Is homelessness no longer a problem in SDG? Has the high cost of housing, unaffordable rent, and unavailability of low-income housing been solved? A recently launched contest suggests the answer to these questions is yes. SDG Counties, the municipality that refers to itself as one county, when it is actually three, has declared that the housing issues that Canada continues to deal with – no longer exists here. Hooray for us!
Houses and rental properties abound in the great breadbasket that is SDG. Why else would the municipal government launch a contest to subsidize a person outside this community to move to the Counties for a year to “date my county?”
The contest asks non-SDG/Cornwall residents to submit a video and a 50-word essay (50-words is not an essay) pitching why they want to “date my county.” The winner will get up to $18,000 to subsidize his/her rent or mortgage and write some blog posts for the privilege. A one year commitment is required.
I applied for one of those types of gigs many years ago – in the Turks and Caicos. Free housing for a year and you get to write about what it’s like to live in paradise – I’m still waiting for that golden ticket.
Everything about this promotion from SDG is tone deaf and in my opinion inappropriate – starting with the timing.
Two-and-a-half years of a global pandemic have only exacerbated the housing issues in Canada and SDG is not immune. Our housing issues in the community haven’t been fixed.
Housing prices have doubled in the last five years. There are few rental units available in SDG. Those that are available are either expensive or of poor quality.
Municipalities like Cornwall, Ottawa and Kingston have worked on housing strategies to build new low-income housing, trying to ease market pressures. SDG has only recently begun to work on this same file. Add in the cost of rural transportation – a constant struggle for some residents relying on their own vehicle or taxi services to get around. Unlike cities, public transportation is non-existent.
Is it appropriate to use tax money to bring someone from outside of SDG here to live, when people who live here can’t afford to? No.
The premise of “Date the County” is itself dated. The slick looking video on social media – with a Barry White-esque sounding narrator – speaks of “going steady”, and offering $1,500 to “one lucky date.” I haven’t heard of anyone “going steady” since Grade 5, and offering money for a date usually means something altogether different. At least the ad doesn’t ask for people to “Netflix and Chill” with the Counties.
Advertising for a person to move to SDG for a year and be paid a housing subsidy for the privilege is inappropriate when some in the Counties have no place to call home at all.
It’s understandable that this promotion doesn’t reflect the realities of SDG considering the administration offices are in Cornwall – itself divorced from the Counties proper.
But I have an idea. A way to save this contest, put $18,000 of tax dollars to good use – instead of bad – and even help out a person or family in need.
A homeless or displaced person is someone without a fixed address. That means homeless and displaced people – couch surfers and those staying with friends and family because they cannot find an affordable place to live – should qualify for this contest. They’re not residents of SDG Counties or Cornwall.
What could $1,500 a month do to turn around the fortunes of a person or family without a home in SDG? I bet quite a few positive blog posts could be written about that too.
Using that money to help people in need, rather than a hokey publicity stunt that is tone-deaf, is a far better use of tax money in my opinion.
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