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POLITICS York receives 53million windfall Region to spend surplus on social housing BY DAVID FLEISCHER dpeischcryrmgcom Regional councillors want all options explored to ensure a windfall is spent on muchneeded social housing In addition to our balance sheet we have a social debt we have to deal with Newmar ket Mayor Tony Van Bynen said at a council workshop Thursday Ontario municipalities received the Invest ing in Ontario funds after the provincial sur plus of 200708 York Regions share was 53 million with the only condition being it must go toward capital projects Regional council said it would try to spend the funds on social housing Discussion at the meeting focused on some creative if not odd suggestions For instance inexpensive homes in Geor- gina could be purchased by the region how ever the homes wouldnt be close to tran sit or other services needed by lowincome families Striking deals with developers in the south for condominium units wouldnt help either as condo fees and luxury facilities dont fit the regions model Several councillors suggested the region take an inventory of surplus lands and sites no longer used by school boards for instance I he region had issued a request for pro posals Four were received but only one met the regions criteria Last week council approved a 140unit facility near the Richmond Hill GO station that requires 124 million from the surplus funds leaving about million The regions environmental services com mittee suggested using that money to fund its projects rather than take on debt spur ring the discussion of what councils priority should be If weve got 53 million and the social ser vice needs we have in York lets do what we said we would do Georgina Mayor Robert said Markham Regional Councillor Gord Land- on agreed urging regional chairperson Bill Fisch to take an aggressive approach Its one of the biggest problems facing the region he said Councillors generally wanted the money earmarked for housing despite the few options presented from the earlier RFP and the fact it will take time to spend it all If we say we tried and it didnt work its like saying theres no answer Newmarket Regional Councillor John Taylor said With the economy in a downturn last year Mr Fisch said he hoped the money could be leveraged into 1000 new units however 400 seems like a bestcase scenario In the shortterm some of that 40 million could be used to fund two projects The region is evaluating a donated site in Newmarket for a homeless womens shelter and will spend 5 million to build it if the plan is approved Another 5 million could be used to pur chase land in for multipurpose campus housing offices and housing for seniors the disabled and others A proposal to expand a Woodbridge facil ity from 32 to 140 units could be a model for redeveloping sites across the region Vaughan Mayor Linda said The already lengthy social housing wait list has ballooned 14 per cent to nearly 6700 people in the last year regional housing direc tor Sylvia Patterson said GREAT GAMES BAD TEMPER Watch all the big games with us and enjoy BIG value HALF PRICE AFTER 9 PM Domestic Schooners oz S3 00 Domestic Bottles TUES39 Wings WED Coronas 125 Drive Aurora ON 9057510006 GRAND OPENING ROGERS PLUS Upper Canada Mall BONUS 3 MONTHS UNLIMITED LOCAL CALLING to the first 100 people activating a new year terrr LIMITED TIME ONLY Wed Feb 3rd Sun Feb 7th 2010 in FREE BLUETOOTH HEADSET to the first customers who activate a BlackBerry Smartphone J ROGERS VI SWF or cannot and around I 0w or on to month fen Lout aktonr month tfw pi long and a Al otter an ttw property of onvnm any MM A Spam Fa won feci a SO and a MNMa apply tf rn