{"id":5250,"date":"2021-10-26T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/fulcrum-could-vacant-office-buildings-be-part-solution-ottawas-housing-emergency\/"},"modified":"2021-10-26T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T17:54:00","slug":"fulcrum-could-vacant-office-buildings-be-part-solution-ottawas-housing-emergency","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/news\/fulcrum-could-vacant-office-buildings-be-part-solution-ottawas-housing-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fulcrum: Could vacant office buildings be part of the solution to Ottawa\u2019s housing emergency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPosted October 26, 2021<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tOTTAWA\u2019S WAITLIST FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING TOPS 12,000<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tWith many workers and workplaces opting to continue to work from home as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be lifted, office spaces in the downtown cores of Canadian cities are experiencing heightened rates of vacancy. Precedents have been set across the country to refit these spaces and convert them for alternative uses, including urban farming, coworking spaces, and housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIn light of the pandemic, local waitlists for affordable housing are the highest they\u2019ve ever been in Ottawa. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRight before COVID-19 hit, the City [of Ottawa] declared a housing and homelessness emergency, yet we still have over 12,000 households on the waitlist for social housing,\u201d wrote Bader Abu-Zahra in a statement to the Fulcrum. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAbu-Zahra is chair of the Ottawa-Vanier chapter of ACORN, a local and national community organization of low income and working class people that advocates for social and economic justice. He believes that vacant office spaces offer an opportunity to create affordable housing and reduce the length of waitlists. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe City of Ottawa should use every tool available to address the housing and homelessness crisis,\u201d said Abu-Zahra. \u201cUsing vacant buildings for affordable housing is an obvious solution, however, it will not be a silver bullet. The City must do everything it can to create more affordable housing but also preserve the affordable housing we do have that is being lost every single day to renovictions and redevelopment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tACORN\u2019s ongoing campaigns in Ottawa\/Gatineau seek to defend stable housing for low income and working class people by implementing anti-displacement policies, inclusionary zoning, and creating a tenant defense fund, among other initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tWhile repurposing vacant buildings may not be the whole solution, Abu-Zahra believes that it serves as a promising start. However, it is not without its challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis isn\u2019t just, \u2018Oh, look at taking this empty office space. We\u2019ll throw up a couple of walls and presto, we\u2019ve got an apartment.\u2019 There\u2019s a lot of work that\u2019s involved in thinking it through,\u201d said Toon Dreessen. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tDreessen is an architect, the president of Ottawa architectural practice Architects DCA, and the former president of the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA). While he agreed on the conversion of former office buildings into residential spaces is possible, he said the challenges are significant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tDreessen explained commercial floor plates do not often lend themselves easily to residential spaces. An office building differs in many important ways from a residential building, including in terms of ventilation, soundproofing, plumbing, and general layout. These features cannot be refitted to be suitable for apartment-style living without significant structural changes to the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThat said, Dressen believes there remains a feasible approach to refitting commercial spaces for residential uses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are some that you could absolutely turn into housing. And this is where every building is different, and every building is unique,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tDreessen calls hotels a \u201clow hanging fruit\u201d in the context of this type of conversion, since they\u2019re already residential in nature and therefore outfitted for residential use. In terms of commercial spaces, he thinks vacancy provides the opportunity for older buildings to receive much needed updates.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn office buildings. I think the real opportunity that\u2019s in front of us is to take some of these older office buildings and actually strip them back to the bare structure and potentially even use this as an opportunity to replace the exterior, the cladding, the insulation, and really do a really deep reset. Let this be an opportunity to get rid of asbestos, paint, all kinds of other stuff that\u2019s a legacy from the middle of the century, and reinsulate and redo them in a proper way and get a really highly sustainable building.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tDreessen, also a writer, public speaker, and activist for inclusive spaces, believes that despite these challenges, the vacancy of these spaces provides an opportunity for innovative solutions and better buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that\u2019s where we need to be really thinking about, \u2018how do we get the best value out of some of this existing building stock?\u2019 And what is the building? What does it look like? How can we make it not only a continued part of our cultural legacy, but also a part of our solution in climate change, and part of our solution in tackling the housing crisis \u2014 other things that we could use these buildings for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAs the pandemic is not yet in the past, the City of Ottawa\u2019s director of housing Saide Sayah told the Fulcrum \u201cthe future demand and potential conversion of office space in Ottawa on a larger scale is unknown.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHousing Services has previously accommodated conversion from office spaces and other uses through the City\u2019s funding programs for affordable housing. However, while we have seen a few conversions from office space to residential housing in the private market, it is too early to determine the demand for conversion of Ottawa\u2019s office-use real estate holdings to residential space due to the pandemic,\u201d wrote Sayah.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tSayah added that \u201cthe City has not been approached by, nor found, any property owners of office buildings interested in converting or selling their buildings at this time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tArticle by Zo\u00eb Mason for the Fulcrum<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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