your market rent into a down payment you own. Little Homes make ownership actually reachable.
For seniors:
- •The opportunity to downsize to an easily maintainable home and a comfortable retirement. Freeing up single family homes.
For anyone one month from losing their home:
- •Prevention that catches you before crisis.
A Proven Model
- •St. Thomas-Elgin reduced chronic homelessness by 36.7 percent in under a year, forty-five minutes down the road, using the same federal money and the same kinds of organizations London has.
- •Vivacite, a non-profit in Montreal, delivers permanently affordable shared-equity homeownership without ongoing public subsidy. Market-rate and affordable homes cross-subsidize each other. The model works without relying on taxpayer funding.
- •Whitehorse's community land trust is selling homes more than 30 percent below market. That is the mechanism behind Little Homes.
My Proposal
- •Set a public target in the first year to cut chronic homelessness, so Londoners can measure the difference for themselves.
- •Fund prevention like infrastructure. Rent Bank and food banks in multi-year budget lines, scaled to economic pressures.
- •Launch the landlord partnership with the Rent Continuity and Property Guarantees, so private landlords say yes.
- •Pilot Little Homes and Rent Plus Equity with non-profit partners, using federal and provincial dollars already set aside for housing.
- •Tie agency contracts to outcomes, not activity: housing retention at 6 and 12 months, return rates, prevention savings.