Mayoral candidate Patrick Brown announced a “poverty action plan” at a news conference at Grace United Church in Brampton on Sept. 20.

The plan included measures to address a growing list of residents waiting for affordable housing. Brown said the current wait time is seven years for 13,597 residents on the waitlist. He added that 842 residents are removed from the list each year, while the number continues to grow.

“It’s not adequate,” he said. “That waitlist grows each year by 13 per cent.”

As per his plan, Brown wants to introduce a minimum per cent of new housing development to be allocated to affordable housing standards. He wants any redevelopment of existing rental stock to contain a minimum of the same number of rental spaces that existed in the building prior to redevelopment.

He said he wants to develop a housing strategy to encourage “fair and neighbourhood-sensitive development of rooming houses, basement apartments, and underground suites” aiming to bring together the “underground community” of illegal housing units into the open.

“We want to make it desirable for owners to comply, and step up enforcement of illegal units that don’t comply,” Brown said.

Adding to his poverty plan, Brown said seniors are most vulnerable and require the most urgent action on affordable housing. He added he would introduce free transit for residents 65 years of age or older, with the possibility of expanding a free transit pass to all low-income residents.

Brown, who initially chose to run in the now defunct Peel regional chair election, is now a contender in the Brampton mayoral election against incumbent Linda Jeffrey, Bal Gosal, John Sprovieri, Wesley Jackson, and Vinod Mahesan. Election day is Oct. 22, 2018.

