John Fogarty, 56, and his wife, Terry, 43, live in a motorhome in Navou Park. The couple has lived in the motorhome, which was manufactured in 1973, and no longer has a functioning heater, brakes or hot water, since October of 2011.
John Fogarty, 56, and his wife, Terry, 43, live in a motorhome in Navou Park. The couple has lived in the motorhome, which was manufactured in 1973, and no longer has a functioning heater, brakes or hot water, since October of 2011.
"What can you do when there's nowhere else to go?" said John.
The motorhome is actually a step up from their previous homes in Weyburn. In the spring of 2010, when the couple first moved here, they rented a 12-by-20 foot pump shack for $550 a month. Rent included utilities, a bed, stove, refrigerator and sink.
"It was warm enough," said John, but the floods of 2011 chased them out and they had to find somewhere else to live.
From May to October 2011, the couple lived in a tent at Nickle Lake Regional Park and it cost them about $500 a month.
"It was a little rough at times," said John. He said some nights were sleepless, especially if the weather was bad.
"Believe me, yes, (I miss having a home)," said John who owned his own home 10 years ago before selling it and moving to Alberta for work. They moved back to Saskatchewan when the employment market picked up here, but housing prices had already skyrocketed by then.
The Fogartys began their search for a rental in early 2011 but couldn't find anything affordable. John said he went so far as to leave notes on people's doors and called many places.
"I phoned several places in 2011. I looked in papers, on billboards, and checked with real estate agents. If you didn't have $3,200 in your hand, you could not rent." Still, the cheapest one bedroom apartment he could find was $1,400 a month and it did not include utilities.
When the Fogartys went to the Weyburn Housing Authority, which already had long waiting lists, they found little help.
"We didn't have kids. They couldn't help us with housing," said John.
So, by October 2011 the couple scraped together enough money to buy the old motorhome for $1,800 and now pay $700 a month in lot fees.
The Fogartys both have jobs. Terry works full-time or close to it every week and John, who suffers from health problems, works about 25 hours a week. Together they bring home roughly $2,000 a month, putting them safely above the poverty line in Canada.
"Roughly all we can do right now is get by," said John. He said a cap on rental prices is needed.
"Bring it back to where a person making $10 or $11 an hour can have a place. We aren't all making $20 or $30 an hour."
According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Association (CMHA), no more than 30 per cent of a household's income should be spent on shelter costs, which include the cost of rent or a mortgage, essential utilities and necessary upkeep.
To stay within those recommendations, which were cited by the City of Weyburn in their 2011 Housing Need and Demand Assessment, a household would need a monthly income of roughly $4,000 to afford a $1,000 a month rent and allow $200 a month for basic utilities.
A single person would need to make more than two and a half times the minimum wage, $10 an hour in Saskatchewan, in a full-time job to afford that on their own.
"I think they should have rent control. When I came to Weyburn, I saw the cost of housing was so much higher (than Toronto). We can't afford $1,400 a month rent," said Taukeer (Bubba) Farooqui, 26, who moved here in December of 2012.
Farooqui moved here with Vineet (Vinnie) Raval, 23, and both men work anywhere from 60 to 75 hours a week in a local tire shop where their boss and co-workers all speak very highly of them and their work ethic. Both men also work Sundays at a grocery store.
They each bring home a paycheque for about $1,200 to $1,300 every two weeks, including the overtime which is not guaranteed in the long-term.
Toronto has rent controls which set the price bracket for each apartment depending on location and the condition of the dwelling.
In Toronto, Raval and Farooqui said they could afford their own apartments. In Weyburn, the two men live in a two-bedroom apartment with three more roommates.
"The rent is a problem," said Farooqui of living in such cramped quarters. "They can charge as much as they want and we are suffering. There should be one government body who can control the rent."
Five provinces in Canada have some form of rent control, but Saskatchewan is not among them. Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island all have rent control.
Raval and Farooqui's rent is $1,400 a month and includes utilities. Split five ways, that amounts to $280 per person, but prior to April, they were paying $350 each.
In April, the roommates took in a fifth roommate because they couldn't turn away a friend encountering the same housing problems they had when they first moved here. Farooqui and Raval said the landlord approved the fifth tenant.
Each man's portion of the rent falls safely below the 30 per cent of one's income limit recommended for shelter costs by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Association, but the two men also have the high costs associated with immigration as well.
"We plan everything in advance, like one year in advance," said Raval who attributed the lengthy planning to immigration and housing.
"It's stress, always; I just stress. We have to constantly think about housing and immigration," said Farooqui.
High and constant levels of stress have repeatedly been proven to induce or exacerbate medical problems, especially with regards to lower immunity against infectious diseases.
The World Health Organization has published reports and assessments on the importance of safe and adequate housing in preventing disease and promoting healthy situations. Most of the studies reference housing situations in developing nations, but areas with crowded living situations are also considered dangerous because they increase the potential for infectious diseases to spread quickly.
Dr. Maria Neira, director of WHO's Department of Public Health and Environment is overseeing the initiative to create international housing standard recommendations.
She said the scientific evidence on the many links between housing and health has grown substantially in recent decades and the evidence guides primary preventative measures to promote better overall health.
The community has lost workers and long-time residents because of the housing prices.
Geno Harrison, 19, and Mike Edel, 39, have both already left the city recently because they couldn't find affordable housing in Weyburn.
Harrison left for British Columbia last week. He had a job offer and a place to live already lined up. Prior to leaving for B.C., Harrison lived in a tent in his former foster parents' back yard and worked full-time at another tire shop, but couldn't afford to rent an apartment, even with roommates.
Edel left earlier this spring for Yorkton, also with a job offer and place to live already arranged. The only place he could find that was affordable for him in Weyburn was a cot in somebody's laundry room in a basement. It cost him $350 a month, but the damp conditions aggravated his asthma. When the landlords upped his rent to $375 a month without offering anything more, he decided to leave Weyburn.
He now rents an upstairs bedroom in a house, with permission to share the kitchen and living spaces, for the same price.
Martino Verhaeghe, director of planning and development for the City of Weyburn, said more than 980 acres of residential property lots have been or will soon be opened by the city for development with the goal of 3,960 new homes being built.
At least 2,400 of those homes are slated to be entry-level homes such as town houses, condos or apartments. "We are looking at encouraging purpose built rentals," said Verhaeghe and explained the city has put $500,000 aside, with a matching promise from the province, to encourage developers.
Stony Creek Apartments, on Fifth Avenue North, is a 24-unit construction which took advantage of this incentive. The city subsidized each unit to the tune of $10,000 in exchange for a promise that the complex would remain rental apartments for a minimum of five years.
"The ability for a municipality to address cost is very small," said Verhaeghe. He said incentives help. "What we can do is encourage supply, and supply is a necessary precursor to affordability."
To clarify two points in the housing story on page 11B of the May 29th Weyburn Review titled "Residents on fixed incomes struggling - Weyburn housing situation hurts the most vulnerable": Stephen and Kristen Smiley's monthly income is usually $1,600 to $1,700 a month.
Also, the Weyburn Housing Authority does not use the same 30 per cent figure as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Association to determine appropriate shelter costs. That figure was used to establish a consistent comparison.
