clarinews@clarinet.com (01/19/90)
(TORONTO) The Ontario Homebuilder's Association is waging war against the housing crisis. The Association has just released a report and public awareness campaign called Housing: Restoring the Dream. In the report are 50 recommendations to the province on how to ease the shortage. But the recommendations aren't new, and even if they're implemented, it still might not mean cheaper homes. Among the recommendations are cutting taxes and lot levies, bringing in muncipal bond funding, and replacing rent controls with legislative safeguards to restrict increases. But O-H-B-A President John Mansfield admits even if all this does become a reality, the price of existing housing wouldn't likely go down. Mansfield says one of the big reasons the crisis has gone on for so long is that the public isn't pressuring politicians, because consumers don't know the issues. This information campaign is aimed at changing that. All the facts on the housing crisis will be detailed and distributed across the province. walker/standard broadcast wire