Mr. Chairperson (Ben Sveinson): Would the Committee of Supply please come to order. This section of the Committee of Supply will be considering the Estimates of the Department of Housing. Does the honourable Minister of Housing have an opening statement?

Hon. Jack Reimer (Minister of Housing): Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

I am pleased to present the 1997-1998 spending Estimates for Manitoba Housing. The Department of Housing is committed to assisting Manitobans in need to access suitable, adequate housing at affordable rates, maintaining and improving the quality of social housing assets and programs as an integral part of Manitoba's social system, promoting the development of suitable housing and the maintenance and the improvement of existing housing stock, providing relevant housing programs and services to Manitobans in an effort and in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

The ongoing management and the operation of the social housing portfolio are currently the primary business of the Department of Housing. The underlying objective of social housing is to provide quality housing and an affordable rent to low-income seniors, families and others with an identified need. These housing programs are targeted to households whose income is too low to maintain affordable, suitable and adequate accommodation in the private market without spending more than 30 percent of household income on housing cost. The Department of Housing has subsidized close to 21,000 units over the course of its history. This portfolio includes housing for the elderly, for families and for nonelderly single individuals as well as crisis shelters for victims of family violence and housing for individuals and groups with special needs. While the federal-provincial cost-sharing arrangements vary depending on the specific housing program, government assistance for social housing projects generally covers the difference between total project operating costs and the total rental revenues from tenants based on a rent-geared-to-income rental rate.

Over 80 percent of the subsidized housing stock is directly owned by Manitoba Housing. However, the portfolio also includes projects which are financed through Manitoba Housing but which are owned and operated by private nonprofit organizations. The final portion of the portfolio consists of units in not-for-profit and in market projects subsidized under the Rent Supplement Program. For these units the federal and the provincial governments cost-share the difference between the market rate and the rent paid by the tenant based on the rent geared to income. The department operates in a complex and a rapidly changing environment. It must be constantly aware of the needs and the demands of the clients that we serve. In our family housing, for example, a recent analysis revealed that 67.2 percent of the households in family public housing are headed by single female parents. The average family has a household head aged 36.9 years and includes 1.7 children.

Another statistic that becomes apparent was that 85.65 percent of the family households in public housing receive social assistance as their primary source of income. Social housing purpose is to help families break the poverty cycle by ensuring that rental rates based on household income are affordable so that other needs are not sacrificed or overlooked, thereby stabilizing the household and improving the quality of life. Stability in the household can improve the health and enhance the educational performance of children, giving them better skills and capacity to support themselves and contribute to the society in the future.

Household stability is also linked with the stability of the community or the project in which the family resides. For this reason it is important that appropriate measures are taken to ensure that a sense of community is fostered in family housing developments. An example of the importance of stability can be found in our Gilbert Park complex. This project with 254 units of family housing is one of the largest, highest density family projects in Winnipeg. The project consistently experienced some of the most serious social problems or symptoms associated with projects of high density.

In the early 1990s, the department began working with the Gilbert Park Tenants' Association developing a resource centre to provide support for tenants in order to help stabilize the project and create a more positive image. The Tenants' Association was encouraged to increase its involvement in the day-to-day operations of the project and to play a more active role in the prevention of vandalism and the handling of problem tenants.

The group now operates a clothing depot and a food bank and provides recreational programs for the children within the project. In the past three-and-a-half years and largely as a result of the tenants' participation and the implementation of these initiatives and services, the vacancy rate for this project has dropped by almost 60 percent. If other tenants' organizations can be encouraged to participate in such a positive manner, the end result would be a true sense of community within our projects, both for the benefit of this department and the rest for the benefit of our tenants.

Mr. Chairperson: Order, please. The time being five o'clock, committee rise.