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“There’s not one solution that’s going to meet the range of housing needs. What the mayor needs to do is enlist a whole series of experts,” Shapcott says, adding that includes planning and financial gurus.

“Ottawa has all the forms of expertise that are necessary. What’s really been lacking and continues to lack is the visionary leader who says: ‘Let’s pull everything together and set some bold objectives and let’s go for it.’ ”

Big picture

A year ago, city council approved a 10-year housing and homelessness plan with three main, huge goals: make sure everyone has a home, get people support and bring together the more than 130 organizations involved.

“The city is doing a lot of the right things,” says Ray Sullivan, executive director of the non-profit housing organization Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation. “What they’re looking at is transforming the system so instead of spending a lot of resources on supports for people who are homeless, moving those resources to actually housing those people.”

There’s been progress — since 2010, for example, there’s been an 18-per-cent decrease in the number of families needing emergency shelter — but Sullivan says it’s important to remember people living in shelters are “the tip of an iceberg.”

A broader approach is needed to look at affordable housing, Sullivan says, suggesting one simple way would be to add an “affordable housing implications” section to reports going to city council’s committees. “What’s the implication on housing affordability if we rezone this building to 25 storeys? If we locate a transit stop over here? If we rezone this farm as residential? Those are the kinds of things that citywide have a huge impact on housing affordability,” he says.