Post-COVID exodus to Muskoka could complicate region’s housing crisis
#COVIDrealestateboom Anti-poverty advocate says gentrification ‘absolutely’ will happen
Kelly Jones is deeply aware the Muskoka region is experiencing a housing crisis: she supports low-income residents through her work at the YWCA Muskoka, but she’s also spent the last six years living in a social housing unit in Huntsville with her two daughters.
“For the last three years, I’ve been searching to get out of housing,” she said, “but I cannot afford what’s out there.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has many from metropolitan areas looking to flee their population-dense settings for the simpler lifestyle Muskoka offers. It’s also easier to do as many offices stay closed and employees continue working from home.
There’s heightened interest in Muskoka real estate and renting right now: it’s something Susan Campbell and her colleagues at the Lake Country Community Legal Clinic have noticed.
“It’s a fact, can’t deny it: Our housing is hot at this time of the year,” she said.
The clinic provides low-income people with legal advice on housing. She said they’re getting more calls from people looking for affordable housing in the area.
“We’ve had more in the last six months than we’ve probably had in the last six years,” Campbell said.
This coincides with people’s increasingly unstable housing situations and the lack of affordable housing.
Jones said some people she knows, including her colleagues at the Bridges out of Poverty program at the YWCA, left Muskoka this year to find an affordable place to live elsewhere. Others, Jones and Campbell said, are renting rooms out of hotels or motels.